Time Scout by Robert Asprin & Linda Evans

Margo had brightened visibly. “That sounds super! How do we get there?”

”We hire a boat.”

She grinned. “Great! Show me!”

Malcolm made arrangements with a local merchant willing to hire out his little lenunculi since he was on holiday for the festivals. The boat reeked of fish, but handled beautifully.

”You know how to sail, I guess?” Margo asked

”Yep. So will you, by the time we get to Ostia.”

She groaned, but took to the lessons cheerfully once they were on the water. Malcolm taught her the rudiments of terminology while he navigated the heavy traffic in the Tiber. Once they were downstream from Rome and into quieter water, he started the hands-on lessons. She was clumsy at first and nearly put them into the near bank a couple of times but eventually caught on. He let her steer for a while and relaxed in the warm morning sunshine.

”You like it here,” she said after a while.

Malcolm peeled an eyelid and found her watching him pensively. He smiled “Yes, I do.”

”Even though they’re barbaric and put people to death in the arena?”

He considered how best to answer. “Every culture’s barbaric in some fashion. It’s a matter of perspective. The reverse is generally true, as well. Every culture has something fine and useful to offer. It’s a matter of how you look at it. The trick in scouting is to figure out what you’re looking at, to decide what: if anything-you can gain from that particular culture and time period, then to make off safely with whatever you’ve found, whether it’s scholarly information or something more lucrative. Like, say, a potential new tourist gate or some treasure that’s about to be lost through natural or man-made calamity. The more you know about when and where you are when you step through, the likelier you’ll be able to identify what’s useful.”