Cicero to Quintus Lepta, written at Astura at the end of August 45 BC — Perseus dateline Scr. Asturae ex. m. Sext. a. 709 (45) (i.e. exeunte mense Sextili, the closing days of the month, not the middle as the works.yaml metadata had it). Two short sections of unflashy, practical counsel from one well-placed friend to another. Lepta is in search of some footing in Caesar’s circle, and Cicero — writing from his settled retreat on the seacoast — thinks the project not worth pursuing.

The first section is travel logistics: Macula, a mutual acquaintance, has done his duty as host, his Falernum estate might serve as a roadside inn for the party so long as the roof covers everyone, and even so Cicero will not give up Lepta’s Petrinum — “that villa, and that loveliness of the place, is a property for staying in, not for stopping over.” The second turns to the substantive request: a curatio aliqua munerum regiorum, “some sort of curatorship of the royal games” (the spectacles Caesar was preparing on his return from Spain). Cicero has spoken to Oppius about it; Balbus, gouty and unwilling to be approached, he has not seen. The advice is unsparing: Caesar’s inner court is full, anyone Lepta might displace will resent it, and Caesar himself — supposing he even registers Lepta’s existence — will count the appointment as a favour conferred, not received. “We shall look for something with show in it,” Cicero concludes, “otherwise, in my judgement, the thing is not merely not to be sought after but to be actively avoided.” He will wait at Astura until the dictator returns.