Viriathus

Statue of Viriathus, at Viseu, Portugal

Viriathus (known as Viriato in Portuguese and Castilian) (? - 139 BC) was the most important leader of the Lusitanian people that resisted Roman expansion into the regions of Western Iberia, where the Roman province of Lusitania would be established (in the areas comprising Portugal, south of the Douro river, and Extremadura in Spain). Viriathus led the Lusitanians to several victories over the Romans between 147 BC and 139 BC before he was betrayed to the Romans and killed.

Etymology

There are several possible etymologies for the name Viriathus. The name can be composed of two elements: Viri and Athus. Viri may come from:

• the Indo-European root *uiros, "man", relating to strength and virility;
• the Celtic *uiro- 'man'; and the older forms viros, viri, viro, viron from which derived the Old Irish word for man, fir;
• from *uei-, as in in the viriae or Celtiberian "twisted armbands" used by warriors (Pliny XXIII, 39);
• the Latin viri meaning man, hero, person of courage, honor, and nobility.

Viriathus' life

Little is known about Viriathus. The only reference to the location of his native tribe was made by the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus who claims he was from the Lusitani tribes of the ocean side.

He belonged to the class of warriors, the occupation of the minority ruling elites. He was known to the Romans as the dux of the Lusitani army, as the adsertor, protector, of Hispania" , or as an imperator probably of the confederated Lusitani and Celtiberian tribes .

Livy described him as a shepherd who became a hunter, then a soldier, thus following the path of most young warriors, the iuventus, who devoted themselves to cattle raiding, hunting and war . According to Appian, Viriathus was one of the few who escaped when Galba, the Roman consul, massacred the flos iuventutis, the flower of the youth Lusitani warriors , in 150 B.C. Two years after the massacre ,in 148 B.C., Viriathus becomes the leader of a Lusitanian army.

Viriathus was thought to have a very obscure origin, his family was unknown to the Romans who were familiar with the native aristocratic warrior society. Some authors claim that the ancient authors described Viriathus with the precise features of a Celtic king.

His personality and his physical and intellectual abilities as well as his skills as a warrior were described by several authors.

Some authors defend he probably was from the Herminius Mons (Serra da Estrela) - in the heart of Lusitania, (in central Portugal) or Beira Alta. Others situate his origin in Sayago, in the current province of Zamora.

Most of his life and his war against the Romans are part of legend and Viriathus is considered the earliest Portuguese national hero, and also as a hero of the Spanish, given the fact that he was the leader of the confederated Iberian tribes who resisted Rome. The historian Appianus of Alexandria in his book about Iberia (in the section "Historia Romana", Roman History), commented that Viriathus killed numerous Romans and showed great skill.

Conquest of Lusitania by Rome

In the 3rd century BC, Rome started its conquest of the Iberian Peninsula. The Roman conquest of Iberia began during the Second Punic War, when the senate sent an army to Iberia to block Carthaginian re-enforcements from helping Hannibal in Italy. This began Roman involvement in 250 years of subsequent fighting throughout the peninsula resulting in its eventual conquest in 19 B.C. with the end of the Cantabrian Wars. The Lusitanian War is one of the most well documented episodes of the conquest.

Lusitania's rich land was praised by ancient authors. Polybius in his Histories "speaking of the natural wealth of Lusitania [...], tells us that owing to the favorable climate both men and animals are very prolific, and the land is constantly productive."

The Romans charged the native tribes with heavy taxes. Taxes were not the only source of income, mine exploitation and peace treaties were a source of denarius as well as war spoils and war prisoners that were sold as slaves. In 174 BC, when Públio Fúrio Filo was accused of paying very little for the cereals that Iberia was compelled to deliver to Rome, Cato defended the interests of the native tribes.The exploitation and extortion reached such an extreme degree in the provinces that Rome had to create a special tribunal and laws, like the Lex Calpurnia created in 149 BC. Also as part of the payment, it was required a certain number of men to serve in the Roman army. The indigenous towns had to deliver their own treasures to the Romans, which left them only with the yearly earnings to pay the taxes. Between 209 and 169 BC, the Roman army collected 4 tons of gold and 800 tons of silver looting the native tribes of the Iberian peninsula.

Revolts

The Lusitanians revolted first in 194 B.C. against the Romans. Iberia was divided between the tribes that supported the Roman rule and the tribes that revolted against the Roman rule.

In 152 B.C the Lusitanians made a peace agreement with Marcus Atilius, after he conquered Oxthracae, Lusitania's biggest city. In the Roman law, peregrini dediticii,was the designation given to the peoples who had surrendered themselves after taking up arms against the Romans. But as soon as Atilius returned to Rome they rebelled and broke the treaty. Then they attacked the tribes that were Roman subjects and sided with the Romans helping to attack and plunder the Lusitanian towns. Possibly the Lusitanians recovered some of the booty the Romans divided with those tribes.

The praetor Servius Sulpicius Galba commanded the Roman troops in Iberia circa 150 BC. In the year 151 BC Lucullus "being greedy of fame and needing money", had made a treaty with the Caucaei, after which he ordered to kill all the adult males of the Caucaei of which only a few out of 20,000 escaped. Servius Sulpicius Galba together with Lucius Licinius Lucullus started to depopulate Lusitania.

Fearing the destruction the Roman siege engines caused the Lusitanians sent an embassy to him. Galba received the Lusitanian embassy politely, suspended the offensive and promised to give lands to the Lusitanian people.

The offer turned out to be a trap like the one Lucculus had prepared for the Caucaei. When the unarmed Lusitanians, among them Viriathus, were gathered together by Galba to hand over their weapons and be split into three groups (two of the points of the treaty that had been negotiated) the trap was sprung. The Roman soldiers began to attack each separate unarmed group and massacred all the males of military age and sold the rest of the Lusitani into slavery.

