Cicero to Atticus, written from the Cuman villa on the fourth day before the Ides of May 49 BC — 12 May (the manuscript dateline: Scr.\ in Cumano iv Id.\ Mai.\ a.\ 705 (49)). Two of Atticus’s letters arrived on the same day, one with Cephalio and one with Funisulanus, both bringing better news about the eight cohorts and about the wavering of the local Caesarian forces. Cicero gives a fully favourable answer to Funisulanus’s business — the man owes him a large debt, is not held to be solvent, and now claims he will pay, though he is delaying the third party to whom he had charged the obligation; the text here is corrupt (daggers preserved). Eros, the agent of Philotimus, will tell Atticus the sum. The closing line of the section is the pivot: sed ad maiora redeamus — “let us return to greater matters.”

The greater matter is the secret plan in Caelius’s letter (10.9.2), now ripening. Cicero is tormented whether to wait for a fair wind; what is needed is a standard, and men will come flying to it. He agrees with Atticus that he should go openly, and intends to set out. Servius’s counsel (10.14) has yielded nothing: every proposition meets some snare; the only man Cicero has known more timid is Gaius Marcellus, who, in a striking turn, “regrets having been consul” — prompting an exasperated Greek aside, [Greek: \=o poll\=es agenneias] (“oh, the depths of ignobility!”). Antony has set out for Capua but sent word that embarrassment kept him from calling in person. Sections 4 and 5 turn to domestic and financial chatter: news of Atticus’s sister and of young Quintus; Quintus the elder’s troubles over a loan transfer with Lucius Egnatius; the brazen Axius and the twelve-thousand business with Gallius; relief that Atticus and Pilia are both free of the quartan. Cicero is dashing over to his Pompeian villa while the ship is being provisioned; he asks Atticus to thank Vettienus and to send one more letter, if any courier can be found, before he sails.