'It's an interesting place,' his cousin answered. 'It's still a woody island, as the poet says. And the people speak an interesting dialect of Greek.' 'Interesting?' Menedemos tossed his head. 'I couldn't understand what they were saying half the time. It's almost as bad as Macedonian.' 'I didn't have too much trouble with it,' Sostratos said. 'It's just old-fashioned. But are you sure you don't want to go up the coast and cross the sea where it's narrowest? We'd only spend one night - two at the outside - on the water that way, and sailing straight across we'll be out of sight of land for five or six days.' 'I know. I have my reasons.' That should have been all Menedemos needed to say; he was captain of the Aphrodite, after all. And Sostratos didn't argue, at least not with words. But he did raise an eyebrow, and Menedemos found himself explaining: 'For one thing, most merchantmen sail from Korkyra across to Italy just because it's the shortest way.' 'Exactly,' Sostratos said. 'Why are you doing something different, then?' 'Because all the pirates around - Hellenes, Epeirotes, Illyrians, Tyrrhenians - know what the merchantmen do, and they hover around the passage where the Adriatic opens out into the Ionian Sea the way vultures hover over a dead ox. Even if this trip across the open sea is longer, it should be safer.' 'Ah.' Sostratos spread his hands. 'That does make good sense. You said it was one reason. You have more?' 'You've got no business grilling me,' Menedemos said. 'No doubt you're right, O best one.' Sostratos could be most annoying when he was most ironically polite. And then he struck a shrewder blow yet: 'If anything goes wrong, though, our fathers will grill you, and it will be their business. Wouldn't you sooner practice your answers on me?' The thought of having to explain things to his father made Menedemos spit into the bosom of his tunic. He said, 'I'm sure you want me to tell you for my own good, not for yours.' Sostratos looked innocent. He looked so innocent, Menedemos burst out laughing. 'The other reason I don't want to stop at Korkyra is, it's about the most dismal place in the world.' 'Not surprising, after all the wars it's lost,' Sostratos said. 'And it was the place where the Peloponnesian War began, and that ruined all of Hellas. But Korkyra's free and independent nowadays.' He raised that eyebrow again - more irony. 'Yes, Korkyra is free and independent, all right.' Menedemos raised an eyebrow, too, and quoted a proverbial verse: ' 'Korkyra is free - shit wherever you want.' ' His cousin snorted. 'Well, all right. Maybe it's just as well you didn't go up the coast. You would have recited that in a tavern after you'd had some wine, and got yourself knifed.' Since he was probably right, Menedemos didn't argue with him. Instead, he said, 'I just wish the wind weren't right in our teeth. We'll have to row all the way. But it always
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