Ad Familiares 13.53
Ad Familiares 13.53
Headnote
Cicero to Q. Minucius Thermus, propraetor of the neighbouring province of Asia, written from Cilicia at some point between the close of 51 BC and the opening of 50 BC (the manuscript dateline: Scr. in Cilicia vel ex. a. 703 (51) vel in. a. 704 (50), ut videtur). One of the recommendation-letters that fill book 13 of Ad Familiares, and one of the cluster Cicero addressed to Thermus over the months of his Cilician proconsulship.
The beneficiary is L. Genucilius Curvus, a long-standing intimate, whose interests lie in the Hellespont and whose property at Parium had been granted to him by a decree of that community — a holding he had enjoyed, Cicero says, without controversy. Cicero hands the whole man over (penitus commendo atque trado) and asks two specific things: that Genucilius’s title at Parium be respected, and that any disputes he may have with anyone in the Hellespont be referred to the appropriate dioikēsis, the administrative circuit. The closing formula is the standard reciprocal pledge of the genre: whatever favour Thermus extends to Genucilius, Cicero will reckon as extended to himself.