H. N.Turteltaub

A TOM DOHERTY ASSOCIATESBOOK

New York

www.ebookyes.com

This is a work offiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this novel are eitherfictitious or are used fictitiously.

OVER THE WINE-DARK SEA

Copyright  2001 by H. N.Turteltaub

All rights reserved,including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.

Edited by PatrickNielsen Hayden

Map by Mark SteinStudios

A Forge Book

Published by Tom DohertyAssociates, LLC

175 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10010

www.tor.com

Forge is a registeredtrademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

ISBN 0-312-70193-4

First Edition: July 2001

By H. N. Turteltaub fromTom Doherty Associates

Justinian

Over the Wine-Dark Sea

This book is forProfessor Stanley Burstein of California State University, Los Angeles, and forNoreen Doyle, with many thanks for their friendship and for their help with myresearch.

A NOTE ONWEIGHTS, MEASURES, AND MONEY

I have, as best I could, used in this novel the weights,measures, and coinages my characters would have used and encountered in theirjourney. Here are some approximate equivalents (precise values would havevaried from city to city, further complicating things):

1 digit = 3/4 inch

4 digits = 1 palm

6 palms = 1 cubit

1 cubit = 1 1/2 feet

1 plethron = 100 feet

1 stadion = 600 feet

12 khalkoi = 1 obolos

6 oboloi = 1 drakhma

100 drakhmai = 1 mina

(about 1 pound of silver)

60 minai = 1 talent

As noted, these are all approximate. As a measure of howwidely they could vary, the talent in Athens was about 57 pounds, while that ofAigina, less than thirty miles away, was about 83 pounds.