36 / CHRONICLESnus, and we wish they would go away.nWhen she’s not eating potato chipsnand watching L.A. Law, ]ane Greernedits Plains Poetry Journal.nLetter From SouthnAmericanby Geoffrey WagnernTraveling in the Blackn”I never save less than $400 on anround-trip ticket Kennedy-de Gaulle,”nsaid the 40ish, balding businessman innthe paneled bar of his Manhattannclub. “I fly Concorde to Paris once anmonth. My secretary buys my NewnYork-Paris ticket, which is presentlynaround $1,200, and books my return.nIn Paris I change dollars at a premiumnand buy the westward flight back fornabout $800. Whichever way you cutnit, your credit-card company is goingnto give you the lowest possible foreign-nBOOKS IN BRIEFnexchange rate and make a bundlendoing so.”n”But it offers me safety,” I (a lawand-ordernguy) corrected him.n”Okay,” he conceded. “But with thendollar as strong as it is in South America,nyou have to be crazy not to buynlocal currencies in the black marketnthere and pay for your travel, hotels,npurchases, whatever, in local monies.nThere’s nothing illegal in doing so.”nOnly risky, I thought, about to leavenwith my wife for an extensive tripnthrough that lovely, hopelessly debtriddenncontinent, and unable to usenthe cheapie tour deals which limitnyour time. So I decided to take mynfriend’s advice and trade in the negro,nas it’s known south of the border. Mynconversation with him took place twonyears ago, and rates have changed, butnas a blanket strategy—give or take anlittle — my businessman’s plan hasnworked through several trips since, thenbenchmark being, of course, the fivenrates of exchange for going currenciesnquoted in something like the New YorknTimes: c=commercial, (i=controlled.nLove in Ancient Rome by Pierre Giimal with a foreword by William R. Nethercut,ntranslated from the French by Arthur Train Jr., Norman, OK: University of OklahomanPress. A readable translation of an entertaining exploration of love and sex in the eternal city.nIn the typically French fashion of undocumented erudition (the list of selected readings hasnnothing to do with text), Grimal draws upon his reading of Roman literature in painting thisnsympathetic portrait. The only fly in the ointment is a hopelessly tendentious and irrelevantnintroduction by the irrepressible Prof Nethercut.nStudies in Land and Credit in Ancient Athens, 500-200 B. C. by Moses J. Finley, with annintroductory essay by Paul Millett, New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books; $39.95. SirnMoses Finley was among the most brilliant students of Greek social and economic life andnscholars will be grateful to Transaction for bringing Land and Credit back into print with anneminently useful introduction updating this 1952 classic.nThe Christians and the Roman Empire by Marta Sordi, translated by Annabel Bedini,nNorman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. An intelligent and well-argued discussion of anquestion of more than passing interest to nonscholars. Sordi argues that while Ghristiansnwere, in fact, persecuted by the Roman state, the conflict was essentially religious rather thannpolitical. Ghristians remained loyal to the empire even during periods of persecution triggerednby religious fanatics. Sordi’s book is a useful corrective not only to some religious propagandancurrently in print but also to more serious works that have attempted to portray the RomannEmpire as a totalitarian society—should be required reading for serious Ghristians.nThe Reign of the Phallus: Sexual Politics in Ancient Athenshy Eva G. Keuls, New York:nHarper & Row; $27.50. A remarkably silly book that is adored by every classicist who isn’tnwrapped too tight. There are occasional insights along the way, but Prof Keuls’s hatred ofnGreek (all?) males verges on the pathological. Not for faint hearts, delicate stomachs, ornsound minds.nAristotle on Comedy: Towards a Reconstruction of Poetics //by Richard Janko, London:nDuckworth. What Aristotle had to say about comedy in the lost second book of the Poetics is angreat mystery—as anyone knows who has read The Name of the Rose. Richard Janko, in hisnown careful way, has done a piece of detective work every bit as fascinating as Umberto Eco’snclerical investigator. While his conclusions are likely to be controversial for some time, Jankonhas demonstrated again the potential significance of properly applied pedantry.nnnf=financial, v^ofHcial (the big one),nz=floating. I submit my findings.nVenezuela: not an easy country tonlark about in money-wise, and far lessnhungry for the dollar than most; thenbolivar was then varying from nine, innhotels and shops, to 13 per U,S. dollar,nat the airport. This extremely exceptional,nand artificial, situation wasndue to the government’s Bs. 9.90 ratenfor dollar sales and Bs. 4.3 for essentialnimports, a prachce against which thenchairman of the main exchangenhouse, Italcambio, has complained,nand which has been somewhat modifiednby incoming Jaime Lusinchi. Butnthe outlines remain the same. Thsynmean that if you get v, the official ratenon your credit-card billing, you’ll benbadly burned and lose $20 per $100nwhen changing at a hotel. This spreadnof rates is, of course, a symptom ofneconomic malaise: Indeed, in Alfonsin’snArgentina the same spreadnclimbed from 10 percent to 30 percentnin the time we were there.nBrazil: We arrived in Rio’s graciousnairport at the height of an unreasoningndollar panic, plus 44-degree centigradentemperatures, and I’ve not seen its likensince the side-streets of Naples in thenwar, when U.S. troops were runningnriot with the green (a General IssuenAmerican soldier received five times asnmuch at the pay table as his Britishnequivalent). At Rio the lobby wasnphysically hard to thrust through, sonmany touts were offering bargain cruzeirondeals, while hotels sent representativesnto hold up placards advertisingntheir rates. We were even approachednby two families, both better-heeled innappearance than us, desirous of unloadingncruzeiros at almost any price.nThe official rate was in the 900’s then,nbut it was easy to get 13 in the hotels,nwith streetside cambios (exchangenshops) offering much more.nHowever, caveat emptor. The Rioncambios required greenbacks rathernthan traveler’s checks; this, of course,ncan create difficulties since it is notnalways possible to obtain dollars forntraveler’s checks, even with a U.S.npassport and return ticket. (Worse, thenRio cambio to which I repaired, onnrecommendation, run by a youth whonresembled a Vegas pit boss, was impolite.)nStill, the rates, soaring as we left,nwere golden enough to buy a lot ofntravel in that long-distance continent.n