Lisbon is one of the oldest cities in the world and the oldest in western europe predating other modern european capitals such as london paris and rome by centuries julius caesar made it a municipium called felicitas julia adding to the name olissipo ruled by a series of germanic tribes from the 5th century it was captured by the moors in the 8th century in 1147 the crusaders under afonso henriques reconquered the city and since then it has been a major political economic and cultural