Galba distributed a little of the plunder to the army and a little to his friends, the native tribes that sided with him, and kept the rest. This incited a massive rebellion, with the entire Lusitani tribe mustering as they waged war for 3 years against Rome, but met with many failures.

Three Years after the Massacre, the massive rebellion was nearly at defeat until Viriathus appeared and offered himself as leader. Through understanding of Roman military methods he saved the rebel Lusitanians through a simple, though clever escape plan. Viriathus become the leader of Lusitanians and give much grief to the Romans as a result of the past massacre of his people.

The "War of fire"

Main article: Lusitanian War

Viriathus never forgot the Roman treachery. Later, when Lusitanian leaders prepared to make a new agreement with the Romans after a major loss of life to the Roman army of Caius Vetilius, Viriathus reminded them of Galba's trick and proposed a Lusitanian War against the Romans. The Lusitanians were moved by his speech and accepted him as their new commander. His first act was to rescue the currently trapped resisting Lusitanian's whom he took over command of. First by lining up for battle with the Romans, then scattering the army as they charged the Romans. As each way broke apart and fled in different directions to meet up at a later location, Viriathus with 1000 men held the Roman in check by being in a position to attack, once the rest of the army had fled, he and the thousand men escaped as well. Having effectively saved all of the Lusitanians with no losses immediately fortified the loyalty of the people.

Viriathus organized an attack against Caius Vetilius in Tribola. Since the Romans were better armed, he organized guerrilla tactics and sprung imaginative ambushes. Charging with iron spears, tridents and roars, the Lusitanians defeated Vetilius by killing 4,000 out of 10,000 Troops including Vetilius himself. As a response, the Celtiberians were hired to attack the Lusitanians, but it was destroyed. After that incident, the Lusitanians clashed with the armies of Gaius Plautius, Claudius Unimanus and Gaius Negidius, all of whom he managed to gain victories over. During this period he inspired and convinced the Numantine to rebel, and some Gauls rebelled against Roman rule.

To complete the subjugation of Lusitania, Rome sent Quintus Fabius Maximus Aemilianus, with 15,000 soldiers and 2,000 cavalry to strengthen Caius Lelius. The Romans lost most of these reinforcements in Ossuma. When Fabius risked combat again, he was totally defeated near what is today the city of Beja in Alentejo. This defeat gave the Lusitanians access to today’s Spanish territory, modern Granada and Murcia. The results of Viriathus's effects as well as that of the Numantine caused many problems in Rome, including a drop in Legion recruitment rates being the most notable.

Learning of these events, Rome sent one of its best generals, Q. Fabius Maximus Servilianus, to Iberia. Near Sierra Morena, the Romans fell into a Lusitanian ambush. Viriathus did not harm the Romans and let the soldiers and Servilianus go. Servilianus made a peace term that recognized the Lusitanian rule over the land they conquered. This agreement was ratified by the Roman Senate and Viriathus was declared "amici populi Romani", (Greek: Rhômaiôn philon), an ally of the Roman people.

Death

The Roman senate accepted the treaty made by Q. Fabius Maximus Servilianus with the Lusitanians. However, the Romans did things differently this time. Knowing that the Lusitanian resistance was largely due to Viriathus' leadership, Marcus Popillius Laenas bribed Audax, Ditalcus and Minurus,who had been sent by Viriathus as an embassy to establish peace. These ambassadors returned to their camp and killed Viriathus while he was sleeping. When they returned to the Roman camp for their reward, the consul Quintus Servilius Caepio ordered their execution (or removal from the city, if not both according to some sources), declaring, "Rome does not pay traitors."

After the death of Viriathus, the Lusitani kept fighting under the leadership of Tantalus (Grk: Τάνταλος).

Laenas would finally give the Lusitanians the land they originally had asked for before the massacre. This led to less resistance and war as the Lusitanians' main reason for waging war was due to lack of food. Nevertheless total pacification of Lusitania was only achieved under Augustus. Under Roman rule, Lusitania and its people gradually acquired Roman culture and language.

Viriathus stands as the most successful Iberian leader that ever opposed the Roman conquest. During the course of his campaigns he was only defeated in battle against the Romans once and from a military standpoint can be said to have been one of the most successful generals to ever have opposed Rome's expansion anywhere in the world. Ultimately even the Romans recognized that it was more prudent to use treachery rather than open confrontation to defeat the Lusitan uprising. Some fifty years later, the renegade Roman general, Quintus Sertorius, at the head of another Iberian insurrection, would meet a similar fate.

Notes

The war with Viriathus was called "War of fire" by the Greek historian Polybius of Megalopolis .

References

• Ribeiro, Ângelo and Saraiva, José Hermano História de Portugal I - A Formação do Território QuidNovi, 2004 (ISBN 989-554-106-6).
• Loução, Paulo Alexandre: Portugal, Terra de Mistérios Ésquilo, 2000 (third edition; ISBN 972-8605-04-8).
• Muñoz, Mauricio Pasto: Viriato, A Luta pela Liberdade Ésquilo, 2003 (third edition; ISBN 972-8605-23-4).
• Freitas do Amaral, Diogo: Viriato ; Lisboa: Bertrand, 2004 (ISBN 972-25-1329-X)

See also

• Lusitania
• Lusitanians
• Lusitanian language
• Lusitanian War
• Timeline of Portuguese history
  • Pre-Roman Western Iberia (Before the 3rd Century BC)
  • Roman Lusitania and Gallaecia (3rd Century BC to 4th Century AC)
• Punicus, Caisaros, Indibil Cauceno, Curio, Apuleio, Connoba and Mandonius were other indigenous leaders.
• Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula