D. Brutus to Cicero, from camp at Eporedia on 25 May 43 BC — Perseus dateline Scr. Eporediae viii K. Iun. a. 711 (43). A short field-dispatch, written from the top of the Po valley as Brutus’s army moves north-west to make contact with Plancus. The note is calibrated to steady Cicero: the army is well, Lepidus is showing the right disposition (Brutus has not yet heard of the defection of 30 May), and between Brutus, Plancus, and Lepidus the Republic has three armies of its own in the field.

The closing image is from horsemanship: “if you take the bit between your teeth” (si frenum momorderis) is the rider’s command to a horse to charge — let Cicero only press the attack in the Senate, and the optimates’ detractors will not stand against him.