How do we know the ancient name of Coimbra was Aeminium?

José Barreto
Dec 15, 2017 · 1 min read

The first reference of this Roman city appears in the itinerary of Antonino located 10 miles to the North of Conímbriga, and Plínio includes it among the opportunistic stipendiaries of Lusitânia. The inscription in a gravestone found in 1888, when work was carried out in a house in the Couraça dos Apóstolos, a street in the upper area of Coimbra, confirms the location. The attributes of the emperor allow to date this gravestone of 305–306 which suggests that the improvement granted to the Aeminuns by Constantius Chlorus could have been the construction of the wall that the political events then happened in the Roman Empire, fully justified.

Translation of the gravestone

To the beloved prince our Lord Flávio Valério Constâncio Cloro, born for the glorification of the Republic, pious, happy, undefeated, august, maximum pontiff, with the tribune power, father of the homeland, proconsul, the city of Emínio (dedicated this monument).

One can see this gravestone in Machado de Castro Museum

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