Cicero to D. Brutus — here saluted as imperator and consul-designate — written from Rome around 24 January 43 BC. The Perseus dateline carries Scr. Romae circ. ix K. Febr. a. 711, fixing the day with a precision that the bare year placeholder of the running order leaves open: this is the ninth day before the Kalends of February, in the depths of the Mutina campaign, with Decimus Brutus besieged by Antony at Mutina and the consuls Hirtius and Pansa raising forces to relieve him.

The occasion is the political and military mood at Rome. A first embassy had gone out to Antony, and Cicero notes that everything hangs suspended on word of what the envoys achieved — so he has little hard news to send, only encouragement. He reports the Senate’s and people’s anxiety for Brutus, the extraordinary affection his name commands, and the spontaneous rush of recruits answering the levy. The closing note — that Cicero is failing Brutus in nothing and never will — is of a piece with the unwavering support he gave the Liberators’ cause through the last year of his life. The wish that Brutus, Hirtius, and Octavian (“my own Caesar”) be joined in the partnership of victory would, within months, prove tragically misplaced.