Balsa

About

Balsa was a Roman coastal town in the province of Lusitania, Conventus Pacensis (capital Pax Julia).

The modern location is in the rural estates of Torre d'Aires, Antas and Arroio, parish of Luz de Tavira, county of Tavira, district of Faro, in Algarve, Southern Portugal. Although having been one of the biggest Roman cities of Lusitania at the time, only in 2019 did excavations finally reveal remnants of Balsa.

Balsa is a pre-Roman place-name with a probable Phoenician etymology: B'LŠ..., a possible theonym connected with the older Phoenician occupation of neighbouring Tavira.

It is mentioned by Pomponius Mela (DC III 1, 7), Pliny (HN IV 35, 116), Ptolemy (GH: II 5, 2), and Marcianus of Heracleia (PME: II, 13).

Mints bronze asses and its lead divisors ( semis, quadrans, triens, sextans ) about mid 1st century BCE, in Latin alphabet with marine motives (tunas, dolphins, several kinds of boats). The name BALSA, recorded in these coins is the oldest attestation of the toponym.

According to Mela (DC III 1, 7) Balsa was situated in the Cuneus Ager, a Roman geographical region corresponding to modern Central and Eastern Algarve.

It was one of the stipendiary oppida of Lusitania, Siege of the Balsenses (Pliny: IV 35, 118), people belonging to the ethnical group of the Turdetani (Ptolemy: II 5, 2).

Stage of via XXI of Antonine Itineraries, between [B]Esuri and Ossonoba (IAA: 426,1). Referred as civitas in the Ravennate between Besurin and Stacio Sacra (RAC: IV 43, 30).

It was considered by Marcianus of Heracleia the polis at the southmost limit of Lusitania (M. H.: II, 14).

Place Identification is attested by epigraphy found in the local, where Balsensium appears three times, qualifying persons CIL II, 5161 CIL II, 5164 and the political community IRCP 75.

The Late Bronze and Early Iron Age oppidum of Tavira (7 km from Roman BALSA) stands as the genetic regional urban place, first as a Phoenician maritime colonial settlement with a strong religious character (mid 8th to end of 6th centuries BCE) and later as a Turdetani town (5th and 4 th centuries BCE).

It was abandoned and replaced by the near oppidum of Cerro do Cavaco (1 km North of Tavira, occupied from the late 4th to late 1st centuries BCE), a better defensible site that was the central place of the Balsenses during the Carthaginian and Roman Republican periods.

Cerro do Cavaco, the pre-Roman BALSA, did not survive the epoch of Augustus, being then replaced by Roman BALSA.

Epigraphic inscriptions reveal BALSA as a Latin Right Municipality ( ius Latii Municipium ) during the 2nd century CE, most probably promoted by Domitian (81-96 CE).

All main aspects of provincial Romanisation are documented locally: A res publica with a ordo decurionica IRCP 75, local prominence of the gens Manlia CIL II, 5161 CIL II, 5162, magistrates ( duunvir belonging to the QUIRINA tribe CIL II, 5162 ), sexvir CIL II, 13, public slaves ( balsensium dispensator, CIL II, 5164 ), evergetism (spectacle of naumachia and pugilate CIL II, 13, collective construction of a circus CIL II, 5165 CIL II, 5166 and other unidentified monuments CIL II, 5167 ), imperial cult IRCP 90 and a large proportion of Greek and North African names. A Roman citizen of Neapolis ( Nabeul, Tunisia ) with a daughter in Pax Iulia ( Beja, Portugal ) countryside, declares himself an incola of BALSA! CIL II, 105.

The level of Romanisation in BALSA can also be inferred from the known personal names (39 men and 16 women): 58% have tria nomina or are women with Latin dua nomina. 71% have a Roman nomen and the remaining 27% a single cognomen, these being mostly Greek names. Native name words in all forms (Celtic or Turdetanian) are a small minority (9%).

From the 3rd century comes a rare funerary monument in Greek, considered by some to be Christian CIL II, 5171, and a hoard of coins of Claudius Gothicus (268-270 CE) discovered in a bath sewer.

Imported terra sigillata and glassware form a continuous series between late Augustan wares (early Hispanic) and late African D, late Gallic and Focean, with the latest pieces dated from the 7th century. The overwhelming volume peak corresponds to South Gallic wares of the 1st century CE but the studied material is much limited topographically.

Fish preserve industries are well documented in the town and neighbourhood, as well as amphorae factories. Six garum producers are known in BALSA by their industrial brands: AEMHEL, OLYNT, LEVGEN, IVNIORVM, IMETVS F and DASIMVSTELI

Several testimonies describe the existence of very extensive and dense Roman building remains before 1977. The archaeological terrain has been being heavily destroyed since then to the present days (2008) by agricultural works and the building of suburban villas.