In the Classic Ancient world, this kind of warfare was indirectly mentioned by the Greeks in Homeric stories, but usually as hit and run acts of foraging for booty in enemy territory, pretty much as later Vikings piracy. Although Caratacus was ultimately captured by the Romans, Tacitus writes that they respected him.

Later Caratacus, the war chief of the British Catuvellauni, employed guerrilla warfare mixed in with occasional set-piece battles for eight years. Another example of an enemy using guerrilla was Tacfarinas, chief of Numidian rebels, who forced Rome into allying with neighboring natives in order to finally defeat him. The Arverni Gaul Vercingetorix also favored mobile warfare and cutting of supply lines in his revolt against Rome in 52 BC, and Arminius from the Germanic Cherusci capitalized on the terrain and the Roman formations to win the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. He would die by treason without being ever decisively bested on the battlefield. Their first great exponent would be the Lusitanian chieftain Viriathus, whose knowledge of guerrilla tactics earned him eight years of victories over the Roman armies. Guerrilla warfare was also a common strategy of the various Celtic, Germanic and African tribes that the Romans faced through their history. Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus, widely regarded as the 'father of guerrilla warfare' of his time, devised the Fabian strategy which was used to great effect against Hannibal's army. Guerrilla warfare was not unique to China nomadic and migratory tribes such as the Scythians, Goths, Vandals, and Huns used elements of guerrilla warfare to fight the Persian Empire, the Roman Empire, and Alexander the Great. The earliest description of guerrilla warfare is an alleged battle between Emperor Huang and the Myan people (Miao) in China. General and strategist Sun Tzu, in his The Art of War (6th century BC), was one of the first proponents of the use of guerrilla warfare. 5.1 Irish War of Independence and Civil War.

Guerrilla warfare definition for kids