The evening Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1918-1920, 1919-07-17
GREAT IN HISTORY
And WondrousIy Beautiful Is the
City of Lisbon.
Portuguese Capital Has Had Many
Names Through the Ccnturicc--
Was Last Stronghold of the
Moor in That Country.


The way of name, especially a
Well-knoWn name, is interesting to
very many people outside the ranks of
the confirmed etymologist. The strange
way in which, through the centuries,
a name, gradually changes and
changes until it has really changed
out of all casual recognition, yet never
quite parts from its original, has
fascination all its own. Lisbon is a
very tirst-class example. No one, off
hand, would think of connecting the
name with Ulysses, and yet your ETY.
mologist dives into the subject and so
connects it without apparent difficulty.
Every one, of course, knows the legend
That Lisbon owes its origin to Ulysses.
1T makes no difference that the myth
cal city founded by the great wan
derer is declared by Strabo to have
been rather in the mountains Of
Iurdetania, in the extreme south of
Spain. Such contentious never make
any difference to wcll-establishcd
tradition. And so the oldest name by
which the city ever was known, that
is to say Olisipo, came to be writ
ten Ulyssippo. This on Phoenlcian
lips, says the authority, appeared
as Alissubbo, or the friendly bay.
Then came the Romans. changing the
name, but sealing their appreciation Of
the happy situation Of the beautiful
city on the heights above TugaS by
calling it Fclicitas Julia After the
Romans came the Moors with their
Al Aschbuna, still carrying out the
same idea, and after the Moors, the
Portuguese, with the Alissubbo of the
Phoenician carried a step further
and appearing as LssabOna. From
that to the Lisboa or Lisbon of today
is but step.
And what history there Is in It!
1t carries one safely through the cen
turtles, touching lightly on the story Of
phOenlcian, Roman and Moor as
each, in turn. held sway along the
shores of Friendly bay. Lisbon, in
deed, was the last stronghold of the
Moor in Portugal, and the story of
how King Alfonso | laid siege to it
through many months, in 1141, and.
at last, with the aid of English and
Flemish cruisers on the way to Syria
captured it, is one of the great ro-
mances Of history. Other landmarks
and epochs in the history of Lisbon
are the burning of the city by the
Castlian army of Henry II, in 1873;
its period Of splcndor and greatness
In the sixteenth century. when the
Portuguese empire was spreading it.
self into India and Africa; its long
years of humiliation from 1880 to
1910, when Lisbon was provincial
town under Spanish rule its release
flOm the Spanish bondage: the great
earthquake of 1863; and the grand
rebuilding of the city under the IA
nous Carayalho.
Caravalho had gracious task
Lisbon has always been famous for
the beauty of its situation, and few
who write about Portugal today fail
~ attempt, once again, to convey the
beauties of its blue waters. it's white, ,
red-roofed houses, the wonderful vcr-
dure of its gardens, and over all the /
peerless blue of a southern sky" |
1.-THE eyes rest" says one writer, |
upon a succession of amphitheaters |
built up with tier upon tier of houses, |
great and small, which the sorcery of |
Lusitanan sunlight transligures into |
the semblance Of city of palaces and |
many mansions built up of marbles |
of delicate and varied hues." The |
Westernm0st Of European capitals |
spreads itself in leisurely fashion over /
its II hills, extending for more than
five miles along the shores of the IA
nous Rada de Lisbon. and for more |
than three miles inland. Beyond the
narrow channel leading out Of the
Rada through which flow the wa
tors of the Tagus lies the open sea-
and some 800 miles away over the
horizon to the west are the Azores
Christian Science Monitor