Geography

​The country of which we are speaking is, at any rate, fertile and is watered by rivers both large and small, all of them flowing from the eastern parts parallel to the Tagus; most of them are also navigable and contain a great deal of gold-dust. The most famous of the rivers next to the Tagus are the Mundas, which has only a short navigation, and the Vacua likewise; after these is the Durius, which flows from afar past Numantia and many other settlements of the Celtiberians and Vaccaeans, and can be navigated by large vessels for about eight hundred stadia. Then come other rivers, and after these the River of Lethe, which some call the Limia and others the Belio; and this also flows from the country of the Celtiberians and Vaccaeans, and the river next to it, the Baenis (which some call the Minius), is by far the largest of the rivers in Lusitania, and this also is navigable for eight hundred stadia. Poseidonius, however, says that it flows from the country of the Cantabrians; and in front of its mouth lies an island and two breakwaters which afford anchorages. It is worthy of praise to admire Nature because the rivers have high banks, sufficient to receive the high tide of the sea within their channels, so that it does not overflow nor flood the plains. This was the limit of Brutus’s campaign, but beyond it there are several other rivers parallel to those mentioned.

​Last of all dwell the Artabrians near the promontory which is called Nerium, which is the boundary of both the western and the northern sides. Around it dwell the Celticans, kinsmen of those on the Anas. For it is said that these and the Turdulians, having made an expedition thither, mutinied after the passage of the Limia River; and in addition to the mutiny, when the loss of their leader occurred, they dispersed and remained there; and from this circumstance the river was called the Lethe. The Artabrians have many cities situated together in a gulf, which those who sail there and frequent those parts call the Harbor of the Artabrians; but the people of today call the Artabrians the Arotrebans. Now about thirty nations occupy the country between the Tagus and the Artabrians; and though the country is fertile in crops, cattle, and an abundance of gold, silver, and similar metals, yet most of them, abandoning a life derived from the soil, spent their time in brigandage and in continuous warfare against one another and their neighbors, crossing the Tagus, until the Romans put an end to them by subduing them and turning most of their cities into villages, though they also organized some of them into better settlements. The mountaineers began this lawlessness, as was natural; for since they occupied a rugged country and possessed but little, they coveted the property of others, while those who defended themselves against them were forced to neglect their own works, so that they too, instead of farming, went to war, and it came to pass that the country, being neglected and sterile of its natural resources, was inhabited only by robbers.

​At any rate, they say that the Lusitanians are given to laying ambushes, keen on scouting, swift, light, and agile. They have a small shield two feet in diameter, concave in front, and suspended by shoulder-straps; for it has neither arm-loops nor handles. In addition to this, they carry a dagger or a cleaver. Most of them wear linen breastplates; but rarely do they use chain-mail or triple-crested helmets, the others wearing helmets made of sinew. The infantry also wear greaves, and each man has several javelins; some also use a spear, and the spear-heads are of bronze. Some of the people who dwell near the Durius River are said to live in the Laconian fashion, using twice a day rooms for anointing and steam-baths made of red-hot stones, bathing in cold water, and eating only one meal a day in a clean and simple manner. The Lusitanians are given to offering sacrifices, and they inspect the entrails without cutting them out; they also inspect the veins in the side, and make their divinations by touch as well. They also practice divination from human captives, covering them with cloaks; then, when the victim’s entrails are struck by the priest, they draw their first prophecy from the fall of the body. They cut off the right hands of their captives and consecrate them.