Pax Julia
PAX JULIA(Πὰξ Ἰουλία, Ptol. 2.5.5; called in the Geogr. Rav., 4.43, Pacca Julia), a town of the Turdetani, in the S. of Lusitania, and on the road from Esuris to Ebora ( Itin. Ant. pp. 426, 427). But on the subject of this route see LUSITANIA, Vol. 2. p. 220. It was a Roman colony, and the seat of a Conventus juridicus (Plin. Nat. 4.35); probably the same town as that called Pax Augusta by Strabo (3. p. 151),--as many towns bore double names in this manner,--notwithstanding that it is placed by him among the Celtici. (Ukert, vol. ii. pt. 1. p. 388, and the authorities there cited.) It lay on a hill N. of Julia Myrtilis, and is commonly identified with Beja.
[T.H.D]Mentioned by Ptolemy (2.5), it was made a colonia by Julius Caesar or Octavian. It was the seat of one of the three judicial districts into which Augustus divided Lusitania, and minted coins in the time of Octavius. The fortifications, reconstructed in the Middle Ages over the remains of the Roman ones, retained the three early gates: Aviz, Mértola, and Évora. Only the gate of Évora remains today. The foundations of a temple have been discovered, but were covered again.
BIBLIOGRAPHYA. Viana, Origem e evolução histórica de Beja (1944).
J. ALARCÃO