In March of 49, Cicero wrote to his friend Atticus with an update on the situation in Rome after Caesar had taken control of the capital. He described how life was getting back to normal and people settled in under the new regime. Personally, Cicero considered his options and asked, ‘What shall I do? Rush madly for Brundisium, appeal to the loyalty of the municipalities?’. The main obstacle he faced was, as he said, that the boni would not follow and neither would anyone else.1 His reference to a group of people called boni, who were apparently reluctant to come to the rescue of the old political order, is intriguing: who were they, and what lay behind their stance at this critical juncture in the life of the republic?