Cicero to Q. Marcius Philippus the proconsul, written from Rome at a date not securely fixed within the long run of Book 13 recommendation letters (Scr.\ Romae anno post ep.\ irxiv; the works.yaml entry places the work in the placeholder year 54 BC, with an outer range to 44 BC). Philippus has just returned from his province, where he has had L. Egnatius (in his absence) and L. Oppius (on the spot) in his care; Cicero opens with a brisk, formal note of congratulation on the safe homecoming and a promise of in-person thanks, and then moves straight to the business of the letter. With Antipater of Derbe — the Lycaonian dynast whose city Pompey had attached to Rome’s client network — Cicero has not only the bond of hospitium but something stronger; he has heard that Philippus is violently angry with the man, and that Antipater’s sons are in Philippus’s power. Cicero asks, on the strength of their old connection, that the sons be given to him; he professes neutrality on the underlying quarrel, and gives Philippus the explicit out — if his good name would be touched at all, the request lapses. The closing is the standard shape of the book: gratitude promised, and a request for word back on what is possible.