Arveh, and welcome to Emperors of Rome, a Roman history podcast from La Trobe University.

I'm your host Matt Smith and with me today is Christopher Gribbon, adjunct lecturer in Classics and ancient history at La Trobe University.

This is episode C-C-X-LXLIX, Viriathus.

Viriathus was a Lestanian leader who rose from humble beginnings to become one of Rome's most formidable enemies.

A skilled tactician and master of guerrilla warfare,

he led his people in resistance against the Roman expansion

in Hispania during the 2nd century BCE. celebrated for his honour and leadership, even by the

Romans who fought him, Viriathus's story is one of resilience, betrayal and the enduring struggle

for freedom against the empire. Here's Christopher Griven.

Viriathus was a leader of a native tribe called the Lusitani,

and he was their leader between 147 and 139 BC.

The Lusitani were people that were located in what is today,

central Portugal and sort of central western

Spain, so that part of the Iberian Peninsula.

Okay, and in context at the time, what are we talking about?

A collection of tribes, was it its own little empire?

So the Iberian Peninsula has a really complex history in the first millennium BC.

It's settled by Phoenicians along the coastal areas, along the south and the east.

It's settled by Greeks up in what is the northeast of Spain today.

There are a large number of independent tribes within the central part of Spain and Portugal throughout that period.

The Carcinians really start to expand into that territory in the third century BC.

So after the first Punic War, the Carthaginians lose Sicily and lose Sardinia and decide to make up for it by

...