The Sefes sometimes also known as Cempsi were a people of ancient
Iberia
The Iberian Peninsula (),
**
* Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica''
**
**
* french: Péninsule Ibérique
* mwl, Península Eibérica
* eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...
said to have lived on the coast of modern day
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 ...
and
Galicia.
In his poem ''
Ora Maritima'', the 4th century Roman author
Avienius wrote that they were neighbours of the
Cynetes
The Cynetes or Conii were one of the pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula, living in today's Algarve and Lower Alentejo regions of southern Portugal, and the southern part of Badajoz and the northwestern portions of Córdoba and Ciudad Rea ...
, placing them in an upland district of the
Ophiussa
Ophiussa, also spelled Ophiusa, is the ancient name given by the ancient Greeks to what is now Portuguese territory near the mouth of the river Tagus. It means Land of Serpents.
The expulsion of the ''Oestrimni''
The 4th century Roman poet Ru ...
region (near the mouth of the
Tagus
The Tagus ( ; es, Tajo ; pt, Tejo ; see #Name, below) is the longest river in the Iberian Peninsula. The river rises in the Montes Universales near Teruel, in mid-eastern Spain, flows , generally west with two main south-westward sections ...
) close to an island he named ''Poetanion'' and that, along with another tribe called the ''Cempsi'' they had taken that territory by force from the previous rulers.
[Avienus, Ora Maritima, 190-199]
Notes
{{Pre-Roman peoples in Portugal
Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula
Ancient peoples of Portugal