Cicero to C.~Toranius, written at Rome around April of 45 BC (Perseus: Romae circ.~m.~Apr.~a.~709 (45)). Toranius was a former aedile-colleague of Octavius’s father and another Pompeian who had not been restored after Pharsalus; he was still living away from Italy. The Spanish war was at its hinge — the letter is written, on Cicero’s own account, with the impression that either the end is at hand or has already come (the battle of Munda was fought on 17 March, but the news had not yet reached Rome) — and Cicero takes the moment to reach across to a man who had stood at his shoulder in the council-of-war debates of 49 BC against Domitius Ahenobarbus and the Lentuli.

The argument is the consolatory commonplace of the period in its philosophical form: those who saw clearly what war would bring, and were called timid for saying so, have at any rate this comfort — that they judged the case rightly and truly. Whatever follows can be borne with moderation, since death is the end of all things and the conscience of having acted for the commonwealth’s dignity remains. The letter then turns from himself to Toranius and closes with the assurance of continued service to him, to his safety, and to his children. The register sits closer to the Torquatus consolations (Fam.~6.1–4) than to the warmer family-letter manner of the Lepta correspondence, but Cicero is writing to a more distant friend and the tone is correspondingly measured.