Balsa (Roman town) Balsa (Roman town) Balsa was a Roman coastal town in the province of Lusitania, Conventus Pacensis (capital Pax Julia). The modern location is in the rural estates of Torre d'Aires, Antas and Arroio, parish of Luz de Tavira, county of Tavira, district of Faro, in Algarve, Southern Portugal. Balsa is a pre-Roman place-name with a probable Phoenician etymology: "B'LŠ...", a possible theonym connected with the older Phoenician occupation of neighbouring Tavira. It is mentioned by Pomponius Mela (DC III 1, 7), Pliny (HN IV 35, 116), Ptolemy (GH: II 5, 2), and Marcianus of Heracleia (PME: II, 13). Mints bronze
Roman bridge two, if on a border). The Alcántara Bridge in Lusitania, for example, was built at the expense of 12 local municipalities, whose names were added on an inscription. Later, in the Roman Empire, the local lords of the land had to pay tithes to the empire for "opus pontis". The Anglo-Saxons continued this practice with "bricg-geworc", a literal translation of "opus pontis". Built in 142 BC, the Pons Aemilius, later named "Ponte Rotto" (broken bridge), is the oldest Roman stone bridge in Rome, Italy. The largest Roman bridge was Trajan's bridge over the lower Danube, constructed by Apollodorus of Damascus,