Memory II is dedicated to the study of the ‘Estado Civil da Lusitania no tempo em que esteve sujeita aos romanos’. The immense and solid critical apparatus, based above all on classical authors and Roman inscriptions, is not matched by the same narrative endeavour, always hampered by the rigid conception of the initial purposes of the strict ‘Civil State’. His mastery of written sources would have allowed him to explore multiple paths, but this was beyond the scope of his project, to which he always sought to remain faithful. We are left with a rich catalogue of sources accompanied by reliable indications for exploring them. The conclusion of Memory II is that in this ‘state of civil subjection, in vain would we look for legislation proper to the Lusitanians, either created by them themselves or emanating from Rome’ (p. 344).

Thus, decadence is not only the Romans ’ but also the Lusitanians’: ‘what is also clear is that the Lusitanians were slowly becoming Romans; customs, taste, uses, genius, everything gradually moulded to those of the Conquerors’ (p. 348). The epilogue is moralising: ‘this is the sorry scene that Lusitania presents to us over the four centuries that it remained part of the Roman Empire: without forces or virtues of war to give them glory … ; without a system of government or its own legislation to give them a certain and particular character; but as inert material … without ever being infused with a spirit to animate it’ (p. 353).

In Memory III, ‘Sobre o Estado Civil da Lusitania, desde a entrada dos Povos do Norte até á dos Arabes’ [‘On the Civil State of Lusitania, from the entry of the Northern peoples to that of the Arabs’] , and regarding the form of government of the Peoples of the North, which he points out as a hereditary monarchical government, Amaral states: ‘and this Country, which Providence had destined for the seat of a Monarchy … always finds government by a single person’ (p. 137). A peremptory and not insignificant statement at a time of the French Revolution. Since the Goths were now the sole masters of Lusitania, they adopted the customs that the ‘climates’, ‘communications’, ‘needs’, ‘and other different adjuncts’ gave them according to the different regions they spread across , and the same happened in Lusitania. Amaral explains that he is not in favour of those who believe that climate has a very powerful influence on the customs of people, but he agrees that it cannot be denied that it has some influence. We know that he is well acquainted with Montesquieu ’ s De l’esprit des lois [The spirit of the Laws] , because he cites this work several times, sometimes to agree with it, others to disagree with it.

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