V. Living in Society

The Lusitanian society was composed of people with very different ethnic backgrounds, legal and economic status, individualized groups because of their practices and forms of expression. The native substrate was not homogeneous: the notion of “Lusitano” is Roman; it brings together several distinct entities, in which the natives truly recognized themselves.

To the Lusitanian joined, at first, the Roman conquerors – from the Italian Peninsula – and, following them, several population flows, whose circulation was allowed by the safety within the Empire.

The social and cultural mobility of the communities was achieved through the Romanization of habits and traditions, at first, and then the promotion of the personal statutes. The slave liberation, the individual enrichment and the granting of Roman citizenship to notable persons were integration elements in a complex society. A society of men and for men, ruled by them, but where women and children – everyone, in short – found their own form of expression.

Learn about the Roman society in the article by Virgílio Hipólito Correia.

Bust-portrait of a deceased Oriental necropolis, Mérida Tiberian period (14-37 A.D.) 39 cm Museo Nacional de Arte Romano, Mérida CE00687