Cicero to Q. Cornificius, from Rome on 2 September 44 BC — Perseus dateline Scr. Romae iv Non. Sept. a. 710 (44). The note is short, light, and dropped between obligations: Cicero is at his Senate bench (“this I scribbled while in the Senate”) and the great political confrontation with Antony is hours away — the First Philippic is delivered the same day. Cornificius, now back from his African province, has evidently passed by Cicero’s little overnight lodge at Sinuessa without stopping; Cicero pretends to take offence on the villa’s behalf and demands a written “memorandum” [Greek: hypomnematismon] of any visit at the more impressive Cumanum or Pompeianum by way of restitution. The closing tease — “I find it easier to answer than to challenge,” but I will challenge if you go on idling — is the easy chaff of a long literary friendship, preserved here at the very moment the political voice is about to be unsheathed.