The Paesuri or Paesures were an ancient pre-Roman Tribe of

Lusitania Lusitania (; ) was an ancient Iberian Roman province located where modern Portugal (south of the Douro river) and a portion of western Spain (the present Extremadura and the province of Salamanca) lie. It was named after the Lusitani or Lusita ...

, akin to the

Lusitani The Lusitanians ( la, Lusitani) were an Indo-European speaking people living in the west of the Iberian Peninsula prior to its conquest by the Roman Republic and the subsequent incorporation of the territory into the Roman province of Lusitania. ...

, to whom they were a dependent tribe.

Origins

Mentioned by

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic '' ...

and by a local epigraphic source, the 2nd Century AD Ponte de Alcântara inscription, near Cáceres, along with the other Lusitani tribes, their ethnic and Linguistic affiliation has not yet been fully determined. It has been suggested that the Paesuri were of

Thracian The Thracians (; grc, Θρᾷκες ''Thrāikes''; la, Thraci) were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Eastern and Southeastern Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied t ...

origin, though to what extent they were

celticized Celticisation, or Celticization, was historically the process of conquering and assimilating by the ancient Celts. Today, as the Celtic inhabited-areas significantly differ, the term still refers to making something Celtic, usually focusing around ...

by their neighbors, the Lusitani,

Gallaeci The Gallaeci (also Callaeci or Callaici; grc, Καλλαϊκοί) were a Celtic tribal complex who inhabited Gallaecia, the north-western corner of Iberia, a region roughly corresponding to what is now the Norte Region in northern Portugal, an ...

and

Turduli Veteres The Turduli Veteres, translated as "Ancient Turduli" or "Old Turduli" were an ancient pre-Roman tribe of present day Portugal, akin to the Calaicians or Gallaeci and Lusitanians. Location The Turduli Veteres territory was located south of the es ...

, remains unclear.

Location

Located between the rivers

Douro The Douro (, , ; es, Duero ; la, Durius) is the highest-flow river of the Iberian Peninsula. It rises near Duruelo de la Sierra in Soria Province, central Spain, meanders south briefly then flows generally west through the north-west part of ...

and ''Vacua'' or ''Vagua'' ( Vouga), in the modern northern central

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

, the Paesuri comprised four subtribes – ''Ireucutiori'', ''Aravoni'', ''Seareae'' and ''Paesicaeci'' or ''Paesici'' – which settled the mountains of Freita,

Arada Arada may refer to: Geography * Arada, Chad, a town and subprefecture in the department of Biltine in eastern Chad * Arada (Addis Ababa), one of the 10 subcities of Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia * Arada, Honduras, a municipality in the Ho ...

, and the northern slopes of

Caramulo Caramulo is a town in Portugal. It is part of the civil parish of Guardão in the municipality of Tondela, Portugal. In Caramulo is housed one of the most important motor vehicle museums in Portugal. Among the exhibits are some very rare cars inc ...

around the 5th Century BC.

History

Like their neighbours the

and

, the Paesuri did not fall under Carthaginian rule at the later 3rd Century BC and appear to have not taken part in the

2nd Punic War The Second Punic War (218 to 201 BC) was the second of three wars fought between Carthage and Rome, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean in the 3rd century BC. For 17 years the two states struggled for supremacy, primarily in Ital ...

. It is still not clear if they played any significant role in the

Lusitanian War The Lusitanian War, called ''Pyrinos Polemos'' ("the Fiery War") in Greek, was a war of resistance fought by the Lusitanian tribes of Hispania Ulterior against the advancing legions of the Roman Republic from 155 to 139 BC. The Lusitanians revo ...

s of the 2nd century BC. Allied with the Lusitani, they bore the brunt of the first Roman thrusts into the Iberian northwest. In 138-136 BC

Consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states throug ...

Decimus Junius Brutus certainly devastated their lands during his punitive campaign against the Lusitani and the Turduli Veteres. Again the Paesuri suffered the same treatment in 61-60 BC, when they were forcibly incorporated into

Hispania Ulterior Hispania Ulterior (English: "Further Hispania", or occasionally "Thither Hispania") was a region of Hispania during the Roman Republic, roughly located in Baetica and in the Guadalquivir valley of modern Spain and extending to all of Lusitania (m ...

province by the

Propraetor In ancient Rome a promagistrate ( la, pro magistratu) was an ex-consul or ex-praetor whose ''imperium'' (the power to command an army) was extended at the end of his annual term of office or later. They were called proconsuls and propraetors. Thi ...

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, and ...

Cassius Dio Lucius Cassius Dio (), also known as Dio Cassius ( ), was a Roman historian and senator of maternal Greek origin. He published 80 volumes of the history on ancient Rome, beginning with the arrival of Aeneas in Italy. The volumes documented the ...

, ''Romaïké istoría'', 37, 52-55.

Romanization

They were later aggregated by Emperor

Augustus Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pri ...

into the province of

in 27-13 BC.

Notes

References

*Alarcão, Jorge de, ''O Domínio Romano em Portugal'', Publicações Europa-América, Lisboa (1988) *Alarcão, Jorge de ''et alii'', ''De Ulisses a Viriato – O primeiro milénio a.C.'', Museu Nacional de Arqueologia, Instituto Português de Museus, Lisboa (1996) *Amaral, João Ferreira do & Amaral, Augusto Ferreira do, ''Povos Antigos em Portugal – paleontologia do território hoje Português'', Quetzal Editores, Lisboa (1997)

External links

Detailed map of the Pre-Roman Peoples of Iberia (around 200 BC)
Tribes of Lusitania Ancient peoples of Portugal Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula Tribes conquered by Rome {{Portugal-hist-stub