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The Lusitanians were a tribe or various tribes from in the Western Iberian peninsula, who spoke a Lusitanian language until the conquest of their territory by the Romans. The Lusitanians are seen as the ancestors of the Portuguese, that lived in the western area of the Iberian Peninsula. The most notable among the Lusitanians was Viriathus.

Culture

The Lusitanians are classified has having Celtic culture. They had a developed culture, not has the Romans and Greeks, but they became famous between the Romans because of their capacity in fighting them. And it is by Roman prespective that we know about this people.

The Lusitanians used as weapons the dagger, the iron-made javelin and the brass spear. They greased their body, and used vapour baths, just before a cold bath; and they eat once a day. They practiced human sacrifices and when a priest wounded a prisioner in the womb they made predictions just by the way the victim fells down. They sacrified to Cariocecus, god of war, not just prisioners but also horses and goats. They practiced gymnastic exercices such has boxing and racing, combat simulations on foot and on horse; each Lusitanian had only one wife. They used boats made of leather, or from a tree trunk.

Early Roman records, classify them has Carthagineans mercenaries, this is due that there were reported Lusitanians fighting along the Carthaginians in the Pyrenees in direction to Rome.

Religion

The Lusitanians worshiped various gods, Endovelicus being the most important and his cult spread to the Iberian Peninsula and behond, to the rest of the Roman Empire. The Lusitanian Mythology was related with the Celtic mythology, and with the Roman rule it also became related with the Roman one.

Language

The Lusitanian language was a paleo-Iberian Indo-European language with particular characteristics, different from the languages spoken in the centre of the Iberian Peninsula. It would more archaic than the Celtiberian language.

The filiation of the Lusitanian language is still in debate, there are those who endorce that it is a Celtic language with an obvious "celticity" of most of the lexicon, over all the anthroponyms and toponyms. A second theory relats Lusitanian with the Italic languages. The theory bases itself on paraleslism on the name of deities with some other gramatical elements. Finally, Ulrich Schmoll proposed a new branch to which he called the "Galician-Lusitanian".

Tribes

Firstly, the Lusitanians were a single tribe that lived between the rivers Douro and Tagus. Later, the name Lusitanian was adopted by ancient Calecians (tribes living in the north of Douro River) and other tribes, because of this people notability fighting the Roman rule but also because they were all culturally and ethnically very similar. Most of these tribes where from the north of the Douro river.

Tribes, often with Latin name, living in the area of Portugal prior to the Roman rule:

  • Bracari - living between the rivers Tâmega and Cávado.
  • Celtici - Celts living in Alentejo.
  • Coelerni - living in the montains between the rivers Tua and Sabor.
  • conii - from the Algarve and south of Alentejo.
  • Equaesi - tribe living in the extreme mountanous Portugal.
  • Grovii - misterious tribe living in the Minho valley.
  • Interamici - Living in Trás-os-Montes and border areas in Spain.
  • Leuni - living between rivers Lima and Minho.
  • Luancos - living between rivers Tâmega and Tua.
  • Lusitanians - the proper tribe being the most numerous and dominant.
  • Limici - tribe living in the swamps of Lima river, in the border between Portugal and Galicia (Spain).
  • Narbasos - living in the North of Portugal (interior) and nearby area of Southern Galicia (Spain).
  • Nemetatos - living in the north of Douro Valley in the area of Mondim.
  • Paesuri - a dependent tribe of the lusitanians, living between the Douro and Vouga rivers.
  • Quaquerni - a tribe living in the mountains, in the mouths of Cavado e Tâmega rivers.
  • Seurbi - living between the Cávado and Lima rivers (or even reaching the Minho River).
  • Tamagani - from the area of Chaves, near Tamega river.
  • Tapoli - Being a dependent tribe of the lusitanians, they lived in the north of Tagus River, in the border between Portugal and Spain.
  • Turduli - East of Alentejo - Guadiana Valley.
  • Turduli Veteres - Ancient Turduli living south of the estuary of the Douro River.
  • Turdulorum Oppida - Turduli living in the Portuguese region of Estremadura.
  • Turodos - Living in Trás-os-Montes and border areas in Spain.
  • Zoelae - People living in the mountains of Serra da Nogueira, Sanabria and Culebra until the mountains of Mogadouro in the north of Portugal and adjacent area of Spain.

The war with the Romans and Romanization

Since 193 BC, the Lusitanians have been fighting the Romans. In 150 BC, they were defeated by pretor Servius Galba, and in a trap, he killed 9,000 Lustianians and he sold 20,000 more as slaves in the Gaul. Three years later, in 147 B.C., Viriathus became the leader of the Lusitanians and severely damaged the Roman rule in Lusitania and behond. In 139 BC, he was killed by three of his companions, these were bribed by Servilius Cipianus.

After the rule, the Lusitanians became largely Romanized and mixed with Romans, acquiring Roman culture and language in a mammer that the inhabitants of the Lusitanian cities with other cities in the Iberian Peninsula gained the status of "Citizens of Rome". Portuguese language itself is a mere evolution of the Roman language, Latin.

see also

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