out from Hipponion, the Aphrodite reached the town of Laos, which lay at the mouth of a river of the same name. Laos' harbor was rather better than that of Hipponion, and the merchant galley tied up at one of the piers. Hardly any of the longshoremen and loafers spoke more than a few words of Greek: they talked among themselves in one Italic language or another. Across the pier was a sailing ship from Rhegion. Her skipper, a tubby, gray-haired fellow who gave his name as Leptines, ambled by to look over the Aphrodite. 'I envy you your oars,' he said. 'I've been crawling up the coast - crawling, I tell you - tacking all the way. I'll be a month getting to Neapolis, maybe more. How am I supposed to make ends meet if I can't get from here to there?' Sostratos poured him some of the same wine he was drinking himself and asked, 'Why didn't you sail south, to take advantage of the winds?' 'I usually do.' Leptines gulped the wine. 'Ahh, that's good. I usually do, like I said, but not this year. Too big a chance of somebody's navy snapping me up if I went along the Sicilian coast.' Sostratos dipped his head. The Aphrodite hadn't tried sailing down to Syracuse, either. Menedemos gave Leptines an engaging smile. 'Any special ports we should know about on the way up the coast?' Leptines didn't directly answer that. Instead, he returned a question for a question: 'What are you carrying?' 'Peafowl chicks and perfume, papyrus and ink, fine Khian wine, Koan silk, perfumes - things like that,' Menedemos replied. 'How about you?' 'Wool and timber and wheat and leather,' Leptines said. 'I should've known a merchant galley from out of the east would only come here for the luxury trade. If we were competing, I wouldn't give you the hour of the day, but you won't do my business any harm even if you will get up north ahead of me.' 'Well, then?' Menedemos asked in his most ingratiating voice. Sostratos hoped his winecup hid his own snicker. His cousin sounded as if he were trying to talk a girl into bed. Had he sounded that way with Phyllis? Sostratos wouldn't have been surprised. His tone certainly worked on Leptines. 'There's one place by the coast south of Neapolis where there's more to it than you'd think,' the trader from Rhegion said, 'provided you don't mind doing business with Samnites, that is.' Menedemos glanced at Sostratos. Sostratos shrugged. Menedemos said, 'When we were in Taras, we sold our peacock to a Samnite. He paid what he said he would. I'd do it again.' 'What is this town?' Sostratos asked. 'It's on the Sarnos River,' Leptines answered. 'You can go a ways farther up the river, too, if you're really feeling bold. But this place I have in mind does duty as the port town for Nole and Noukeria and Akherrhai, too. Those places are all fat, fat, fat - some of the richest farming country in the world in those parts.' 'Sounds promising,' Sostratos agreed. 'But you still haven't told us the name of this place.'
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