26 surviving letters between Marcus Caelius Rufus and Marcus Tullius Cicero, spanning 50 BC.
“What?”
“First, as I should, I congratulate you and rejoice both in the rank you already hold and in the rank you may hope for.”
“See how poorly letters reach me.”
“Would you ever have thought it possible that words could fail me - not only those grand oratorical words of yours, but e…”
“I was certainly anxious about events in the city.”
“Your letters are rare - perhaps they do not all reach me - but I receive them with pleasure.”
“I am on very close terms with Marcus Fabius, an excellent man and a most learned one, and I love him wonderfully, both f…”
“Nothing could have been handled more carefully or more wisely than your dealings with Curio about the public thanksgiving.”
“Your letter would have caused me great pain if reason itself had not already driven away every distress, and if my mind,…”
“When you were leaving, I promised to write you the most careful account of everything happening in the city.”
“Yes, I tell you, he was acquitted.”
“Is this how it is?”
“I envy you: every day so much startling news is carried over to you there.”
“I do not know how anxious you are about the peace of your province and the neighboring regions.”
“I have no doubt news has reached you that Appius has been prosecuted by Dolabella - though not, in fact, with the hostility I had expected.”
“I do not know how quickly you want to leave that place.”
“Although I have political news to write to you, I have nothing that I think will please you more than this: Gaius Sempro…”
“"Is that how you treated Hirrus?”
“We were deeply disturbed by the letters of Gaius Cassius and Deiotarus.”
“Your supplications did not torment us for long, but they did torment us keenly.”
“I am ashamed to confess to you, and to complain, about the injuries done me by Appius, that most ungrateful man.”
“I congratulate you on your connection by marriage with a man who, on my word, is excellent.”
“Taking Arsaces prisoner and storming Seleucia were not worth missing the spectacle of what has happened here.”
“Have you ever seen anyone more foolish than your Pompey, who stirred up such turmoil and turned out to be so hollow?”
“Your letter frightened the life out of me.”
“Would that I had been in Spain at that time rather than at Formiae, when you set out for Pompey!”