Cicero to C. Cassius Longinus, written from Rome around the middle of December 708 AUC — month-precision, mid-December 46 BC (the Perseus dateline: Scr.\ Romae circ.\ med.\ m.\ Dec.\ a.\ 708 (46)). A very short letter, dashed off at the moment the courier is leaving. Cicero apologises for brevity, then concedes that a longer letter would only have contained [Greek: phluaron] — nonsense — since to be in earnest [Greek: spoudazein] under the Caesarian peace carries danger.

The famous epigram on the two philosophies turns on the Epicurean reputation for cultivating pleasure at table: “Yours is in the kitchen; mine is a nuisance.” Cicero plays the embarrassed Stoic, who makes himself busy at other things so as not to hear the Platonic rebuke for compromise. The Spanish campaign is once again the unfinished horizon; the closing line is the warmest in the cluster — “love me, as you have done since you were a boy.”