Brutus would have been unable to pursue the gangs over an area which ranged from the Rivers Lethe (Limia) and Durius to the River Baetis (Guadalquivir). This was a vast area which extended from Gallaecia, in modern-day north-western Spain and northern Portugal, to the edge of the Roman province of Hispania Ulterior. Therefore, Brutus attacked their towns for revenge, to destroy their homes and for plunder for his army, obliterating everything in his path. Women fought valiantly with their men. Some people fled to the mountains and, when they asked for pardon, Brutus took their belongings as a fine. In 137 BC Brutus crossed the River Durius and therefore crossed into Gallaecia. Brutus also reached the River Lethe, which flows from a source in Galicia close to today's border with Portugal and has its outlet on the coast of northern Portugal. Appian wrote that he was the first Roman who thought of crossing it. Lethe was also the name of a mythical river in the underworld, and so the superstitious Roman soldiers refused to cross it until Brutus crossed it himself. Brutus also crossed the Nimis (a river which has not been identified, but was probably the Minho in Galicia, the last tract of which forms part of today's northern border of Portugal. He launched an assault against the Bracari, a tribe of southern Gallaecia centred on modern-day Braga, Portugal, because they attacked his baggage train. The fighting women killed themselves and their children when they were captured. A number of towns submitted but then rebelled. One of them was Talabriga. Brutus ordered the inhabitants to hand over the deserters, the prisoners, hostages and their weapons and to leave the town. They disobeyed and he had them surrounded by soldiers to scare them and then took their horses, provisions and public money, but gave them back the town. When he completed his campaign Brutus then returned to Rome.