Cicero to Tiro, written from Alyzia on the eighth day before the Ides of November 50 BC — 6 November — the third surviving letter of the cluster, sent off before dawn as the party finally leaves the Acarnanian harbour for Leucas. The salutation widens again, now to include the brother explicitly — Tullius et Cicero Tironi suo s. d. et Q. pater et filius — because Quintus has just arrived, which is why the convoy waited the extra day at Alyzia.

Two short sections, perfectly balanced. Section 1 is the travel log: one day’s halt for Quintus, then departure before light. Section 2 is the second movement of the previous letter’s plea — the same insistence, softened by the assurance that he can do without Tiro’s services (utilitatibus tuis possum carere); the self-naming magistrum tuum, “your master,” which here means teacher rather than owner; and the characteristic Cicero ordering — te valere tua causa primum volo, tum mea — “for your own sake first, then mine.”