Lusitanians

The Lusitanians[1] were an Indo-European-speaking people living in the far west of the Iberian Peninsula, in present-day central Portugal and Extremadura and Castilla y Leon of Spain.

[2] The Greco-Roman historian Diodorus Siculus likened them to another Celtic tribe: "Those who are called Lusitanians are the bravest of all similar to the Cimbri".

[5][6][7] However, based on archeological findings, Lusitanians and Vettones seem to have been largely pre-Celtic Indo-European populations that adopted Celtic cultural elements by proximity.

On the other hand, Pliny the Elder and Pomponius Mela distinguished the Lusitanians from neighboring Celtic groups in their geographical writings.

In 150 BC, they were defeated by Praetor Servius Galba: springing a treacherous trap, he killed 9,000 Lusitanians and later sold 20,000 more as slaves in Gaul (modern France).

This massacre would not be forgotten by Viriathus, who three years later (147 BC) would become the leader of the Lusitanians, and severely damaged the Roman rule in Lusitania and beyond.

However, when the three returned to receive their reward from the Romans, the Consul Quintus Servilius Caepio ordered their execution, declaring, "Rome does not pay traitors".

He is considered a possible Basque language loan god[13] by some, yet according to scholars like José Leite de Vasconcelos, the word Endovellicus was originally Celtic,[14] Andevellicos.

They were a tribal confederation, not a single political entity; each tribe had its own territory and was independent, and was formed by smaller clans.

Several Turduli peoples were possibly Callaeci tribes that initially came from the north, towards the south along the coast and then migrated inland along the Tagus and the Anas (Guadiana River) valleys.

When the victorious Lusitani retired and dispersed confidently, one of them on foot became separated, and was surrounded by a detachment of pursuing cavalry.

The lone warrior pierced the horse of one of the riders with his spear, and with a blow of his sword cut off the Roman’s head, producing such terror among the others that they prudently retired under his arrogant and contemptuous gaze.

[3] While the Lusitanians did not speak a Romance language, nowadays Lusitanian is often used as a metonym for the Portuguese people, and similarly Lusophone is used to refer to a Portuguese speaker within or outside Portugal, Brazil, Macau, Timor-Leste, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe, Guinea Bissau and others territories and countries.

Ethnographic and Linguistic Map of the Iberian Peninsula at about 300 BCE (before the Carthaginian conquests).
Iberian Peninsula at about 200 BC [1] Archived 2011-02-26 at the Wayback Machine .
Lusitanian lunula from Miranda do Corvo ( Portugal )
Generalised distribution and movements of Bell-Beaker cultures [ 11 ]
Ataegina by Pedro Roque Hidalgo (20th century), Museu do Mármore, Vila Viçosa , (Portugal).
Map showing the main pre-Roman tribes in Portugal and their main migrations: Turduli movement in red, Celtici in brown, and Lusitanian in blue; most tribes neighbouring the Lusitanians were dependent on them. Names are in Latin.
Statue of Viriatus , the Lusitanian leader during the Lusitanian War (155 to 139 BCE).