Late January 43 BCE: To Quintus Cornificius (in Africa) from Cicero (at Rome)
Cicero defends the Republic out of habit. He just can't help it!
I am not passing by any opportunity—and nor should I!—to not only praise you, but even to adorn you with honours. But I would rather you find out about my devotion and dutifulness towards you from your family’s letters and not my own.
Still, I urge you to devote your every thought to the Republic. To do so is consistent with your courage, your character, and that hope which you ought to have of advancing your position.
But more about this at another time. For as I am writing this, everything is in a state of uncertainty; the envoys have not returned yet—the Senate sent them not to plead for peace, but to declare war (if he did not obey the terms given by the envoys).1
But for my part, as soon as I was given the opportunity to defend the Republic (as was my old habit), I declared myself the leader of the Senate and People of Rome.2 And from that time when I took up the cause of freedom, I have not missed the slightest opportunity of protecting our shared safety and freedom. But I would rather you hear about these things too from others.
Latin text of Ad Familiares 12.24.1-2 | Glossary | Historia Civilis video overview of 44-43 BCE
The Senate had sent Servius Sulpicius Rufus, Lucius Marcius Philippus, and Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus as envoys to Mark Antony at the beginning of January, to tell him that if he did not stop besieging Mutina and leave Cisalpine Gaul with his army, the Senate would declare war on him.
In the Third Philippic.