A Roman inscription that Father Bernardo de Brito fabricated

Abstract

In one of the chapters of his monumental book Monarchia Lusytana, which describes Roman proconsul Decimus Iunius Brutus’ military campaign against the peoples that lived in Western Hispania, the author, Bernardo de Brito, shows that the Romans fought a very difficult battle near the Távora river (a region with many Roman remains). So, to demonstrate and highlight the bravery of the ‘Portuguese’ troops, he forged the epitaphs of two important Roman legionaries killed in battle: a signifer and an eques. We aim to study the epitaph of the eques (CIL II 55*), giving special attention to its epigraphic and literary aspects.