Cicero to Gaius Oppius, written around the turn of June into July, 44 BC — Perseus dateline Scr. vel ex. m. Iun. vel in. Quint. a. 710 (44). Oppius is the equestrian banker and confidential agent who, with Balbus, had run Caesar’s domestic affairs throughout the civil war; he is the “closest friend” of section 1, whose preference at the outbreak of war in 49 had clearly been that Cicero stay in Italy rather than cross to Pompey. The letter is a private, warm one, written on the eve of Cicero’s abortive voyage to Greece (which he would abandon at Leucopetra in August and turn back to Rome and the Philippics).

Cicero is telling Oppius that his counsel — conveyed both by his own letter and through Atticus — has settled the question of the journey, and he uses the occasion to lay out the long account of obligation between them: the advice of 49 BC, the kindness shown to his household during his exile, and now Oppius’s open transfer of friendship to Cicero after the Ides. The closing is brisk and affectionate: keep on caring for me, watch over my affairs (Atticus has the particulars), and stay well.