The Lusitanians were a people who spoke an Indo-European language and lived in the western part of the Iberian Peninsula, in what is now central Portugal and areas in Extremadura and Castilla y León of Spain. It is not clear if they were Celts or Iberians who had been influenced by Celts, and they may have been connected to a group called the Lusones. After the Romans conquered the region, it became a Roman province named Lusitania.
History
Frontinus wrote about the Lusitanian leader Viriathus, who led the Celtiberians during their war with the Romans. The Lusitanians were also called Belitanians by the diviner Artemidorus. Strabo said the Lusitanians were different from the Iberian tribes and believed they were once known as Oestriminis. However, archaeological evidence suggests the Lusitanians and Vettones were originally non-Celtic Indo-European people who later adopted some Celtic cultural traits. Pliny the Elder and Pomponius Mela, in their writings, described the Lusitanians as separate from neighboring Celtic tribes based on their geography.
The original Roman province of Lusitania briefly included the lands of the Astures and Gallaeci in the north. However, these areas were later given to the province of Tarraconensis, while the southern region remained part of Lusitania and the Vettones. Over time, Gallaecia became its own province. Eventually, the northern border of Lusitania followed the Douro River, and the eastern border passed through Salmantica and Caesarobriga to the Anas (Guadiana) River.
During the Second Punic War (218–201 BCE), Lusitanian mercenaries fought for the Carthaginian Empire against the Roman Republic in the Western Mediterranean. Silius Italicus, a Roman senator and writer, described them in his 17-volume poem Punica as joining forces with the Gallaeci, led by a commander named Viriathus (not to be confused with another leader of the same name). Roman historian Titus Livius noted that Lusitanian and Celtiberian cavalry conducted raids in northern Italy when the rough terrain made it difficult for Hannibal’s Numidian cavalry to operate.
Beginning in 193 BCE, the Lusitanians fought against the Romans in Hispania. In 150 BCE, the Roman praetor Servius Galba defeated them by setting a trap, killing 9,000 Lusitanians and later selling 20,000 as slaves in Gaul (modern-day France). This event deeply affected Viriathus, who became the leader of the Lusitanians in 147 BCE and significantly weakened Roman control in Lusitania and beyond. In 139 BCE, Viriathus was betrayed and killed in his sleep by three of his companions—Audax, Ditalcus, and Minurus—who had been sent as emissaries to the Romans. These men were bribed by Marcus Popillius Laenas, though they were not Lusitanians but likely from another group, such as the Turdetanians. When the three returned to claim their reward, the Roman consul Quintus Servilius Caepio ordered their execution, stating, “Rome does not pay traitors.”
After Viriathus’s death, the Lusitanians continued to resist Roman rule under the leadership of Tautalus. Over time, they gradually adopted Roman customs and language. Like other cities in the Iberian Peninsula, the Romanized Lusitanian cities eventually gained the status of “Citizens of Rome.”
Culture
Classifying Lusitanian culture, including its language, is challenging and difficult to agree on. Some people think it was mainly an early Iberian culture with some Celtic influences, while others believe it was mostly a Celtic culture with strong original influences from earlier cultures connected to the Bell Beaker tradition.
Religion
The Lusitanians believed in many gods and practiced a form of religion that included offering animals as sacrifices. They created simple carvings to represent their gods and warriors.
Endovelicus was the most important god among the Lusitanians. Some scholars suggest his name may have come from the Basque language, but others, such as José Leite de Vasconcelos, believe the name "Endovellicus" originally came from the Celtic language, where it was written as "Andevellicos."
Endovelicus is similar to names in Welsh and Breton languages, which describe him as "Very Good God," a title also used for the Irish god Dagda. The Romans respected him for his power to protect people. His worship spread throughout the Iberian Peninsula and into other parts of the Roman Empire. His cult continued until the fifth century, and he was associated with public health and safety. The goddess Ataegina was widely honored in the south. She was linked to rebirth, fertility, nature, and healing, and during the Roman period, she was connected to the goddess Proserpina.
Lusitanian mythology shared similarities with Celtic mythology.
Other deities frequently mentioned in inscriptions include Bandua, a version of the god Borvo, often paired with a local name, such as Bandua Aetobrico, and Nabia, a goddess of rivers and streams.
According to Strabo, the Lusitanians often performed sacrifices. They used divination by examining the organs of sacrificed animals. They also offered human sacrifices, such as captured enemies, by striking them under blankets and observing the direction they fell. They removed the right hands of captives and gave them to the gods as offerings.
