Cicero to Tiro, written from Leucas on the seventh day before the Ides of November — 7 November 50 BC — the same day as 16.4 and immediately preceding 16.6, sent that evening from across the gulf at Actium. The salutation is the most expansive in the cluster: Tullius et Cicero et Q. Q. Tironi humanissimo et optimo s. p. d. — “Tullius and Cicero and the two Quintuses send much greeting to Tiro, the most humane and excellent of men.” All four members of the household subscribe, and the epithets attached to Tiro’s name make the affection unmistakable.

The note is a follow-up to 16.4 of the same morning, written after a two-hour stop at Thyrreum on the road north. Cicero’s host there, Xenomenes, has been so taken with Tiro that he has volunteered to do whatever Tiro needs — and Cicero hopes he might convey him on to Leucas to convalesce. The practical centre of the letter is the request that the slave Acastus go down to the harbour every day to find a westbound ship that can carry a letter back: Cicero wants a steady stream, not just one delivery. He repeats the formula of 16.4 — entrust yourself to Curius, “I would rather see you well a little later than weak and ill at once” (malo te paulo post valentem quam statim imbecillum videre) — and closes again with etiam atque etiam vale, the parting he reserves for those he most worries about.