19 May 43 BCE: To Cicero (at Rome) from Brutus (at the border of lower Candavia)
Was Pansa murdered!?
From Brutus to Cicero, greetings.
Don’t wait for me to thank you.1 It has long been the case that something like that ought to be unnecessary in our relationship, which has become the closest of friendships.
Your son is not with me. We shall meet in Macedonia. He has been given orders to lead the cavalry from Ambracia though Thessaly. I have written to him to meet me at Heraclea. When I see him, we shall decide together about him returning to Rome to stand for election, or about recommending him for office.2
I very warmly recommend Glycon to you, who is Pansa’s doctor, and who is married to the sister of my friend Achilleus. I have heard that Torquatus3 suspects he was involved in Pansa’s death, and that he has been taken into custody as a murderer.4 It is entirely beyond belief. Who else was Pansa’s death more calamitous to? Besides, he is a disciplined and honest man, who does not seem the type who would be compelled to commit a crime out of self-interest. I ask you, and I ask you with great urgency (for my dear Achilleus is no less worried about it than he should be) to remove him from custody and protect him. My reasoning is that this is a matter of personal duty as much as anything else.
While I was writing you this letter, a letter was delivered to me by Satrius, the legate of Trebonius, saying that Dolabella has been cut to pieces and put to flight by Tillius and Deiotarus. I am sending you a letter in Greek that was sent to Satrius by a certain Cicereius.
Our friend Flavius has named you as arbiter in a disagreement he is in with the people of Dyrrachium about an inheritance. I ask you, Cicero, and Flavius asks you to settle the matter. There is no doubt that the citizenry owed money to the man who made Flavius his heir, and the people of Dyrrachium don’t deny it; but they say that Caesar forgave them the debt. Do not allow an injury to be done to my friend by your friends.
Written May 19th, from camp at the border of lower Candavia.
Latin text of ad Familiares 12.12 | Glossary | Historia Civilis video overview of 44-43 BCE
For Cicero’s motion in the Senate at the beginning of the month.
Pansa’s quaestor.
Suetonius (Life of Augustus 11) and Tacitus (Annales 1.10.2) both record the rumours that Octavian had orchestrated the death of Pansa, and perhaps Hirtius too.