Viriathus (also spelled Viriatus; known as Viriato in Portuguese and Spanish; died 139 BC) was the most important leader of the Lusitanian people that resisted Roman expansion into the regions of today known as Portugal, named Lusitania.
Viriathus developed alliances with other Celtic groups, even far away from his usual theatres of war, inducing them to rebel against Rome. He led his army, supported by most of the Lusitanian and Vetton tribes as well as by other Celtic and Iberian allies, to several victories over the Romans between 147 BC and 139 BC before being betrayed by them and murdered while sleeping. Theodor Mommsen said of him: "It seemed as if, in that thoroughly prosaic age, one of the Homeric heroes had reappeared."Theodor Mommsen, The History Of Rome, Book IV p.22.
Etymology There are several possible etymologies for the name Viriathus.Armando Silva, O nome de Viriato. 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;Douglas Hyde, The Glories of Ireland, Irish Language and Letters. from *uei-, as in the viriae or Celtiberian "twisted armbands" used by warriors (Pliny XXIII, 39);Celtic Elements in Northwestern Spain in Pre-Roman times. the Latin viri (pronounced "wee-ree", coming from the Indo-European root above) meaning man, hero, person of courage, honor, and nobility.
It is cognate to the Welsh name Gwriad and possibly to the Irish name Ferdiad.
The Celtic elite used the title uiros ueramos, meaning the 'highest man' and the Latin equivalent would be summus vir.The romanization of central Spain
According to the historian Schulten, Viriathus had a Celtic name.The greatness and decline of the Celts. Hubert, Henry
Viriathus's 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 Lusitanian 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 Lusitanian army, as the adsertor (protector) of Lusitania,Eutropii Breviarium Liber Quartus or as an imperator, probably of the confederated Lusitanian 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.War and Society in the Celtiberian World
According to Appian,Appian, The Spanish Wars, ed. Horace White Viriathus was one of the few who escaped when Galba, the Roman governor, massacred the flos iuventutis, the flower of the young Lusitanian warriors,Valeri Maximi, Factorum et Dictorum Memorabilium in 150 BC.
Two years after the massacre, in 148 BC, Viriathus became the leader of a Lusitanian army.
Viriathus was thought by some to have a very obscure origin,Cassius Dio, Roman History, Fragments of Books XXII through XXIX. although Diodorus Siculus also says that Viriathus "approved himself to be a prince" and that he said he was "lord and owner of all".Historical library of Diodorus the Sicilian. p. 543 to p. 620 His family was unknown to the Romans who were familiar with the native aristocratic warrior society. His personality and his physical and intellectual abilities as well as his skills as a warrior were described by several authors. He was a man of great physical strength, probably in the very prime of life, an excellent strategist,Britannica Online Encyclopedia. and possessor of a brilliant mind. Some authors claim that the ancient authors described Viriathus with the precise features of a Celtic king.
He was described as a man who followed the principles of honesty and fair dealing and was acknowledged for being exact and faithful to his word on the treaties and alliances he made. Livy gives him the title of vir duxque magnusTITI LIVI AB URBE CONDITA LIBER LIV PERIOCHA with the implied qualities that were nothing more than the ideals of the ancient virtues.The Rhetoric of Gender Terms: 'man', 'woman', and the Portrayal of Character in Latin Prose.
A more modern current claims Viriathus belonged to an aristocratic Lusitanian clan who were owners of cattle. For Cassius Dio, he did not pursue power or wealth, but carried on the war for the sake of military glory. His aims could then be compared to pure Roman aristocratic ideals of that time: to serve and gain military glory and honor.Eric Orlin, Temples, Religion, and Politics in the Roman Republic. Viriathus did not fight for war spoils or material gain, like common soldiers.The Dynamic Society: Exploring the Sources of Global Change.
The Lusitanians honored Viriathus as their Benefactor, (Greek: euergetes), and Savior (Greek: soter), typically Hellenistic honorifics used by kings like the Ptolemies.
Some authors assert that he was probably from the Herminius Mons (Serra da Estrela), in the heart of Lusitania, (in central Portugal) or the Beira Alta region.
Most of his life and his war against the Romans are part of legend and Viriathus is considered the earliest Portuguese national hero, given the fact that he was the leader of the confederate tribes of Iberia 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".
