Over the Wine Dark Sea

'Let's double it one more time.' Menedemos sounded like a man determined to win his way back to prosperity no matter how long it took -  and no matter if it broke him first.   'Just as you say, best one,' Amyntas replied as they walked back toward the starting line.   'Give us a start one more time,' Menedemos called to Sostratos. 'I'm going to whip this fellow yet, and I've doubled the bet to prove it.' Some of the men who stood at the side of the track watching murmured among themselves. Amyntas' grin got wider; he had witnesses, in case Menedemos didn't feel like paying up.   They took their marks. 'Ready?' Sostratos said. 'Set . . . Go!'   Amyntas and Menedemos flew down the track side by side. As before, Menedemos hung at the younger man's shoulder till they were about thirty cubits from the end of the course. Then Amyntas, leaning forward for his final sprint, let out a startled grunt. Menedemos went past him as if his feet were suddenly nailed to the dirt, and won by three or four cubits.   'That's four drakhmai you owe me,' he said cheerfully. 'Or would you like to double the bet again?'   'Oh, no.' Amyntas tossed his head. 'I know what I just saw. You held back the first two runs to draw me in, didn't you?'   'I don't know what you're talking about.' Menedemos' voice was arch. 'Besides, how can I be sure you weren't trying to fool me there?' But he knew. Amyntas had been running flat out, and he hadn't been good enough. Menedemos chuckled. If he'd been fast enough to go to Olympia a couple of years before, Amyntas would have remembered his name. Nobody recalled the also-rans, but a man nearly fast enough to represent his polis at the Olympic Games was plenty fast to beat a fellow who picked up a little extra silver betting on his legs now and then.   'Why haven't I seen you round the gymnasion more?' Amyntas asked sadly. 'I would have known better than to take you on.'   'I just got back from Great Hellas,' Menedemos replied, and the other man rolled his eyes in sorrow and chagrin.   They walked back toward Sostratos by the start line. Amyntas peeled off toward the building where the men left their tunics. 'I hope he's not going to get dressed and skip out without paying you,' Sostratos said. To him, it was the principle of the thing more than the money.   'I doubt it,' Menedemos said. 'He couldn't show his face here again for shame if he did -  too many people watching. Shall we throw javelins while we wait?'   'Something to that,' his cousin allowed. 'Javelins? Why not? I'm not hopeless with them, anyway.' And he wasn't. With his long arms, he threw fairly well -  as Alexidamos had painful cause to know -  though he would never be graceful. He matched Menedemos for distance, and almost matched him in accuracy throwing at a bale of straw.   Amyntas did come back. He gave Menedemos a fat, massy tetradrakhm with Apollo on one side and the rose of Rhodes on the other. 'That'll teach me,' he said.