Cicero to Terentia, written from Brundisium on the day before the Ides of Sextilis 47 BC — 12 August, by the Perseus dateline (Scr. Brundisi prid. Id. Sext. a. 707 (47)). It is the day after 14.24, and the dispatch that 14.24 could only report as rumour has arrived: a letter from Caesar, in tone “generous enough.” After eight months of waiting, the captivity has its first opening.

The note registers three things and stops. Caesar’s letter has come, and it is satis liberalis — generous enough, the cautious adjective Cicero gives a piece of news he does not yet dare to trust. Caesar himself is said to be coming back sooner than expected. The question of whether to go up the road to meet him or wait at Brundisium is undecided; he will write again when he has chosen. Send the couriers back at once. Take careful care of your health. The larger story — the meeting at Tarentum, the notio, the road home — is still six weeks ahead.