Note 138 — LIFE OF CICERO.
George Long translation
The Helvia Gens was plebeian. It becomes historical from the time of the second Punic war, and became ennobled (nobilis) by M. Helvius being elected prætor B.C. 197, the first year in which six prætors were elected (Liv. 32. c. 27). It is said that Cicero never mentions his mother in his writings, but an anecdote of her careful housekeeping is recorded by her son Quintus (Cic. Ad Diversos, xvi. 26).
The allusion is to the Volscian with whom Coriolanus took refuge when he left Rome (Plutarch, Life of Coriolanus, c. 22; Livy, 2, c. 35).