orders to the third part of the soldiers of every cohort, to make haste and prepare victuals, which they were to carry with them on board ships, and that the vessels should be got in readiness against the third day.  He desired two of the ambassadors to carry an account of these proceedings to Bilistages and the Ilergetians; but, by kind treatment and presents, he prevailed on the chieftain’s son to remain with him.  The ambassadors did not leave the place until they saw the troops embarked on board the ships; then reporting this at home as a matter of certainty, they spread, not only among their own people, but likewise among the enemy, a confident assurance of the approach of Roman succours.

13.  The consul, when a specious appearance had been sufficiently exhibited, ordered the soldiers to be recalled from the ships; and, as the season of the year now approached when it would be proper to enter on action, he pitched a winter camp at the distance of three miles from Emporiae.  From this post he frequently led out his troops to ravage the enemy’s country; sometimes to one quarter, sometimes to another, as opportunity offered, leaving only a small guard in the camp.  They generally began their march in the night, that they might proceed as far as possible from the camp, and surprise the enemy unawares; and this practice disciplined the new-raised soldiers, and great numbers of the enemy were cut off; so that they no longer dared to venture beyond the walls of their forts.  When he had made himself thoroughly acquainted with the temper of the enemy, and of his own men, he ordered the tribunes and the praefects, with all the horsemen and centurions, to be called together, and addressed them thus:  “The time is arrived, which you have often wished for, when you might have an opportunity of displaying your valour.  Hitherto you have waged war rather as marauders than as regular troops; you shall now meet your enemies hand to hand, in regular fight.  Henceforward you will have it in your power, instead of pillaging country places, to exhaust the treasures of cities.  Our fathers, at a time when the Carthaginians had in Spain both commanders and armies, and had themselves neither commander nor soldiers there, nevertheless insisted on its being an article of treaty, that the river Iberus should be the boundary of their empire.  Now, when two praetors of the Romans, when a consul, and three armies are employed in Spain, and, for near ten years past, no Carthaginian has been in either of its provinces, yet we have lost that empire on the hither side of the Iberus.  This it is your duty to recover by your valour and arms; and to compel this nation, which is in a state rather of giddy insurrection than of steady warfare, to receive again the yoke which it has shaken off.”  After thus generally exhorting them, he gave notice, that he intended to march by night to the enemy’s camp; and then dismissed them to take refreshment.