Viriathus - The "War of Fire"

The "War of Fire"

The war with Viriatus was called "War of Fire" by the Greek historian Polybius of Megalopolis. Two types of war were carried on by Viriatus, bellum, when he used a regular army, and latrocinium, when the fighting involved small groups of combatants and the use of guerrilla tactics. For many authors Viriatus is seen as the model of the guerrilla fighter.

Nothing is known about Viriatus until his first feat of war in 149 BC. He was with an army of ten thousand men that invaded southern Turdetania.

Rome sent the praetor Caius Vetilius to fight the rebellion. He attacked a group of Lusitanian warriors who were out foraging, and after killing several of them, the survivors took refuge in a place that was surrounded by the Roman army. They were about to make a new agreement with the Romans when Viriatus, mistrusting the Romans, proposed an escape plan. The Lusitanians inflamed by his speech made him their new commander. His first act was to rescue the currently trapped resisting Lusitanians whom he took over command of. First by lining up for battle with the Romans, then scattering the army as they charged. As each way broke apart and fled in different directions to meet up at a later location, Viriatus with 1,000 chosen men held the army of 10,000 Romans 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 soldiers immediately fortified the loyalty of the people around Viriatus.

Viriatus 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 were destroyed. After that incident, the Lusitanians clashed with the armies of Gaius Plautius, Claudius Unimanus and Gaius Negidius, all of whom were defeated. During this period Viriatus inspired and convinced the Numantine and some Gauls to rebel 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 Gaius Laelius Sapiens who was a personal friend of Scipio Aemilianus Africanus. The Romans lost most of these reinforcements in Ossuma. When Quintus 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 Viriatus's effects as well as that of the Numantine War 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. Viriatus 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.