Unable to sustain a war on two fronts, the Lusitanian troops suffered several losses in engagements with the Romans. Fearing a long siege and the destruction the Roman siege engines would cause in their towns, the Lusitanians sent an embassy to Galba to negotiate a peace treaty, although for the Romans it would be perceived as the "Deditio in dicionem", the surrender. The Lusitanians hoped they could at least renew the former treaty made with Atilius. Galba received the Lusitanian embassy politely, and a peace treaty was agreed on the terms proposed by him. He commanded them to leave their homes and remain in open country. The Lusitanians probably lost their city and possessions and their land would have become "Ager Publicus". The conquest of a territory, unless it had been given special conditions, could imply the acquisition, by the Romans, of the conquered territory and all that it contained. The treaty turned out to be a trap, like the one Lucullus had prepared for the "Caucaei". When the unarmed Lusitanians, among them Viriathus, were gathered together by Galba to hand over their weapons and to be split into three groups (two of the points of the treaty that had been negotiated) and allocated to new lands, the trap was sprung. With the promise that they would be given new lands they waited unaware while Galba's army surrounded them with a ditch, to prevent them from escaping. Afterwards, Roman soldiers were sent in and began to massacre all the males of military age. The survivors are said to have been sold into slavery in Gaul. The relocation of an entire tribe, accompanied by slaughter or their reduction to the status of slaves was a punishment often inflicted on native populations who took part in revolts. Galba distributed a little of the plunder to the army and a little to his friends, the native tribes that sided with him, and kept the rest. This incited a massive rebellion, with the entire Lusitanian tribe mustering as they waged war for three years against Rome, but met with many failures. Three years after the massacre, the rebellion was on the verge of defeat when Viriathus appeared and offered himself as leader. Through his understanding of Roman military methods he saved the rebel Lusitanians by a simple though clever escape plan. Viriathus became the leader of the Lusitanians and caused much grief to the Romans in revenge for the massacre of his people.