Viriathus

Viriathus

Viriatus (known as Viriato in Portuguese and Spanish) (died 138 BC) was the most important leader of the Lusitanian people that resisted Roman expansion into the regions of Western Hispania (as the Romans would call it), where the Roman province of Lusitania would be established (in the areas comprising most of Portugal, Extremadura and south of the Douro river in Spain). Viriatus 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."