Viriathus of Silius Italicus
It has been argued that Silius Italicus, in his epic poem entitled Punica,Punica, Silius Italicus, Liber III and XPunica, German edition in Latin of 1791 mentions a former Viriathus who would have been a contemporary of Hannibal.España Sagrada He is referenced as primo Viriatus in aeuo, and was a leader of the Gallaeci and of the Lusitanians.
The historical Viriathus would be the one who received the title of regnator Hiberae magnanimus terrae, the "magnanimous ruler of the Iberian land".Lusitania: Historia y etnología
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 reinforcements from helping Hannibal in the Italian Peninsula. This began Roman involvement in 250 years of subsequent fighting throughout Iberia, resulting in its eventual conquest in 19 BC with the end of the Cantabrian Wars. The Lusitanian War is one of the most well documented episodes of the conquest.
Rome's dominion of Iberia met with much opposition. In 197 BC, Rome divided the southeastern coast of Iberia into two provinces, Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior, and two elected praetors were assigned to command the legions. As with many other tribes of Iberia, the inhabitants of the Lusitanian castros, or citanias, would have been granted peregrina stipendiariaScripta Nova. Revista Electrónica de Geografía y Ciencias Sociales.John Murray, A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London, 1875. but remaining an autonomous (Greek: αὐτονόμων) country through treaties (foedus).
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."Polybius, Histories.
The Romans charged the native tribes with heavy taxes: a fixed vectigal or land-tax, the tributum and a certain quantity of cereals.( 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 who were sold as slaves. The indigenous towns had to deliver their own treasures to the Romans, which left them only with their yearly earnings to pay the taxes. In 174 BC, when Publius Furius Philus 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.
Revolts The Lusitanians revolted first in 194 BC against the Romans. Iberia was divided between the tribes that supported Roman rule and the tribes that revolted against Roman rule, as they had been divided before by those who supported the Carthaginian and those who supported Romans.
This period was marked by a number of broken treaties either by the Roman generals, or their senate, that would not ratify the treaties, or by the native people.
In 152 BC the Lusitanians made a peace agreement with Marcus Atilius, after he conquered Oxthracae, Lusitania's biggest city. In Roman law, peregrini dediticii was the designation given to peoples who had surrendered themselves after taking up arms against the Romans. The terms offered were such that, as soon as Atilius returned to Rome, they rebelled and broke the treaty. Then they attacked the tribes that were Roman subjects and that had sided with the Romans in helping to attack and plunder the Lusitanian towns. Possibly the Lusitanians recovered some of the booty the Romans had divided with those tribes.
In 151 BC the Celtiberians who had become Roman allies, fearing the revenge of the rebels who considered them traitors, asked the Romans to punish the rebellious tribes who had broken out into war and that the legions should remain in Iberia to protect them.Polybius, Histories. The Celtiberian Wars, Book 35.
Massacre of the Lusitanians The praetor of Hispania Ulterior, Servius Sulpicius Galba commanded the Roman troops in Iberian Peninsula c.150 BC, and at the same time Lucius Licinius Lucullus was appointed Governor of the Hispania Citerior and commander of an army. In the year 151 BC, Lucullus "being greedy of fame and needing money", made a peace treaty with the Caucaei, of the Vaccaei tribe, after which he ordered his men to kill all the tribe's adult males, of which it is said only a few out of 30,000 escaped.
Servius Sulpicius Galba joined forces with Lucius Licinius Lucullus and together started to depopulate Lusitania. While Lucullus invaded the country from the east, Galba attacked it from the south. Unable to sustain a war on two fronts, the Lusitanian troops suffered several losses in engagements with the Romans. Fearing a long siege and the destruction the Roman siege engines would cause in their towns, the Lusitanians sent an embassy to Galba to negotiate a peace treaty, although for the Romans it would be perceived as the Deditio in dicionem, the surrender. The Lusitanians hoped they could at least renew the former treaty made with Atilius. Galba received the Lusitanian embassy politely, and a peace treaty was agreed on the terms proposed by him. He commanded them to leave their homes and remain in open country. The Lusitanians probably lost their city and possessions and their land would have become Ager Publicus. The conquest of a territory, unless it had been given special conditions, could imply the acquisition, by the Romans, of the conquered territory and all that it contained.His+ania Epigraphica. Tratado de rendición (deditio) de un pueblo lusitano a L. Caelius, Imp.