Cicero to Atticus, written from the Cuman villa on the third day before the Nones of May 49 BC — 5 May (the manuscript dateline: Scr.\ in Cumano iii Non.\ Mai.\ a.\ 705 (49)). The interview Cicero had been waiting for the day before has not happened. Antony has sent word through Trebatius that he has “specific orders” about Cicero by name and has not come to see him; the cordon is plainly tightening. The opening is a self-lacerating series of questions: he had thought he had it all arranged — Curio had written to Hortensius (commanding at sea) on his behalf, Reginus was wholly with him — and nothing has worked.

Section 2 is the new plan, stated in Greek for discretion: he must steal away ([Greek: parakleptéon]), creep aboard some merchantman in secret, and not let it look as if he has been stopped on prior arrangement. The destination is Sicily, with hopes pinned on what comes from Spain; the rumour that the Sicilians rushed to Cato and that Cato was holding a levy he half-discounts (Cato is a fine witness, but Cicero does not believe the story), though he is sure the province could have been held. Section 3 brings in C.~Claudius Marcellus, who is with him at Cumae and (Cicero is told by an intimate of Marcellus’s) shares the same view; he will be sterner with young Quintus, and asks Atticus to burn the sharper letters he has written about the boy — he will do the same with Atticus’s. Section 4 is a one-line postscript: Servius Sulpicius Rufus is expected, but he will bring nothing sound ([Greek: hugiés]).