Cicero to Atticus, written from the Tusculanum on the fifth day before the Ides of June 709 AUC — 9 June 45 BC (the manuscript dateline: Scr.\ in Tusculano v Id.\ Iun.\ a.\ 709 (45)). A single section of news: Sestius and Theopompus have brought word that Caesar means to stay in Rome rather than leave on campaign, fearing that his legislation will be neglected in his absence the way the sumptuary law already has been; and that Lentulus Spinther has at last formally divorced Metella. The Greek tag [Greek: eulogon] (“reasonable”) marks Cicero’s terse agreement with the analysis — the policy fear is sound, even if the conclusion flatters those one would rather not flatter.

The closing complaint is purely epistolary: Cicero cannot imagine what news Atticus could still have to send, “unless perhaps about Mustela, or if you should see Silius” — both names that recur in the spring’s quiet hunt for a suburban property to house the projected shrine for Tullia. The Tusculanum arc of mid-June is in full swing: philosophical discipline by day, business letters by evening, and the steady pressure on Atticus to keep the daily post moving.