A Tale of Two Stricken Cities

摘要

It was a magnificent harbor where the Tagus River emptied intothe eastern Atlantic Ocean. Archeologists tell us that Celtic tribeshad peopled its shores, building great stone dolmens to honortheir gods. About three millennia ago it became the site of aPhoenician trading post called Allis Ubbo (safe harbor.) The portassumed great mercantile importance since the Phoenicians—disseminators of civilization—used the harbor as their point ofdeparture to the fabled tin mines in what is now southwesternEngland. Greek mariners knew the community as Olissipo; andthe Romans, now designating the Iberian province as Lusitania,called the community, Olissipona. And when Portugal wasconquered by the Islamic Moors in 711 CE, they referred to thesite as al-‘Isbunah, a name than morphed finally to its currenttitle, Lisbon, when the coastal city was recaptured by Christianforces in the Reconquista of 1147 CE.