Cicero to T. Pomponius Atticus, written from Tarentum on 22 May 51 BC — Perseus dateline Scr. Tarenti xi K. Iun. a. 705 (49), where the parenthetical BC year is again a misprint: this is the same Cilician journey as Att. 5.1, and the internal date “a. d. xi Kal. Iunias” falls in the consulship of Sulpicius and Marcellus (51 BC). Cicero has stopped at Tarentum to see Pompey, who is wintering there, on his way down to embark for the East at Brundisium.

The note is hurried and short: Pompey has agreed to nominate five new prefects per year on the basis of their exemption from jury service — a piece of business Atticus asked Cicero to put before him — and Pompey himself, three days under the same roof, has struck Cicero as the indispensable bulwark against the troubles already on the horizon. “The dangers we now fear” are the looming collision with Caesar, two years and some months out. Cicero is writing shorter letters because he suspects Atticus has already left Rome for his property in Epirus and the post will overtake them.