“ The museum contains a good collection of Roman and Romanesque antiquities; and there are a school for teachers, a theological seminary and academies of literature and science. Leather, paper, glass, silk, linen and cloth are manufactured in the city, which has also some trade in agricultural produce.
Lérida is the Ilerda of the Romans, and was the capital of the people whom they called Ilerdenses (Pliny) or Ilergetes (Ptolemy) . By situation the key of Catalonia and Aragon, it was from a very early period an important military station. ”

“ In the Punic wars it sided with the Carthaginians and suffered much from the Roman arms. In its immediate neighbourhood Hanno was defeated by Scipio in 216 B.C., and it afterwards became famous as the scene of Caesar’s arduous struggle with Pompey’s generals Afranius and Petreius in the first year of the civil war (49 B.C.) . It was already a municipium in the time of Augustus, and enjoyed great prosperity under later emperors. ”