
Originally Posted by
Sarcasm
By the end of the war, we actually hear of Viriato telling his allies to fend for themselves, 'cause he's way over his head at that point.
We first hear of the Lusitani as part of Hannibal's army, serving as mercenaries in Italy, having departed with him from Iberia in 218 B.C. Then we hear of them around 194 B.C when Nasica supposedly conquered 50 cities that had sided with them and killed 12.000 Lusitanians in battle in Turdetania (an exaggeration for sure, but we get an idea of the scale of warfare involved here. In 190 B.C they're in Bastetania, defeating a Roman Praetorian army, killing 6000 Romans in the process - they're later defeated by a joint Turdetanian and Roman army in Northern Turdetania. In 188 BC, they're attacking the area again, having even taken Hasta to their side, leading to a famous siege. The next 7 years we hear of minor battles over Lusitanians, Vettones and Celtiberians. In 163 B.C we again hear of Consular armies repelling the Lusitani from the province. In 156, war erupts again and a Lusitani incursion defeats another Praetorian army, with another 6000 Roman casualties. In 153, 30.000 Romans are defeated with the loss of over 9000 men (this is the victory, were the Lusitani flaunt captured standards from the Romans and incite the Celtiberians to war ending in the defeat of Nobilior, once more...you'll notice that Viriato is still nowhere to be found). At the same time, other Lusitani armies are operating in the land of the Conni, taking their capital, and crossing over into Africa, laying siege to Ocilis but are heavily defeated in the process. It is in this time when a Roman incursion takes control of Oxtrakae.
Nobilior lost 10.000 in his campaign, the most famous Celtiberian victory, and I'm up to 21.000 confirmed casualties (not counting the times where numbers aren't included) against the Lusitani, and I'm still not into the time of Viriato. But who's counting? You are apparently, and as for me, I view these numbers as somewhat irrelevant.
Next comes the infamous Galba, in 151. You know the story, the Lusitani are able to inflict a major defeat on them (some 7000 casualties) and he instead resorts to treason to defeat them - 9000 Lusitani die and 20.000 become slaves. It is only at this point, 67 years after we first hear of them, fighting against the Romans, that Viriato comes into play. The rest as they say is history...more Roman casualties, long wars, massacres and eventually, Lusitanian defeat under Viriato's successor. Or is it? They're back at it when 'ol Julius is Praetor of the province, and are part of Sertorius armies.
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