Around 6 July 43 BCE: To Decimus Brutus (at Cularo) from Cicero (at Rome)
Cicero pesters Decimus Brutus
From Marcus Cicero to Decimus Brutus, greetings.
I have a close relationship with Appius Claudius,1 son of Gaius, based on the many kindnesses he has shown me, and I have shown him in return. I ask (more emphatically than is usual), for the sake of your generosity or for mine, that you try to use your influence—which has a great deal of weight—to help him.
I want you, already known as a very brave man, to be thought of as an equally merciful one too. It will be a great mark of distinction for you if this very noble young man is brought to safety through your kindness; and his case ought to be improved by the fact that he joined Antony, moved by a sense of duty after the restoration of his father.2 And so even if you think his case is not entirely reasonable, still, you can at least put forward some sort of excuse.
Your approval has the power to restore safety and civic rights to a man born into the highest class, of high character and high virtue, who is most obliging, and moreover most grateful. In making this request of you, I cannot ask you with any greater or more heartfelt enthusiasm.
Latin text of ad Familiares 11.22 | Glossary | Historia Civilis video overview of 44-43 BCE
Appius had sided with Antony after the death of Caesar. He may have been having second thoughts after Antony and his followers were declared public enemies following the battle of Mutina—in part because Cicero argued that they should be. Cicero seems to have been working to restore Appius’ civic rights.
Footnote borrowed from Shackleton Bailey: ‘C. Claudius (Clodius) Pulcher, condemned de repetundis [for extortion] in 51 (or possibly earlier; cf. 84 (VIII.8).2n.), must have been recalled from exile by Antony, whether in 49 (cf. Phil. II.56) or 44 (ibid. 98).’