Cicero to Publius Silius, propraetor of Bithynia and Pontus, undated — Perseus’s tradition places it about the same time as Fam. 13.53, during Cicero’s proconsulship of Cilicia in 51–50 BC. Silius is the addressee of a small cluster of letters from this season (Fam. 13.61–65), all on the same model of recommendation.

The matter is the estate of T. Pinnius. Pinnius the elder had named Cicero tutor to his son and secondary heir, a mark of intimate trust; his son, still a boy of cultivated parts, is to receive eight million sesterces from the city of Nicaea, the chief city of Bithynia, which apparently owes the estate that sum and is willing to pay. The single ask is that Silius use his governor’s authority to make sure as much of it is paid as fides and dignitas allow. The letter is the shortest of the Silius cluster: a guardian’s brief intervention on behalf of his ward.