Cicero to his wife Terentia, written from Brundisium on the twelfth day before the Kalends of Quintilis 47 BC — 20 June (the manuscript dateline: Scr.\ Brundisi xii K.\ Quint.\ a.\ 707 (47)). Five days after the previous note (Fam.\ 14.11), and still nothing decisive from Caesar. Tullia is still with him.

The plan announced in the earlier letter — to send young Cicero to meet Caesar in the company of Gnaeus Sallustius — is now off. No word has reached Brundisium of Caesar’s approach, so the embassy waits. For anything beyond that, Cicero pushes Terentia to Sicca, who is to convey what he wants done and what he thinks the moment requires: the dangerous matter — presumably the Dolabella divorce and the household finances — is for live conversation, not for a sheet that a Caesarian courier could read. The remainder is formula: keep Tullia by me, take care of your health, farewell, date.