Cicero to Atticus, written at Cumae at the end of April — the manifest assigns 1 May (the Kalends), the Perseus dateline “a. d. v. K. Mai.” (27 April). Cicero is still in the bay, reading literature with the philosopher Dionysius and waiting for political news from Rome. Pompey has reported that Crassus is expected at the Alban villa on 28 April, that the two consuls will then come together to Rome to clear the publican accounts; and the question Cicero puts is whether all this will happen in time for “the gladiators” — almost certainly the games for the dedication of Pompey’s theatre and the temple of Venus Victrix later that year.

The second paragraph is the Atticus joke at the heart of the letter: of news, the Greek tag [Greek: ouden] — nothing — so write to me as to a curious man what the first day, what the second, what the censors are doing, what Appius (Appius Claudius Pulcher, censor of 50 BC), what your Appulean lady the people — a mock-formal title, the Pulcra plebs of the Appian gens. The Demetrius of Magnesia at the close is the standard handy literate slave whom Cicero is sending Atticus’s way precisely so that there will always be a courier on hand to bring back a return letter. Lucceius, the historian, is to receive the copy of Cicero’s book that Atticus has been holding (cf. Att. 4.6, the long letter on what Cicero wants Lucceius to write of his consulship).