LUSITA'NIA, a district of ancient IIispania, which, as the country occupied by the Lusitani was, according to Strabo, bounded s. by the Tagus, n. and w. by the ocean. Its extent afterwards was contracted by the growing importance of the CaRaki, and the river Durius (Douro) became its n. boundary. Afterwards, many of the Lusitanians being driven southward in their long struggles with the Romans, the name Lusitania was given to the district s. of the Tagus. When Augustus divided the peninsula into the three provinces, Btica, Tarraeonensis, and Lusitania, the last occupied the s.w., between the Anas (Guadiana) on the e. the sea on the s. and w. and Durius on the north. It comprised the greater' part of the modern kingdom of' Portugal, besides a large portion of Leon and the Spanish Estremadura. The chief river in the district is the Tagus, flowing w. into the Atlantic. Some of the principal towns are Metellinum (Malelltm); Emerita Augusta (Merida), the Roman capital, on the Anas; Olisipo (lisbon), the capital before the time of the Romans, on the Tagus; Conimbriga (Coimbra), on the Munda; Salmantica (Salamanca); Pax Julia (Deja); Ebora (Evora). The province was
formerly rich and fertile, and had valuable mines of gold and silver. The Lusitani were a wild and warlike people, much addicted to plunder, especially those living in the mountains. They were the bravest of all the Iberians, and held out the longest in resistance to the Romans. In 153 B.C. they revolted, and for fourteen years fought against the Romans, who, for a time, acknowledged their independence. Viriathus, their chief, a bold and skillful leader, defeated several Roman generals. At length the consul Caapio, unable to subdue him in the field, captured him by the treachery of some of his intimate friends, and put him to death, when the Lusitanians were completely subdued, 140 B.c.