The Sacred Land — H.N. Turteltaub

IT'S A HARD DAY'S WORK, HUSTLING FOR AN HONEST DRACHMA

Menedemos and Sostratos, dauntless traders of the third century B.C., have set sail again--this time to Phoenicia. There Menedemos will spend the summer wheeling and dealing, while cousin Sostratos travels inland to the little-known country of Ioudaia, with its strange people and their even stranger religion.

In theory, Sostratos is going in search of cheap balsam, a perfume much in demand in the Mediterranean world. In truth, he just wants to get a good look at a part of the world unknown to most Greeks. And the last thing he wants is to have to take along a bunch of sailors as bodyguards

But Menedemos insists. He knows that bandits on land are as dangerous as pirates at sea, and he has no faith in scholarly Sostratos' ability to dodge them. Meanwhile, it turns out that the prime hams and smoked eels they picked up en route are unsalable to Ioudaians. (Who knew?) And then there's the olive oil they've been rooked into taking on board, as they set sail for a part of the world that makes the stuff. Compared to these kinds of headaches, mere bandits seem like a trivial problem. But greater dangers lurk ahead....