Cicero to C. Cassius Longinus, written from Rome on the third day before the kalends of January 708 AUC — 30 December 46 BC (the manuscript dateline: Scr.\ Romae iii K.\ Ian.\ aut paulo post a.\ 708 (46)). A brisk, miscellaneous letter, written under the pressure of couriers already capped for travel and waiting at the gate. The opening grumbles at the back-to-front traffic — Cassius’s men arrive empty and leave laden — and promises [Greek: panta peri pantōn] in some future letter that will have time to breathe.

The middle sections give snapshots of the Rome Cassius is missing: the elder Publius Sulla is dead, killed by brigands or by indigestion, the people indifferent; Caesar is expected to regret losing the city’s great auction-broker now that the proscription sales have lost their warmest bidder. The Spanish campaign — Caesar against the surviving Pompeians under Cnaeus — is the news the city is waiting for; the rumours are unattributed [Greek: adespotoi]. Pansa’s departure for Cisalpine Gaul on the same date as this letter is the moral pivot: a man who has eased others’ miseries goes off with the goodwill of the boni, an argument by example for the Stoic position Cassius has lately doubted — that the noble [Greek: to kalon di’ hauto haireton] is to be chosen for its own sake. The closing endorses Cassius’s prudent staying-put at Brundisium and asks, in the wistful undertone of the whole sequence, to be remembered.