A.~Pompeius Bithynicus to Cicero, written from Sicily in late March 44 BC, in the immediate aftermath of Caesar’s assassination (Perseus dateline: in Sicilia exeunte mense Martio 710 (44)). This is the unusual letter in the cluster — and one of relatively few in the whole Familiares — in which Cicero is the recipient, not the sender. The salutation BITHYNICVS CICERONI S. flags it immediately. Bithynicus, serving as governor of Sicily, writes to ask Cicero to look after his interests at Rome in his absence.

The letter is short and turns on a graceful opening figure: Bithynicus says he could appeal to the hereditary friendship between his father (also A.~Pompeius Bithynicus, a long-time correspondent of Cicero’s) and Cicero — but that, he says, is the move of men who have themselves done nothing to deserve a friendship of their own, and he means to stand on the one he has built with Cicero in his own right. The request that follows is therefore made in his own name. Cicero’s reply is the next letter, Fam.~6.17.