s was going home from Farther
Spain, with an escort of six thousand men, given him by the praetor,
Appius Claudius, the Celtiberians, with a very numerous force, met
him near the city of Illiturgi. Valerius says, that they had twenty
thousand effective men; that twelve thousand of them were killed, the
town of Illiturgi taken, and all the adult males put to the sword.
Helvius, soon after, arrived at the camp of Cato; and as the region
was now free from enemies, he sent back the escort to Farther Spain,
and proceeded to Rome, where, on account of his successful services,
he entered the city with an ovation. He carried into the treasury, of
silver bullion, fourteen thousand pounds' weight; of coined, seventeen
thousand and twenty-three denarii;[1] and Oscan[2] denarii, one
hundred and twenty thousand four hundred and thirty-eight.[3] The
reason for which the senate refused him a triumph was, because he
fought under the auspices, and in the province, of another. He had
returned, moreover, two years after the expiration of his office,
because after he had resigned the government of the province to
Quintus Minucius, he was detained there during the succeeding year,
by a severe and tedious sickness he therefore entered the city in
ovation, only two months before his successor, Quintus Minucius,
enjoyed a triumph. The latter also brought into the treasury
thirty-four thousand eight hundred pounds' weight of silver,
seventy-eight thousand denarii,[4] and of Oscan denarii two hundred
and seventy-eight thousand.[5]

[Footnote 1: 549l. 14s.]

[Footnote 2: Osca, now Huesca, was a city in Spain, remarkable for
silver mine near it.]

[Footnote 3: 659l. 11s. 9-1/2d.]

[Footnote 4: 2430l. 11s. 3d.]

[Footnote 5: 8889l. 6s. 9d.]

11. Meanwhile, in Spain, the consul lay encamped at a small distance
from Emporiae. Thither came three ambassadors from Bilistages,
chieftain of the Ilergetians, one of whom was his son, representing,
that "their fortresses were besieged and that they had no hopes
of being able to hold out, unless the Roman troops came to their
assistance. Three thousand men," they said, "would be sufficient;" and
they added, that, "if such a force came to their aid, the enemy would
not keep their ground." To this the consul answered, that "he was
truly concerned for their danger and their fears; but that he had by
no means so great an amount of forces, as that, while there lay in his
neighbourhood such a powerful forc