Two Ex-Slaves of Cicero: Tiro and Chrysippus Beyond Reach

This chapter considers two freedmen Cicero was missing in late 50 BCE. The first was Tiro, who was ill on the journey back from Cilicia and stayed behind in Patras to recover. The second was Chrysippus, a literary worker who was tasked with looking after Cicero’s son, but left the position without letting Cicero know. While Cicero’s reactions to the missing freedmen were very different, I argue that these situations should be examined together: the stories of these missing freedmen were being narrated and processed by the same man at the same time, and both freedmen worked as a part of Cicero’s literary production. This chapter examines what aspects of Tiro’s story can help paint a fuller picture of the lives of other Ciceronian freedmen and briefly suggests how the account of Chrysippus’ departure might inform how we think of the narrative of Tiro’s perpetual string of illnesses presented in Book 16 of Cicero’s Letters to Friends.