Ebora

Ebora Liberalitas Julia is the name of a Roman municipium that gave rise to the Portuguese district capital Évora in the Alentejo region. While the name "Ebora" indicates a Celtiberian hill top fortification in the area of the later municipia or in its vicinity the first archaeological evidence of a settlement is from the Early Roman Empire. Early Roman activities on the Iberian peninsula were limited to the areas previously partially populated by Greeks and Punic areas along the south and east coast. The area of today's Alentejo probably did not come under Roman control until the middle of the 2nd century BC. The name addition "Iulia" in the Roman name Évoras infers the emergence of the municipium under the Julians and their representative Gaius Iulius Caesar. But since clear traces of extensive infrastructures from this time and in the surrounding area are missing, it is considered more probable that Évora only came into being as a municipium after the Pax Romana under Octavian in 30 BC. The suffix "Liberalitas Iulia" should be interpreted in this context as an indication of peace. The first reference to Évora as a municipium is found in a list of cities in Hispania in the Historia Naturalis of Pliny the Elder to the year 77 A.D.

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