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Although they had reached the Iberian peninsula in the second century BC, the Romans did not conquer its westernmost parts until nearly a century later. The trading post of Olisipo, Lisbon’s Greek name (sometimes associated with Ulysses), was occupied in 138 BC.

Spain had usurped the Portuguese throne in 1581, after the death of Dom Sebastião and much of the Portuguese nobility in an ill-conceived military adventure in north Africa. The 1640 coup at Lisbon’s royal palace reinstated self-rule and proclaimed the Duke of Bragança king of Portugal.

On 1 November 1755, All Saints’ Day, a massive earthquake struck southern Portugal and laid waste to central Lisbon. Three shocks were followed by fires and tidal waves. The scale of the destruction shocked the world.

António de Oliveira Salazar, who had been appointed finance minister in the hope that he could solve the country’s financial crisis, was asked to form a government in 1932. The following year his new constitution was passed by parliament, in effect making him an authoritarian dictator.

Salazar’s successor Marcelo Caetano and his government were overthrown in a virtually bloodless coup by a group of army captains on 25 April. Three men were killed by shots coming from the headquarters of the PIDE, the political police, as crowds outside cheered the end of its reign of fear.

After a few tumultuous years following the 1974 revolution, stable democracy was established in Portugal. Independence had already been restored to most of the colonies and Portugal was now ready to turn to Europe. Membership brought a welcome boost to the economy, in the form of both subsidies and foreign investment.

Roman Lisbon was invaded by Alan tribes from the north, about whom little is known, and then by the Visigoths, who ruled from Toledo. Less than three centuries after the end of Roman rule, however, the Visigoths were swept from power by Moorish armies crossing into Iberia at the Straits of Gibraltar. Lisbon fell to the Moors in 714.