Cicero to Atticus, written from the Formian villa on the Kalends of March 49 BC (the manuscript dateline: Scr.\ in Formiano K.\ Mart.\ a.\ 705 (49)). Same day as the long meditation on the moderator rei publicae, but in a different register: a brief note in the secretary’s hand, because the eye-inflammation is still bothering him, with almost nothing to say beyond what one paragraph can hold.

Section 1 turns on the Brundisium question: if Pompey has caught Caesar at the harbour, doubtful hope of peace; if Caesar has crossed first, the fear of a deadly war. The picture of Caesar that follows — shrewd, vigilant, prepared — is the same one given in 8.9: a teras of efficiency, more difficult to oppose for being so capable. Section 2 takes in the local view: the country-town men and the country people who come to Cicero’s villa care for nothing but their fields, their little farmhouses, their little funds, and the man they used to trust they now fear, the man they used to fear they now love. That this is the work of “our own great faults and vices” Cicero cannot dwell on without distress.