Here he was, the man so feared by the Romans that they would no longer dare face him in battle and the man who had done what even Hannibal had never succeeded in doing, this was the man who had beaten Rome. In his 8 years as general of the Lusitani this man, Viriatus, had defeated the Romans time and again and had driven even many of the Gauls to rebellion. 6 Roman armies had fallen to him and the mighty Rome had been compelled to accept Lusitani domination of their conquered territories.
Now they were resorting to treachery and murder to destroy he whom they had failed to destroy in battle. So it was that on that fateful night in the Summer of 139 BCE that 3 men, Audax, Ditalcus and Minurus, crept into Viriatus' tent with the intention of killing this great general. In the darkness and stifling heat, these three men fanned out around the bed and the slumbering body of Viriatus. With sweat running down their heads and palms these three men gave one another glances before raising their daggers for the final, killing blow against the general. With this blow they expected to be paid riches beyond their imaginings from Rome and with this blow they expected to destroy one of her greatest enemies once and for all.
The daggers rose as the men took a deep breath, bracing themselves to finally commit the terrible deed. A sliver of moonlight shone in through the flap in the tent and illuminated the three daggers which now hung above the Iberian's body. But at that moment there was a shout and the three men froze in panic as a number of Iberian soldiers pushed through the flaps into the tent to save their general. The first man, Audax and the man originally hired by the Romans fell to the ground in surrender to the Iberians. Ditalcus, however, was a royal guard and made an attempt to continue with the assassination attempt only to be struck down before his dagger could fall. Viriatus, now awake, could perfectly see the third assassin and rolled to the side to avoid the third dagger which pierced the bed just in time for Viriatus to avoid the strike.
The Iberian reached for his sword to defend himself as the third assassin, determined to finish the job, leapt over the bad in an attempt to land a killing blow. The knife connected with Viriatus but left only a small, non-crippling wound to the general shortly before Minurus was, in turn, dispatched by the Iberian guards. These events, which took place in the course of only a few minutes, would have vital importance in the future of Iberia and Rome as a whole. As Audax, the last remaining assassin, was dragged off into the night as a prisoner, few could have foreseen what these events would bring.