¹⁷ Travel conditions would have been identical to those on the other side of the Aegean Sea as reported by Pliny the Younger to Trajan, ‘I have arrived at Ephesus … and my intention now is to travel on to my province [Bithynia] partly by coastal boat and partly by carriage. The intense heat prevents my travelling entirely by road and the prevailing Etesian winds make it impossible to go all the way by sea’ (Letters, 10. 15; trans. Radice), and a little later, ‘I found the intense heat very trying when I went on to travel by road and developed a touch of fever which kept me at Pergamum. Then when I had resumed my journey by coastal boat, I was further delayed by contrary winds so that I did not reach Bithynia until 17 September’ (Letters, 10. 17).