Over the Wine Dark Sea

'Profit,' Menedemos answered in a low voice. His father always managed to put him in the wrong. With a flash of defiance, he added, 'We got it, too. We got a lot of it.'   Philodemos waved that away, as of no account. 'You came much too close to getting exactly -  exactly, I tell you -  what you deserved for such a piece of foolishness. What did your cousin think of it? Was he as mad to put on wax-glued wings and imitate Ikaros flying up toward the sun as you were?'   Menedemos thought about lying, but reckoned he was too likely to get caught. Reluctantly, he tossed his head. 'Well, no. Not quite.'   'Not quite?' Philodemos put a world of expression into his echo. 'What does that mean? No, don't tell me. I can figure it out for myself. Sostratos has some sense, at least -  more than I can say for my own flesh and blood.'   To cover his feelings, Menedemos took a long pull at the wine. He wished he could get drunk right now, so he wouldn't have to pay his father any attention at all. But Philodemos wouldn't let him forget that, either, and they'd be living in the same house till spring. However much he wanted to, however insulted he felt, he couldn't storm away, either, not unless he wanted to create bad blood that might last till he could sail away again.   What can I do? he wondered. Changing the subject was the only thing that came to him. He said, 'We heard on the way back here that the war between Ptolemaios and Antigonos got going for all it was worth. Nobody really expected the peace to last, but even so . . ..'   'It's going, all right,' his father agreed with a certain gloomy satisfaction. Philodemos was willing to criticize the follies of others besides Menedemos. 'Ptolemaios sent his general Leonides up to Kilikia to seize the cities on the coast from Antigonos.'   'And he did it?' Menedemos asked.   His father dipped his head. 'He did it, all right -  till Antigonos heard what had happened. Then old One-Eye sent out his son Demetrios, and Demetrios ran Leonides out of Kilikia and all the way back to Egypt. Ptolemaios sent messages to Lysimakhos and Kassandros, too, they say, asking them for help to keep Antigonos from getting too strong, but he sure didn't get much.'   'But Antigonos' nephew Polemaios turned on him,' Menedemos said. 'That has to be a heavy blow to Antigonos, losing the fellow who was his right-hand man.'   ' 'Was' is right,' his father said. 'That's Demetrios' place now, Demetrios' and his younger brother Philippos'. Antigonos sent Philippos up to the Hellespont to take on Polemaios' lieutenant Phoinix, and Philippos whipped him almost as hard as Demetrios whipped Leonides.'   Menedemos whistled softly. 'I hadn't heard that before. You have to admire Antigonos. He's never at a loss, no matter what happens to him.'   'If you're a fat partridge in a bush, do you admire the wolf who wants to eat you?' Philodemos said. 'That's how Rhodes looks to the marshals. And the thing about Antigonos is, he frightens all the others enough to make 'em band together to try to pull him down. You mark my words, son: those Macedonians will still be knocking heads together when you're as old as I am.'   'Thirty years from now?' Menedemos tried not to sound scornful. He also tried to imagine what