An off-shot of the
Turduli people, the Turduli Oppidani trekked northwards around the 5th century BC in conjunction with the
Celtici and ended settling the present-day central coastal Portuguese
Estremadura-
Beira Litoral Province. The Oppidani seem to have become clients of the
Lusitani sometime prior to the mid-3rd Century BC and then of
Carthage at the latter part of the century. Their history after the
Second Punic War is less clear; is it almost certain that the Oppidani remained under Lusitani overlordship and bore the brunt of the first Roman thrusts into the Iberian northwest. In 138-136 BC Consul
Decimus Junius Brutus devastated their lands in retaliation for them helping the Lusitani. The Oppidani were certainly defeated and technically included in
Hispania Ulterior province by the
Praetor Publius Licinius Crassus in the wake of his campaign against the Lusitani and
Celtici in 93 BC. Again the Turduli Oppidani and the
Turduli Veteres suffered the same treatment in 61-60 BC, when they were incorporated into H. Ulterior by the
Propraetor Julius Caesar.
Romanization They were later aggregated by Emperor
Augustus into the new
Lusitania Province in 27-13 BC. ==See also==