The Turduli Oppidani or Turdulorum Oppida (

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

: "

oppidum An ''oppidum'' (plural ''oppida'') is a large fortified Iron Age settlement or town. ''Oppida'' are primarily associated with the Celtic late La Tène culture, emerging during the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, spread across Europe, stretchi ...

s of the

Turduli The Turduli (Greek ''Tourduloi'') or Turtuli were an ancient pre-Roman people of the southwestern Iberian Peninsula. Location The Turduli tribes lived mainly in the south and centre of modern Portugal – in the east of the provinces of Beira Li ...

" or "Strongholds of the Turduli"), were a pre-Roman

La Tène culture The La Tène culture (; ) was a European Iron Age culture. It developed and flourished during the late Iron Age (from about 450 BC to the Roman conquest in the 1st century BC), succeeding the early Iron Age Hallstatt culture without any defi ...

coastal people in present-day Portugal, related to the Turduli Veteres and akin to the

Lusitanians 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. ...

Location

They occupied the

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

region of Estremadura-

Beira Litoral Province Beira Litoral is a former province (''província'') of Portugal, formally instituted in an administrative reform of 1936. It was abolished with the 1976 Constitution of Portugal. The province was bordered on the north by Douro Litoral Province, on ...

(coastal 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 ...

), where they held the fortified towns (''Oppida'') of ''

Aeminium Aeminium was the ancient name of the city of Coimbra, in Portugal. The Romans founded the civitas of Aeminium in this place at the time of Augustus, which came under the protection of nearby Conimbriga situated some to the south. The Roman ci ...

'' (

Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2011 census was 143,397, in an area of . The fourth-largest urban area in Portugal after Lisbon, Porto, and Braga, it is the largest cit ...

), '' Conimbriga'' (Condeixa-a-Velha, near

), '' Coniumbriga'' (possibly Monte Meão), '' Collipo'' (S. Sebastião do Freixo, Batalha), '' Eburobrittium'' (Amoreira, Óbidos), and ''Ierabriga'' ( Alenquer).

History

An off-shot of the

people, the Turduli Oppidani trekked northwards around the 5th century BC in conjunction with the

Celtici ] The Celtici (in Portuguese language, Portuguese, Spanish, and Galician languages, ) were a Celtic tribe or group of tribes of the Iberian peninsula, inhabiting three definite areas: in what today are the regions of Alentejo and the Algarve i ...

and ended settling the present-day central coastal Portuguese Estremadura-

. The Oppidani seem to have become clients of 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. ...

sometime prior to the mid-3rd Century BC and then of

Carthage Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the cla ...

at the latter part of the century. Their history after the 2nd Punic War is less clear; is it almost certain that the Oppidani remained under Lusitani overlordship and bore the brunt of the first Roman thrusts into the Iberian northwest. In 138-136 BC Consul Decimus Junius Brutus devastated their lands in retaliation for them helping the Lusitani. The Oppidani were certainly defeated and technically included in

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 ( ...

province by the

praetor Praetor ( , ), also pretor, was the title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to a man acting in one of two official capacities: (i) the commander of an army, and (ii) as an elected '' magistratus'' (magistrate), assigned to discharge vari ...

Publius Licinius Crassus in the wake of his campaign against the Lusitani and

in 93 BC. Again the Turduli Oppidani and the Turduli Veteres suffered the same treatment in 61-60 BC, when they were incorporated into H. Ulterior 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, ...

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'', pp. 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 Pr ...

into the new Lusitania Province in 27-13 BC.

Notes

References

* Ángel Montenegro ''et alii'', ''Historia de España 2 - colonizaciones y formación de los pueblos prerromanos (1200-218 a.C)'', Editorial Gredos, Madrid (1989) * Alberto Lorrio J. Alvarado, ''Los Celtíberos'', Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Murcia (1997) * Francisco Burillo Mozota, ''Los Celtíberos, etnias y estados'', Crítica, Barcelona (1998, revised edition 2007) * Jorge de Alarcão, ''O Domínio Romano em Portugal'', Publicações Europa-América, Lisboa (1988) * Jorge de Alarcão ''et alii'', ''De Ulisses a Viriato – O primeiro milénio a.C.'', Museu Nacional de Arqueologia, Instituto Português de Museus, Lisboa (1996) * Luis Berrocal-Rangel, ''Los pueblos célticos del soroeste de la Península Ibérica'', Editorial Complutense, Madrid (1992)

External links