Cicero to Atticus, written at Antium on 14 June 44 BC — Perseus dateline Scr. in Antiati postr. Id. Iun. a. 710 (44), i.e. the day after the Ides of June. Cicero is replying to two letters from Atticus that arrived together, one written on the Ides and one the day before, and he works through them in turn. The first section gathers up business: Decimus Brutus, one of the assassins, is now in his Gallic command and Cicero wants whatever news Atticus can supply; the consuls Antony and Dolabella have been putting about an alarmist story which Sicca has already passed on; a Greek-tagged half-quotation (ta men didomena, “the things being granted —”) hangs unfinished, and the sequel Siregius\ is a manuscript ruin. The practical questions concern who is to be trusted with what intelligence: Lucius Antonius (Mark Antony’s brother) is to be diverted through Marcus rather than approached directly, Antronius is not to be used at all, and only the aedile Lucius Fadius is to be informed of the underlying arrangement.

The second section turns to family and household. Cicero has not failed Servilia — mother of Marcus Brutus — which he warmly approves; he is no longer fretting over “the queen” (Cleopatra, then still in Rome, or just leaving it); the financial accounts kept by Eros, his land-agent, are being straightened out; and his son Cicero in Athens has sent a letter so affectionate [philostorg\=os] and so neatly finished [eupin\=os] that the father says he would read it out in public. The closing question of a possible move to the Tusculan villa is acted on the next day: Letter 15.18 is written from the road.