Chapter 29

1284Geira.

1285Destroyed by an earthquake in the time of Nero, afterwards Konos.

1286Teseni.

1287Ballyk.

1288Sultan Dagh.

1289Ak Schehr.

1290Ialobatsch.

1291Mender Tschai.

1292Samsun.

1293The lake above Celænæ bore the name of Aulocrene or Pipe Fountain, probably from the reeds which grew there. Pliny, b. v. c. 29.

1294Urumluk.

1295The place is identified by the hot springs about 12 miles from Denizli or Jenidscheh.

1296Ala Schehr.

1297The Black.

1298The number of cities destroyed were twelve, and the catastrophe took place in the night. An inscription relating to this event is still preserved at Naples. Tacit. Ann. B. ii. c. 47. Sueton. in V. Tiberii.

1299Tiberius, the adopted son of Augustus.

1300B. i. c. iii. § 4.

1301Herophilus, a celebrated physician, and contemporary of Erasistratus. He was one of the first founders of the medical school in Alexandria, and whose fame afterwards surpassed that of all others. He lived in the 4th and 3rd centuriesB. C.

1302Zeuxis was the author of a commentary on Hippocrates: it is now lost; even in the time of Galen, aboutA. D.150, it was rare. Alexander Philalethes, who succeeded Zeuxis, had as his pupil and probably successor Demosthenes Philalethes, who was the author of a treatise on the eyes, which was still in existence in the 14th century.

1303The Niobe, a lost tragedy of Sophocles, is often quoted; this is probably here meant.

1304Satal-dere.

1305The Troad is called Biga by the Turks, from the name of a town which now commands that district. Biga is the ancient Sidene.

1306Kodscha-Tschai. Oustvola.Gossellin.

1307The ruins of Abydos are on the eastern side of the Hellespont, near a point called Nagara. Sestos, of which the ruins also exist, called Zemenic, are on the opposite coast.

1308Baba Kalessi.

1309Eski Stamboul, or Old Constantinople.

1310Bakir-Tschai, or Germasti.

1311Beiram-koi, or Asso, or Adschane.

1312Edremid or Adramytti.

1313Dikeli-koi.

1314Tschandarlik.

1315Mytilene.

1316Lamurt-koi.

1317Gedis-Tschai.

1318Karadscha-Fokia.

1319The return of the Heracleidæ having taken place, according to Thucydides and other writers, eighty years after the capture of Troy, some critics have imagined that the text of Strabo in this passage should be changed from ἑξήκοντα ἔτεσι, sixty years, to ὀγδοήκοντα ἔτεσι, eighty years. Thucydides, in the same chapter, and in the space of a few lines, speaks of the return of the Bœotians to their own country, as having taken place sixty years after the capture of Troy; and of the return of the Heracleidæ to the Peloponnesus, as having taken place eighty years after the same event; it is probable that Strabo, who followed Thucydides, substituted, through inattention, one number for another.

1320Kamaraes, or Kemer. (Kamar,Arab.the Moon.)

1321Near Mussatsch-Koi.

1322Il. xiv. 283.

1323The passage in brackets Meineke suspects to be an interpolation, as Rhesus and Heptaporus cannot be placed in this part of Ida, nor do any of the streams mentioned by Homer in the same passage flow into the Ægean Sea.

1324Il. xii. 19.

1325Il. ii. 824.

1326The whole range of Ida now bears various names: the highest summit is called Kas-dagh. Gossellin says that the range is called Kara-dagh, but this name (black mountain) like Karasu (Black river) and Kara-Koi (Black village) are so commonly applied that they amount to no distinction; in more modern maps this name does not appear. It may be here observed that the confusion of names of those parts in the Turkish empire which were formerly under the Greeks, arises from the use of names in both languages.

1327Il. xiv. 292.

1328The Gulf of Edremid or Jalea, the ancient Elæa.

1329The meridian, according to our author’s system, passing through Constantinople, Rhodes, Alexandria, Syene, and Meröe.

1330Il. ix. 328.

1331Od. xviii. 518.

1332Il. ix. 129.

1333Il. xx. 92.

1334Il. ii. 691.

1335Il. ii. 690.

1336Il. xix. 295.

1337Il. i. 366.

1338Il. vi. 395.

1339Il. xxi. 86.

1340Il. iii. 816.

1341Il. ii. 819.

1342Il. xx. 83.

1343Il. ii. 824.

1344Il. ii. 835.

1345Il. iv. 499.

1346Bergas.

1347Il. xv. 546.

1348Il. ii. 831.

1349So that Cilicia was divided into three principalities, as Strabo observes below, c. i. § 70. But perhaps this division was only invented for the purpose of completing the number of the nine principalities, for Strabo above, c. i. § 2, speaks in a manner to let us suppose that other authors reckoned eight only. However this may be, the following is the number of the dynasties or principalities established by our author. 1. That of Mynes; 2. that of Eetion, both in Cilicia; 3. that of Altes; 4. that of Hector; 5. that of Æneas; 6. that of Pandarus; 7. that of Asius; 8. that of the son of Merops; 9. that of Eurypylus, also in Cilicia.Coraÿ.

