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Portugal Phoenicians, Greeks, and Carthaginians
In the twelfth century B.C., Phoenicians arrived on the
west
coast of the Iberian Peninsula in search of metals and
founded
trading posts at Cádiz, Málaga, and Seville. They traded
with the
peoples of the interior, taking out silver, copper, and
tin and
bringing in eastern trade goods. Between the eighth
century and
sixth century B.C., successive waves of Celtic peoples
from
central Europe invaded the western part of the peninsula,
where
the topography and climate were well suited to their
herding-farming way of life. They settled there in large
numbers
and blended in with the indigenous Iberos, giving rise to
a new
people known as Celtiberians. Their settlements were
hilltop
forts called castros, of which there are many
vestiges in
northern Portugal.
Later, during the seventh century B.C., Greeks arrived
and
founded several colonies, including Sargunto on the
Mediterranean
coast and Alcácer do Sal on the Atlantic coast. During the
fifth
century B.C., the Carthaginians replaced the Phoenicians
and
closed the Straits of Gibraltar to the Greeks. The
Carthaginians
undertook the conquest of the peninsula but were only able
to
permanently occupy the territory in the south originally
controlled by their Phoenician and Greek predecessors. The
Carthaginian occupation lasted until the defeat of
Carthage by
the Romans in the third century B.C.
The Romans made the former Carthaginian territory into
a new
province of their expanding empire and conquered and
occupied the
entire peninsula. This invasion was resisted by the
indigenous
peoples, the stiffest resistance coming from the
Lusitanians who
lived in the western part of the peninsula. The
Lusitanians were
led by warrior chieftains, the most powerful of whom was
Viriato.
Viriato held up the Roman invasion for several decades
until he
was murdered in his bed by three of his own people who had
been
bribed by the Romans. His death brought the Lusitanian
resistance
to an end, and Rome relatively quickly conquered and
occupied the
entire peninsula. The Portuguese have claimed Viriato as
the
country's first great national hero.
Data as of January 1993
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