Viriathus

Viriathus led the Lusitanians, a people of what is now Portugal and western Spain, against Rome from about 147 to 139 BC. In 150 BC the Roman governor Servius Sulpicius Galba had massacred thousands of Lusitanians who laid down their arms on a promise of land. Viriathus was among the few who escaped. According to the summary of Livy, he went from shepherd to hunter to raider, and then to commander of a true army.

Appian describes his first command: he saved a trapped Lusitanian force by holding off the Romans with a mounted rear guard while the rest scattered, then rejoined them at an agreed place. His was a war of movement, ambush and retreat into the hills. He beat a series of Roman commanders, and in 140 BC he trapped an army under Quintus Fabius Maximus Servilianus and forced a peace that named him a friend of the Roman people. Rome soon broke it. In 139 BC three of his own envoys, bribed by the Roman commander Quintus Servilius Caepio, killed him in his sleep. Rome is said to have refused them their reward.