Cicero to Terentia, written from Brundisium on the third day before the Ides of Sextilis 47 BC — 11 August, by the Perseus dateline (Scr. Brundisi iii Id. Sext. a. 707 (47)). It is the eighth month of the Brundisium captivity. Caesar is in the East, the Republican remnant is still in arms in Africa, Cicero has no political cover, and the only news that matters is when Caesar will come back across the Adriatic and what reception he will give the proconsul who turned for home at the harbour at Patrae.

The letter is four lines long. He has nothing certain to report — not about Caesar’s arrival, not about the dispatch that Philotimus (Terentia’s freedman and household agent) is rumoured to be carrying. When something is certain, he will send word at once. Take care of your health. The pair with 14.23, written the next day, registers the moment the dispatch arrives.