A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

1. M.HelviusBlasio, plebeian aedile in B. C. 198 and praetor in 197. He obtained the province of further Spain, which he found in a very disturbed state upon his arrival. After handing over the province to his successor, he was detained ill the country a year longer by a severe and tedious illness. On his return home through nearer Spain with a guard of 6000 soldiers, which the praetor Ap. Claudius had given him, he was attacked by an army of 20,000 Celtiberi, near the town of Illiturgi. These he entirely defeated, slew 12,000 of the enemy, and took Illiturgi. This at least was the statement of Valerius Antias. For this victory he obtained an ovation (B. C. 195), but not a triumph, because he had fought under the auspices and in the province of another. In the following year (194) he was one of the three commissioners for founding a Roman colony at Sipontum in Apulia. (Liv. 32.27, 28, 33.21, 34.1.0, 45.)