Cicero to Aulus Caecina, written at Rome in mid-December 46 BC (works.yaml date; Perseus dateline more narrowly Romae ex.~m.~Dec.~a.~708 (46) — end of December). The letter is the second piece of the Caecina cluster (Fam.~6.5–8); for the addressee and his situation see the headnote to Fam.~6.6. It is much shorter than that substantive policy letter of October and is best read as its sequel: a quick mid-December update for a man in Sicily who is waiting on news.

The note moves in three short beats. Cicero sees Caecina’s son almost daily and renews to him his promises of zeal, office, and what authority he has. He has been carefully reading — and rereading — Caecina’s book, the Querelae, the very pamphlet that had made the case dangerous (the “careful guard” line is half-joke, half-precaution). The central paragraph carries the argument of Fam.~6.6 in miniature: the nature of things and the run of the times will not let so bitter an injustice cling to so good a cause, and the very talent for which Caesar took offence is now what tells in Caecina’s favour with him. The closing tricolon — great-spirited, firm in hope, certain that whatever Cicero can do is fully at Caecina’s disposal — is the standing reassurance of the cluster.