 He stayed there for three days to gather intelligence and to start drilling his troops He sent the redemptores (Roman merchants who followed the army) back to Rome, saying that 'war feeds itself' and on leaving Emporiae he pillaged the enemy's fields at a time when the grain was ready for threshing and spread "terror and flight in all directions".Meanwhile, Marcus Helvius, the praetor of Hispania Ulterior for 198 BC, was on his way from that province to Cato's camp with an escort of 6,000 men sent by Appius Claudius Nero (the praetor of that province for that year, 195 BC).He had remained in Hispania after handing over his praetorship of that province to Quintus Minucius Thermus in 196 BC because of a 'long and dangerous illness'.