Lusitania was an ancient
Roman province including approximately all of modern
Portugal south of the
Douro river and part of modern
Spain (the present autonomous community of
Extremadura and a small part of the province of
Salamanca). It was named after the
Lusitani or
Lusitanian people (an
Indo-European people). Its capital was
Emerita Augusta (currently
Mérida), and it was initially part of the
Roman Republic province of
Hispania Ulterior, before becoming a province of its own in the
Roman Empire.
The etymology of Lusitania, like the origin of the Lusitani who gave the province their name, is unclear. The name may be of Celtic origin Lus and Tanus, "tribe of Lusus".
The name may derive from Lucis, an ancient people mentioned in Ora Maritima and Tan, from Celtic Tan (Stan), or Tain, meaning a region or implying a country of waters, a root word that formerly meant a prince or sovereign governor of a region. [2] [3] [4] The name has been connected with the personal Celtic name Luso and with the god Lugh.[5]
Ancient Romans, such as Pliny the Elder (Natural History, 3.5) and Varro (cited by Pliny), speculated that the name Lusitania was of Roman origin, as when Pliny says lusum enim liberi patris aut lyssam cum eo bacchantium nomen dedisse lusitaniae et pana praefectum eius universae that Lusitania takes its name from the lusus associated with Bacchus and the lyssa of his Bacchantes, and that Pan is its governor. Lusus is usually translated as "game" or "play", while lyssa is a borrowing from the Greek ??ssa, "frenzy" or "rage", and sometimes rage personified; for later poets, Lusus and Lyssa become flesh-and-blood companions of Bacchus. Luís de Camões' Os Lusíadas, which portrays Lusus as the founder of Lusitania, extends these ideas, which have no connection with modern etymology.
