Viriathus

Common card · No. 278348

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."

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