Quintus Cicero — Marcus’s younger brother — to Tiro, Marcus’s freedman and secretary. One of only a handful of letters in the Ciceronian corpus written by Quintus rather than by Marcus; the salutation QVINTVS TIRONI SVO makes the sender explicit. The Perseus dateline places it “in an uncertain place and month of 710” (44 BC), the year of the Ides of March and its aftermath.

The note is brief and warm. Quintus has received a second packet of mail without a letter from Tiro and is scolding him for it — mock-judicially, since with himself as advocate Tiro cannot hope to be acquitted and would need to call in Marcus as defense counsel. The closing image, drawn from family memory, has the quality of an unguarded household anecdote: their mother used to seal even empty wine-flasks, so that no one could claim a flask had been empty all along when it had in fact been quietly drained. Tiro should write even when he has nothing to write about, so as not to “steal the time.” The plea ends “love us” — a brother’s affection extended through Marcus’s household to his freedman.