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it my duty to write and tell you anything that occurs to me which I consider affects your interests. Whatever you may do, I pray for the gods' blessing upon it. But if you listen to me, you will avoid making enemies, and take thought for your tranquillity in the days to come.

¹ Marcus Tullius Cicero, Imperator, son of Marcus, grandson of Marcus, greets Gaius Caelius Caldus, son of Lucius, grandson of Gaius, Quaestor.

When I heard the very welcome news that I had drawn you as my quaestor, I hoped that the longer you were with me in the province, the better pleased I should be with that result of the drawing of lots; for it seemed to me of great importance that the bond forged between us by the lot should be further strengthened by personal intimacy. Later on, when I received no communication as to your arrival either from yourself or from anybody else, I began to fear that it would so fall out (and indeed I still fear it), that before you had reached the province I should be quitting the province. However, when in camp at Cilicia, I received on June 21, a letter you had sent me, and a most courteously worded letter it was, which made it easy for me to form a true estimate both of your sense of duty and your capacity. But it gave me no indication either of the place or the date of its dispatch, or of the time I was to expect