Language
The Lusitanian language was an ancient language spoken in the Iberian Peninsula and belongs to the Indo-European family of languages. Scholars are still discussing where Lusitanian fits within the larger group of Indo-European languages. Some believe it is closely related to Celtic languages, as many words, names of people, and names of places in Lusitanian resemble those in Celtic. Another theory suggests that Lusitanian is more closely connected to Italic languages, based on similarities in the names of gods and other grammatical features.
A different idea is that Lusitanian may have developed separately from both Celtic and Italic languages, splitting off early from groups that later became Celtic and Italic. These groups are thought to have moved from Central Europe to western Europe after migrations from the Yamnaya culture. Another possibility is that Lusitanian is part of a group of early Indo-European languages called "Northwest Indo-European," which may have influenced the development of Celtic, Italic, Germanic, and Balto-Slavic languages.
Some scholars, like Ellis Evans, argue that Lusitanian and a related language called Gallaecian were the same language, not separate ones. Recent studies of a newly discovered inscription suggest that Lusitanian may be more closely related to Italic languages and not to Celtic.
Lujan claims that evidence shows Lusitanian separated from other western Indo-European languages before the Italic and Celtic language groups formed. This would mean Lusitanian is very old, predating both Italic and Celtic. Later contact with Celtic people who moved into the Iberian Peninsula likely caused some Celtic influences to appear in the Lusitanian language.
Tribes
The Lusitanians were a group of people made up of many tribes. They lived between the Douro and Tagus rivers, in most of today’s Beira and Estremadura regions in central Portugal, and in parts of the Extremadura region in Spain.
They were not a single political group but a collection of independent tribes. Each tribe had its own land and was ruled by its own leaders. These tribes were further divided into smaller groups called clans. Despite being separate, the tribes shared a common culture and identity.
Each tribe was led by its own aristocracy and chief. Many of these leaders were warriors, as was common among other ancient peoples before the Romans arrived.
The tribes only joined together when they faced a threat from outside, such as during the Roman conquest of their land. At that time, Viriathus became the leader of all the Lusitanian tribes. Before Viriathus, other important leaders included Punicus, Caucenus, and Caesarus. These leaders helped guide the tribes in fighting against the Romans.
Some known Lusitanian tribes were:
It is still unclear whether the Turduli Veteres, Turduli Oppidani, Turduli Bardili, and Turduli (coastal tribes) were Lusitanian, related to Celtic peoples, or connected to the Turdetani (Celtic, pre-Celtic Indo-European, or Iberian groups) from the south. The name Turduli Veteres suggests they may have come from the north, not the south, as some maps show. Some Turduli groups may have been Callaeci tribes that originally lived in the north, then moved south along the coast and later inland along the Tagus and Anas (Guadiana River) valleys.
If there were more Lusitanian tribes, their names are not known.
Warfare
The Lusitanians were known by historians to be skilled in hit-and-run fighting tactics. The strongest among them were chosen to protect people in mountain areas. They used hooked javelins made of iron, along with swords and helmets similar to those of the Celtiberians. They threw their spears from a distance and often hit their targets, causing serious injuries. These warriors were fast and active, and they would chase their enemies, sometimes cutting off their heads.
In one battle, 300 Lusitani faced 1,000 Romans in a narrow pass. During the fight, 70 Lusitani and 320 Romans were killed. After the battle, the victorious Lusitani left confidently, but one soldier became separated and was surrounded by Roman cavalry. The lone warrior stabbed the horse of one rider with his spear and then cut off the rider’s head with his sword. This act caused the other Romans to retreat in fear.
— Orosius, Seven Books of History Against the Pagans, 5.4
During peaceful times, the Lusitanians performed dances that required a lot of agility and quick movements in the legs and thighs. In battle, they marched together in rhythm until they were ready to attack the enemy.
Appian wrote that after the death of Viriathus, when Praetor Brutus attacked Lusitania, women fought bravely beside their husbands as warriors.
Contemporary meaning
While the Lusitanians did not speak a Romance language, the term "Lusitanian" is now often used as a term to represent the Portuguese people. Similarly, the term "Lusophone" is used to describe someone who speaks Portuguese, whether they live in Portugal, Brazil, Macau, Timor-Leste, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe, Guinea Bissau, or other areas that were once part of the Portuguese Empire.