Cicero to Atticus, written from Lanuvium on the seventeenth day before the Kalends of June 709 AUC — 16 May 45 BC (the manuscript dateline: Scr.\ Lanuvi xvii K.\ Iun.\ a.\ 709 (45)). Cicero has broken the journey from Astura at his Lanuvine villa; the letter is all business and all about the shrine fund. Two prospective sellers are in play: Mustela’s parcel (large), and the gardens of Clodia. The Faberian bond — a debt instrument from Faberius that Cicero hopes to convert into the purchase price — has to be cleared either way, so Atticus is asked to sound out Balbus on Caesar’s side.

The closing flicker of self-mockery — etsi de cupiditate nemini concedam, “in covetousness I shall yield to no one” — is the first hint of humour in the sequence, set against the businesslike inventory of obstacles: covetous seller, wealthy seller, heir of a complicated estate. More face to face when Atticus next visits: the meeting arranged at the close of ad Att. 12.46 is nearly upon them.