L. Munatius Plancus to Cicero, written from Transalpine Gaul a little after the middle of March 43 BC — Perseus dateline Scr. in Gallia Transalpina paulo post med. m. Mart. a. 711 (43). Plancus’s cover-note to the official dispatch (the publicae litterae) and to the more substantial personal letter, Fam. 10.8, which he is sending in by the same hand. He writes briefly, he says, because he has told the whole story in his official report and because he is sending the Roman knight M. Varisidius across to Italy to brief Cicero in person.

The interest of the letter is its closing turn. Plancus admits that he felt the sting of watching others “occupy the ground of glory” — a glance at Hirtius and Pansa moving north on Antony — while he held his hand in Gaul; but he kept himself in check, he says, until he could deliver something worthy of his consulship (designated for 42) and of Cicero’s expectation. He asks in return that Cicero “stand by my standing” and that the rewards held out as a spur should now be made good — the standing trade in the Plancus correspondence, his loyalty for Cicero’s senatorial sponsorship. The closing fac valeas meque mutuo diligas, “take care of your health, and love me as I do you,” is a stock intimate close which Plancus uses throughout his exchange with Cicero.