Cicero to M. Terentius Varro, written from the Tusculan villa on 11 or 12 July 45 BC (Perseus: v aut iv Id. Quint.). This is the dedicatory letter for the Academica in its two-book recension — the so-called Academici libri — in which Cicero has cast a dialogue at his Cuman villa with Varro and Atticus (“Pomponius”) as the interlocutors. Cicero has assigned to Varro the role of Antiochus of Ascalon, whose Old-Academic position Varro is known to have favored, and has reserved for himself the sceptical New-Academic part of Philo of Larissa, his own teacher. The conceit of the letter is that of a munus owed and returned: Varro has long promised Cicero a literary gift of his own, and Cicero — impatient at the delay, but interpreting it charitably as care rather than neglect — offers his philosophical dialogue in advance as the matching present.

The “four reminders not overly modest” that Cicero says he has sent are the four books of the Academica themselves, personified as messengers from the “younger Academy” — a wry play on the brashness of the New Academy he is sending Varro on his behalf. The closing turn is darker: in better times the two old scholars could pursue these studies among other honorable occupations, but with the Republic gone there is nothing else left to live for. The reference to Varro’s “move and purchase” — a property he is acquiring — closes on the ordinary note of friendly business at the end of a programmatic letter of high importance.