Cicero to D. Brutus, consul-designate, from Rome on 15 July 43 BC — the Perseus dateline carries the wide range Scr. Romae inter ex. m. Apr. et in. Quint. a. 711 (43), but the day after 11.22 (14 July) is the conventional placing, and matches the manuscripts’ running order. The subject is the praetor’s elections, and the particular candidate is L. Aelius Lamia, a leading eques who in 58 BC — as Cicero recounts in section 2 — was driven out of Rome by the consul Gabinius for resisting Cicero’s exile, the first Roman citizen so treated at Rome.

Form and substance are exquisitely matched. The letter opens with an unusually delicate parable about the right moment for handing in a letter — Cicero has briefed his courier to watch for it — and the cover for that delicacy is the request that follows: that Brutus, as president of the equestrian centuries in the upcoming elections, throw their weight (via Lupus) behind Lamia. The pivot at the end of section 2 is the boldest stroke: “persuade yourself of this, my Brutus: I am the one standing for the praetorship.” This is the last letter to D. Brutus that has come down to us. Within five months both correspondents will be dead.