Cicero to his wife Terentia and daughter Tullia, written from Minturnae on the eighth day before the Kalends of February 49 BC (the manuscript dateline mis-records the month as Quint.; it is plainly February, the day after the Formiae note). Cicero is still on his way south to take up the coastal command, travelling with his son Marcus and his brother Quintus (and with the younger Quintus and the friend Rufus), who add their greetings at the close.

The letter follows on directly from Fam.~14.18 of the previous day: the same question, sharper. The two alternatives have hardened into one fork — if Caesar enters Rome with restraint the household can stay; if not, even Dolabella will be no protection. The fear now added is of being cut off on the road, of famine in the city, of the women of their standing having already gone. The good news at the end — Labienus has come over to the Pompeian side; Piso (the father-in-law of Caesar himself) is leaving the city and calling his son-in-law’s act a crime — is the running political bulletin the family is being kept on. The household consultation list — Pomponius, Camillus — is the same one the Atticus letters use.