Viriathus

Viriathus (known as Viriato in Portuguese and Spanish) (? - 139 BC) was the most important leader of the Lusitanian people that resisted Roman expansion into the regions of Western Iberia (as the Romans would call it), 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. Of him, Theodor Mommsen said "It seemed as if, in that thoroughly prosaic age, one of the Homeric heroes had reappeared."…more