VIRI'ATHUS. A Lusitanian patriot, lived in the second century B.C. Originally a shepherd, lie afterwards became a guerrilla chief, and appears to have supported himself by pred atory excursions into the neighboring Spanish territory. This mode of life brought hint into collision with Rome, and in the year B.C. the propra•tor„ Servius Galba, was ordered to in vade the country and reduce the Lusitanians to subjection. At first Viriathus kept mainly to the mountains, and contented himself with ha r ai:sing the enemy by sudden and fierce descents, but in 147 he gave battle to Vetilius, the Roman props tor, near Tribola, south of the Tagus, and inflicted on him a severe defeat. In the course of the next two years he repeatedly eame,off vic torious, but in 144 the consul, Q. Fabius anus, encountered him in Andalusia with a large army and Viriathus was driven back into his native fastnesses. The proprietor, Q. Pompeius, was then sent against Viriathus, but the Roman force was crushed at the 'hill of Venus,' and forced to take refuge at Cordoba, while the conqueror wasted all the country round the Guadalquivir.
In 142 the Romans were more fortunate. Q. Fabius Servilianus, the consul, conducted the war, and succeeded in driving Viriathus once more out of Spain and in annihilating several guerrilla bands; but in 141 the whole of his army was surrounded in a mountain pass and forced to surrender. Viriathus released his cap tives on condition that Servilianus would allow the Lusitanians to retain their independence. In 140 the consul, Q. Servilins Czepio (brother of Servilianus), having received the command in Farther Spain, resumed the war against Viri athus, and bribed some Lusitanian envoys to murder their master, which they did while he lay sleeping in his tent. His death was prac tically the end of Lusitanian independence.