Cicero to Atticus, written from Astura on the eleventh day before the Kalends of April 709 AUC — 22 March 45 BC (the manuscript dateline: Scr.\ Asturae xi K.\ Apr.\ a.\ 709 (45)). A brief note in the daily Astura sequence after Tullia’s death. Sicca is acting as Cicero’s intermediary in the negotiation for A.~Silius’ suburban estate — one of several horti being considered as the site for the shrine to Tullia — and is expected back on 23 March whether the deal is settled or not. Cicero excuses Atticus’ silence: his Roman engagements are “familiar,” and the wish to be together needs no proof.

The second section turns to Nicias, the Greek grammarian whose visit Atticus had proposed. Cicero refuses gently: in his present state he could not enjoy “cultivated company”; solitude is his provincia now. Nicias’ imbecillitas, mollitia, consuetudo victus — frailty, softness, a fastidious table — would only make him a burden. The closing sentence is the most loaded: “There is one thing you wrote to me about, on which I have resolved to send you no reply. For I hope I have prevailed on you to spare me that vexation.” The vexation is almost certainly the question of remarriage to Publilia or some related domestic pressure that Atticus has been raising; the elliptical refusal is characteristic of the Astura register.