João de Barros, nicknamed the "Portuguese Livy", is one of the first great Portuguese historians, most famous for his Décadas da Ásia, a history of the Portuguese in India, Asia, and southeast Africa.

Viseu is a city and municipality in the Centro Region of Portugal and the capital of the district of the same name, with a population of 100,105 inhabitants in the entire municipality, and center of the Viseu Dão Lafões intermunipical community, with 267,633 inhabitants. Settled during the period of the early Iberian Castro culture, the territory of Viseu was populated by a series of cultures including the Romans, Suebs, Visigoths and Moors. During the Roman occupation of Iberia, Viriathus, the rebel leader of the Lusitanians, is assumed to have lived for a time in the vicinity. During the Middle Ages, the city often served as a seat for Visigothic nobles, and is considered one of the probable birthplaces of Afonso Henriques, first King of Portugal.