There in Rhodes, Menedemos is a young, daring sea captain; scholarly, reserved Sostratos is his cousin. Their fathers jointly own a merchant galley, the Aphrodite, and they expect Menedemos and Sostratos to use it to enrich their families. But now the cousins plan their largest, most audacious trading voyage yet, which will take them from the shores of Asia Minor all the way to the coasts of faraway Italy, and to confrontations with the barbarians of an obscure town called "Rome." Along the way they will buy and sell wine, silks, and even -- to the astonishment of all -- peacocks.

They face a chance at untold riches...if they can evade the massed strength of the Carthaginian fleet.