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BANDITS IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE
island.’ 85 Typically, the leaders of the Cretan resistance against the Roman
invasion were, like Viriatus, not denigrated as common bandits, but treated
with restraint and respect. 86
Against the virtues of Viriatus must now be set the vices of the Roman
commanders, some of which were held up for show, others only delicately
implied. By far the worst case is that of Servius Sulpicius Galba. As we have
already seen, his reputation had already been tarnished by the atrocities that
had been inflicted in the name of Rome on refugee Lusitanians under his
authority as praetor of Hispania Citerior. In addition, Galba also proved himself
an unworthy magistrate of Rome through his greed; and he generally –
according to the judgement that Appian took from his sources – behaved
‘like a barbarian’. 87 Although Galba was very wealthy, he is supposed to
have been even more grasping than his colleague, L. Licinius Lucullus,
proconsul of Hispania Citerior, giving his colleagues only a little of the
booty which he acquired during his campaigning, his men even less, and
keeping all the rest for himself. 88 Galba’s greed stands, of course, in sharp
contrast to Viriatus’ temperance and fair-dealing which, to judge from
the reference from Cicero, were famed for generations. As Appian’s use of
the term ‘barbarian’ shows, positive and negative were simply reversed: the
barbarian, Viriatus, embodied precisely those qualities that should have
belonged to the Roman, Galba, but which he plainly did not possess.
Appian’s verdict (and that of his sources) on the first two Roman generals
who tried to suppress Viriatus was different, but no less damning. The first,
C. Vetilius, praetor of Hispania Ulterior in 147 bc, quickly walked into his
challenger’s trap. He was then taken prisoner by some Lusitanian warrior.
This nameless hero, clearly unaware that no less a person than the Roman
commander had fallen into his hands, decided that Vetilius, old and fat as he
was, was a worthless captive, and so slew him. 89 C. Plautius, Vetilius’ successor,
at least escaped with his life. He was shaken so much by two bitter
defeats that, demoralised, he ordered his troops into winter quarters while it
was still the height of summer. 90 That neither Vetilius nor Plautius managed
to do anything that approached Galba’s double dealing qualified them
for no more lenient historical judgement: both are portrayed as no better
than incompetent idiots.
The third Roman military commander to go against Viriatus was more
successful. During his second campaigning year (144 bc), he at least managed
to put Viriatus to flight. 91 This was Q. Fabius Maximus Aemilianus,
and Viriatus must have realised that in him, the brother of Scipio Aemilianus,
he faced a very different class of foe. 92 But, luckily for Viriatus, with
Q. Pompeius, the fourth Roman commander of the war, things moved back
to normal. Q. Pompeius is notorious for refusing to answer a legitimate call
for help from the Bastitani, who were allied to Rome and who were being
pressed by Viriatus’ forces. Historians pitilessly ascribed this blunder to lack
of military experience coupled with cowardice, as they did the miscalculation
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