There are many heroic moments, passages and characters during the two centuries that the indigenous resistance against the Roman invasion of Iberia lasted. Within that epic that began with the Celtiberian and Lusitanian wars, regarding the entry of Rome into the peninsula in front of the bellicose Carthage of Hannibal during the Second Punic War —The Romans of Publius Cornelius Scipio subdue the hard and iron Carthaginians in the 202 BC in the Battle of Zama. It is then when the Roman Republic begins its expansion in the ancient Iberia of the Greeks ... -, it is worth highlighting as examples of resistance the figure of the dux lusitanorum Viriato, the city of Numancia, and as the last resistant blow of the barbarian Hispania the confrontations between the Roman legions and the different Cantabrian and Asturian peoples, the so-called Cantabrian Wars.
The Celtiberians ready to revolt, despite some alliances, and the Lusitanians organized in guerrillas, knowledgeable about the forests and the mountains, were not going to back down a hand, they were going to fight to its last consequences. Between pacts, bribes, negotiations and finally betrayals that end in massacre stands its charismatic leader, a former shepherd boy, born in the Sierra de la Estrella, named Viriato. Many warriors will accompany him in his fight throughout the later Roman period, much blood spilled, Roman military leaders defeated and humiliated, among so many battles, the great victory of Tríbola, in the Serranía de Ronda, of the Lusitanian hordes in front of the consul Vetilio . The invincible Viriato who establishes his power in the Celtiberian capital of Segóbriga is a threat that must be demolished and liquidated. The consul Flavio Máximo Emiliano manages to defeat him, although the Celtiberians break their alliance with Rome and make a pact with Viriato, considered at that time the terror of the Romans, to try to definitively expel the Roman legions. Years of resistance until the desired peace, which will go through a new betrayal. The consul Cepión offers the three Viriato diplomats honors, perks and peace in exchange for the head of their leader. This is how they will kill him while he slept in 139 BC. The Celitiberian wars were also coming to an end. The last stronghold of heroic resistance would be Numantia, which fell in 133 BC. The Cantabrians and Asturians held out until 19 BC. The dream of Iberia passed away, the Roman Hispana would then be born, but that is another story ...