Cicero to Atticus, written from the Cuman villa on the fifth day before the Nones of May 49 BC — 3 May (the manuscript dateline: Scr.\ in Cumano v Non.\ Mai.\ a.\ 705 (49)). Philotimus, Cicero’s freedman agent (and Terentia’s), has just come in from Rome with a load of rumour that everyone in the household has swallowed and that Cicero — by his own report — has already discounted: Caesar checked in his pursuit (in fact he is reported to be flying after Pompey); Petreius linked up with Afranius in Spain (no such word); Pompey on the march for Germany through Illyricum (this last piece supposedly [Greek: authentik\=os], on first authority). The provisional plan crystallises in the same breath: Malta, until Spain declares one way or the other — a plan Cicero notes is almost what Caesar’s own letter advises, which urged him simply to stay clear of the strife.

Section 2 is the household pressure that the plan has to be set against: tears from his people, a piteous letter from Marcus Caelius Rufus from Rome begging him to wait on Spain — not to throw away his fortunes, his only son, his whole house so rashly. The boys (his own son and his nephew Quintus) read it in tears; the son, characteristically, harder of grain and so all the more affecting, cares only about his father’s standing. The repetition holds: to Malta, then, and afterwards wherever seems best. Section 3 closes with operational housekeeping: keep the news coming, especially anything out of Afranius; he will write back after his coming interview with Mark Antony, but will be cautious about what he believes, since concealment is both difficult and dangerous; Servius Sulpicius Rufus is expected by the Nones at the urging of his wife Postumia and his son; he is glad Atticus’s quartan fever has eased; a copy of Caelius’s letter is enclosed.