Cicero to Manius Acilius Glabrio, proconsul of Sicily, written from Rome in 46 BC (the manuscript dateline: Scr. Romae, ut videtur, a. 708 (46)). The fourth surviving letter of the Acilius cluster (Fam.\ 13.30–39). The beneficiary is Gaius Avianius Philoxenus, a long-standing guest-friend whom Caesar, at Cicero’s instance, had enrolled among the citizens of Novum Comum — the Transpadane colony whose inhabitants had been controversially granted Roman status in the preceding years. Philoxenus had taken the name Avianius from his patron Flaccus Avianius, one of Cicero’s intimates.

The letter is unusual in this cluster for spelling out its grounds in detail rather than waving them past. Cicero presents the documentation almost as an exhibit — inherited hospitium, intimate friendship, the favour of citizenship procured through his own intercession with Caesar, the chain of patronage running through Flaccus Avianius — and closes the build with the explicit note that he has assembled all of this so that you may understand that this recommendation of mine is no ordinary one. The non vulgaris commendation, marked out as such, is itself a recognised tier in the genre: the writer distinguishes a particular letter from the routine testimonials he sends weekly, and the addressee is expected to register the distinction.