M. Caelius Rufus to Cicero in Cilicia, written from Rome late in May or early in June 50 BC (manuscript dateline Scr. Romae ex. m. Mai. aut in. Iun. a. 704 (50)). A short two-section bulletin. The first sentence congratulates Cicero on the new marriage of his daughter Tullia: in his absence and without his foreknowledge, Tullia and Terentia had betrothed her to P. Cornelius Dolabella — a young patrician of brilliant connections but spoiled habits, by his second wife already. Caelius, who knew Dolabella from the same political and convivial circle, recommends the man on a calculation: he will be steadied by Cicero’s authority and Tullia’s modesty; he is not pugnacious in his vices, and he understands what would be better. The same matrimonial news Cicero is meanwhile reporting in his own correspondence with stoic resignation.

The political paragraph reports the second great crisis of the year: the proposed recall of one of Caesar’s legions and of one of Pompey’s, ostensibly for the Parthian war but in fact a manoeuvre to disarm Caesar at a stroke. Curio has interposed his veto on the senatorial action against Caesar’s tenure, and the Senate has gone "in alia omnia" — voted the other way — on the motion that would have constrained him. Caelius’s verdict on Pompey is withering and exact: he is "languenti, ut vix id quod sibi placeat reperiat" — so spiritless that he can hardly even find what he himself wants. The closing tag, "you old rich gentlemen will see to it," is a young politician’s swipe at the senior generation who control the Senate but cannot or will not lead it. The notice that Hortensius is dying as the letter is being written closes an era: with him goes the last of Cicero’s great rivals at the bar.