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Lusitania (, (ポルトガル語:Lusitânia), (スペイン語:Lusitania)) or Hispania Lusitana was an ancient Iberian 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, Spain), and it was initially part of the Roman Republic province of Hispania Ulterior, before becoming a province of its own in the Roman Empire. Romans first came to the territory around the mid 2nd century BC. A war with Lusitanian tribes followed, from 155 to 139 BC. In 27 BC, the province was created. == Origin of the name == The etymology of the origin of the Lusitani who gave the province their name is unclear. Popular etymology connected it to a supposed Roman demigod Lusus, whereas some early modern scholars suggested that ''Lus'' was a form of the Celtic Lugus followed by another (unattested) root '' *tan-'', supposed to mean "tribe", while others derived the name from ''Lucis'', an ancient people mentioned in Avienus' ''Ora Maritima'' and ''tan'' (-stan in Iranian), 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. Compare Lusatia meaning also "bed" (Slavic: lože) of waters. 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 λυσσα, "frenzy" or "rage", and sometimes rage personified; for later poets, Lusus and Lyssa become flesh-and-blood companions (even children) 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. In his work, "Geography", the classical geographer Strabo suggests a change had occurred in the use of the name "Lusitanian". He mentions a group who had once been called "Lusitanians" living north of the Douro river but were called in his day "Callacans".〔(Strabo, ''Geography'', Book III, Chapter 4, paragraph 20 )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Lusitania」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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