How long did the Romans rule over Portugal?

Answer 1

Portugal did not exist in antiquity. There was Lusitania, which was a area which covered present day Portugal south of the River Douro (river in northern Portugal) and present day Extremadura and a small part of the province of Salamanca in modern Spain. It was named after the local people, the Lusitani. They fought a war of resistance against the Romans which historians call the Lusitanian War, from 155 B.C. and 139 B.C. The Romans conducted a campaign against the Lusitanians in 137 B.C., but they carried out a long guerrilla resistance and were finally defeated only in 28-24 BC. The Roman province of Hispania Lusitania was established probably in 25-20 B.C.

The invading Sueves established the Kingdom of the Sueves (also called the Kingdom of Gallaecia), which covered Galicia, in the north-west of present day Spain, and northern Lusitania in 410 B.C. In 438 King Rechila conquered most of Lusitania and seized its capital Merida, which was (and still is) in present day western Spain (in Extremadura). In 440 he captured Mértola, in the southeast of present day Portugal. In 441 he seized Seville (in present day Andalusia, southern Spain) the capital of the Roman Province of Hispania Baetica and managed to control this province and the Roman province of Hispania Carthaginensis. In 446, the Romans, supported by their Visigoths allies, tried to retake these provinces. Rechila defeated the Visigoths and after this the Roman commander fled. There were no further attempts to retake any areas in present day pain or Portugal by the Romans.