Cicero to Atticus, written at Naples on the fourth day before the Kalends of May, 55 BC — 28 April. Cicero is in the bay-of-Naples country: he has spent April between the Cumae villa and Naples (with L. Papirius Paetus), and is on his way back to Pompeii. The first half of the letter is the political pulse-take from Pompey himself, who has come over from his Cumae villa to Cicero’s. The pose is the second consulship: dissatisfaction with the assignment of Spain — which by the lex Trebonia of February is to be his five-year proconsular province — coupled with feigned scorn for Syria, which has fallen to Crassus.

Cicero’s marginal Greek tag [Greek: kai tode] — “and this too” — is a private code with Atticus: when quoting Pompey’s words, add “this too” as a kind of mental asterisk, since whatever the man says is what he says, not what he means. The political news shifts to Rome: the tribunes are reportedly delaying the census by declaring unfavourable days; Pompey wants to keep Marcus Valerius Messalla Rufus from standing for the consulship of 53. The second paragraph is family business: Atticus is taking care of Cicero the younger; Quintus will join them on the Nones of May; the dispatch is finished hurriedly at dawn before the next stage of the journey.