Page 42 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Portugal

DISCOVER A Brief History

A BRIEF 1

HISTORY

One of the oldest nation states in Europe, intrepid explorers in the
15th and 16th centuries traversed the fearsome Atlantic Ocean and
made Portugal the nexus of a global empire, only for the country to
be beleaguered by invasions, revolutions and economic crises.

The Stone Age to Roman Lusitania Did You Know?
From about 2000 BC, the Iberians and Celts supplanted
Portugal’s Stone Age communities. When Rome swept into the Granite statues of pigs
area in 218 BC, they met with fierce resistance from one of the found in Northern
tribes – the Lusitanians – who were only defeated when their Portugal were probably
leader Viriato was poisoned by undercover Roman agents in used in Celtic
139 BC. The Romans named the province Lusitania in the tribe’s fertility rites.
honour. Romanization led to four centuries of stability, but as the
Empire collapsed, Lusitania was overrun by Germanic tribes.

Timeline of events
2000 218 BC AD 200
BC The Romans Christianity
Iberian tribes arrive in the becomes
arrive in Iberian peninsula established in
the area Roman-ruled
Lusitania
700 BC
Celtic invaders settle 409
in Portugal Invasion by “barbarian”
tribes: the Vandals, the
Alani and the Suevi
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