Lusitania 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 BC. A war
RMS Lusitania 1,962 passengers and crew aboard "Lusitania" at the time of the sinking, 1,198 lost their lives. As in the sinking of "Titanic", most of the casualties were from drowning or hypothermia. In the hours after the sinking, acts of heroism amongst both the survivors of the sinking and the Irish rescuers who had heard word of "Lusitania"s distress signals brought the survivor count to 764, three of whom later died from injuries sustained during the sinking. A British cruiser , which had heard of the sinking only a short time after "Lusitania" was struck, left her anchorage in Cork Harbour