'What about him?' 'A fisherman told me that a ship came into Knidos from Eretria on the island of Euboia,' Sostratos said. Menedemos impatiently dipped his head. 'He's been holding the island - and Boiotia, too: all that country north of Athens - for Antigonos for the past couple of years.' 'Not any more,' Sostratos said. 'He's gone over to Kassandros with his whole army.' 'Has he?' Menedemos whistled softly. 'I'll bet old One-Eye is fit to be tied. Why on earth would he do a thing like that?' 'Who can say?' Sostratos answered with a shrug. 'But Antigonos' sons are grown men - Demetrios especially, though Philippos can't be more than a few years younger than we are. With two sons in the family, how much inheritance can a nephew hope for?' 'Something to that, I shouldn't wonder,' Menedemos said. 'If Antigonos gets his hands on Polemaios now, though, he'll give him his inheritance, all right: one funeral pyre's worth.' 'I wouldn't want Antigonos holding that kind of grudge against me.' Sostratos agreed. 'And, of course, he'll be at war with Kassandros over this, because it really weakens him in Hellas. I wonder why the generals bothered making their treaty at all.' 'It must have seemed like a good idea at the time,' Menedemos said. 'More often than not, that's why people do things.' There in the twilight - almost the dark, now - Sostratos eyed his cousin. Menedemos might well have been describing himself and his own reasons for doing this or that . . . which didn't mean he was wrong about the generals. Sostratos tried to take a longer view of things. He knew he often failed, but he did try. 'It shouldn't have anything to do with us, not directly,' he said. 'We won't be heading to the northern parts of Hellas or up to Macedonia, either.' 'Not directly, no,' Menedemos said. 'But if Kassandros sends out a fleet and Antigonos sends out a fleet - they aren't pirates, but they'd both think we made tasty pickings. They aren't pirates, but they're liable to be worse than pirates. The Aphrodite's got some chance of beating a pentekonter, but we'd need a miracle against a trireme, let alone anything bigger.' 'Maybe it's a good time to get out of the Aegean and head west,' Sostratos said, and then, before Menedemos could answer. 'Of course, it would be even better if Syracuse and Carthage weren't fighting over there.' 'No such thing as good times for traders,' Menedemos said. 'No such thing as safe times, anyway. My father would say that, anyway, and I think yours would, too.' 'Probably.' Sostratos yawned, then sighed. 'I was hoping for a real bed tonight, and what do I get? Wood.' He wrapped his himation around himself.
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