Lusitania of the strait. Lusitania Lusitania (; ; ) or Hispania Lusitana was an ancient Iberian Roman province located where modern Portugal (south of the Douro river) and part of western Spain (the present autonomous community of Extremadura and a part of the province of Salamanca) lie. It was named after the Lusitani or Lusitanian people (an Indo-European people). Its capital was "Emerita Augusta" (currently Mérida, Spain), and it was initially part of the Roman Republic province of Hispania Ulterior, before becoming a province of its own in the Roman Empire. Romans first came to the territory around the mid-2nd century
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,