Cicero at Rome to Tiro, his freedman and indispensable literary secretary, who is convalescing under the care of the Greek physician Metrodorus. The Perseus dateline groups the letter with Fam. 16.18 (15 May 47 BC); the Kalends mentioned at the close are the Kalends of June, on which gladiatorial games were being held. The note is short, anxious, and characteristically practical: Cicero is genuinely worried about Tiro’s health, but he also wants the library at home put in order, with the cataloguing left to Metrodorus’s timing.

The voice here is the private Cicero of the letters to Tiro — terse, affectionate, peremptory and tender by turns. Diet is the greengrocer’s department, the doctor sets the rules, and Tiro is allowed his afternoon at the games on the Kalends provided he comes straight back the next day. “Take care of yourself diligently, if you love me” is the unembarrassed close.