Ebora Liberalitas Julia

Ebora Liberalitas Julia is the name of a Roman municipium that gave rise to the Portuguese district capital Évora in the Alentejo region.

While the name "Ebora" indicates a Celtiberian hill top fortification in the area of the later municipia or in its vicinity the first archaeological evidence of a settlement is from the Early Roman Empire.

The name addition "Iulia" in the Roman name Évoras infers the emergence of the municipium under the Julians and their representative Gaius Iulius Caesar.

But since clear traces of extensive infrastructures from this time and in the surrounding area are missing, it is considered more probable that Évora only came into being as a municipium after the Pax Romana under Octavian in 30 BC.

The first reference to Évora as a municipium is found in a list of cities in Hispania in the Historia Naturalis of Pliny the Elder to the year 77 A.D.

The central basin was probably lined with marble slabs on the wall side and the floor was sealed with opus signinum.

This is evident in the overbuilding of parts of the former Roman residential buildings by the wall in the southwest of the municipia on today's Rua de Burgos.

Raids of Germanic tribes on Roman territory probably led to an increased need for security and the construction of defenses.