Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer, proconsul of Cisalpine Gaul, to Cicero, written from his province in January 62 BC. Not by Cicero but to him; the corpus includes correspondents’ incoming letters where Cicero’s reply survives. The cause is the public quarrel of December 63–January 62 BC between Cicero, then leaving the consulship, and Quintus Metellus Nepos — Celer’s younger brother — the tribune of the plebs, who had attacked Cicero in a contio for executing the Catilinarian conspirators without trial. Cicero counter-attacked from the Rostra, denying Nepos the right to address the people on the last day of his consulship. Celer writes from his province dressed in mourning, on his brother’s behalf and his own, to register the breach. The reply is Fam 5.2, a much longer self-defence in which Cicero explains himself in patient detail.