1350Granting to Priam the sovereignty of the districts just mentioned by Strabo, his dominion extended over a country about twenty maritime leagues in length and the same in breadth. It would be impossible to determine the exact limits of these different districts, but it is seen thatThe Trojans, properly so called, occupied the basin of the Scamander (Menderes-Tschai).The Cilicians, commanded by Eetion, occupied the territory which surrounds the present Gulf of Adramytti.The Cilicians of Mynes were to the south of the above.The Leleges extended along a part of the northern coast of the Gulf of Adramytti, from Cape Baba.The Dardanians were above the Trojans, and the chain of Ida. On the north, extending on both sides of the Hellespont, were the people of Arisbe, Sestos, and Abydos.The people of Adrasteia occupied the Propontis, as far as the Granicus.The Lycians, the country beyond, as far as the Æsepus and Zeleia.Strabo mentioned a ninth (c. i. § 2) principality subject to Priam; he does not mention it by name, or rather it is wanting in the text. M. de Choiseul-Gouffier, (Voyage Pittoresque de la Grèce, vol. ii.,) with much probability, thinks that this principality was that of the island of Lesbos.Gossellin.

The Trojans, properly so called, occupied the basin of the Scamander (Menderes-Tschai).

The Cilicians, commanded by Eetion, occupied the territory which surrounds the present Gulf of Adramytti.

The Cilicians of Mynes were to the south of the above.

The Leleges extended along a part of the northern coast of the Gulf of Adramytti, from Cape Baba.

The Dardanians were above the Trojans, and the chain of Ida. On the north, extending on both sides of the Hellespont, were the people of Arisbe, Sestos, and Abydos.

The people of Adrasteia occupied the Propontis, as far as the Granicus.

The Lycians, the country beyond, as far as the Æsepus and Zeleia.

Strabo mentioned a ninth (c. i. § 2) principality subject to Priam; he does not mention it by name, or rather it is wanting in the text. M. de Choiseul-Gouffier, (Voyage Pittoresque de la Grèce, vol. ii.,) with much probability, thinks that this principality was that of the island of Lesbos.Gossellin.

1351Il. xxiv. 543.

1352Il. ii. 824.

1353M. Falconer prétend qu’au lieu de 80 stades il faut lire 180.—Nos cartes modernes confirment la conjecture de M. Falconer.Gossellin.

1354Il. ii. 828.

1355Karadere.

1356For Σκάρθων in the text—read ὁ δ’ ἐκ ... εἰς Σκάρδωνα. Meineke, who however suspects the whole passage to be an interpolation.

1357Peor Apis, or Baal Peor?

1358Lapsaki or Lampsaki.

1359The reading is very doubtful.

1360Marmara, from the marble, μάρμαρον, found there.

1361Gallipoli.

1362Beiram-dere.

1363Il. ii. 328.

1364Il. v. 612.

1365The same person probably as Cephalion, author of a History of the Trojan War.

1366Neoptolemus composed a glossary, or dictionary, divided into several books.

1367Charon was the author of a History of the Persian War, and of the Annals of Lampsacus.

1368Adeimantes was probably one of the courtiers of Demetrius Poliorcetes.

1369Anaximenes was the author of a History of Early Times, and of a work entitled, The Death of Kings. The “Rhetoric addressed to Alexander,” now known as The Rhetoric of Aristotle, has been ascribed to him. For the above see Athenæus.

1370Called “Stagnum Agrippæ” in Tacit. Ann. b. xv. c. 37.

1371Il. ii. 835.

1372Il. iv. 522.

1373Il. ii. 254.

1374The Maritza in Roumelia.

1375Il. xvi. 717.

1376A bridge of boats which could be unfixed at pleasure for the passage of vessels.

1377Meineke reads κρατίστη, the strongest fortified, instead of ἀρίστη.

1378Il. ii. 819.

1379Il. xv. 425.

1380The ancient Dardania in the interior; a second Dardania was afterwards built on the sea-coast.

1381Il. xx. 215.

1382Od. ix. 109, 112.

1383Il. xx. 216.

1384Il. xi. 166.

1385According to Arrian and Plutarch, it was before his victory.

1386A native of Alexandreia-Troas and a grammarian; he was the author of Commentaries on various authors and of a History of the Trojan War.—Athenæus.

1387According to Pliny, b. vii. 29, this casket contained the perfumes of Darius, unguentorum scrinium. According to Plutarch, (Life of Alexander) the poem of Homer was the Iliad revised and corrected by Aristotle. From what Strabo here says of Callisthenes and Anaxarchus, we may probably understand a second revision made by them under the inspection of Alexander.

1388Called above, § 22, Cape Dardanium (Cape Barber). Pliny gives the name Dardanium to the town which Herodotus and Strabo call Dardanus, and places it at an equal distance from Rhœteium and Abydos. The modern name Dardanelles is derived from it.

1389The name was given, it is said, in consequence of the imprecations of Hecuba on her captors. Others say that Hecuba was transformed into a bitch. The tomb occupied the site of the present castle in Europe called by the Turks Kilid-bahr.

1390Pliny states that in his time there were no traces of the Rhodius, nor of the other rivers mentioned by Strabo in following Homer. According to others, the Rhodius is the torrent which passes by the castle of the Dardanelles in Asia, called by the Turks Sultan-kalessi, and therefore cannot unite with the Æsepus.

1391Ienischer.

1392The Scamander no longer unites with the Simoïs, and for a considerable length of time has discharged itself into the Archipelago. The ancient mouth of these rivers preserve, however, the name Menderé, which is an evident alteration of Scamander, and the name Menderé has also become that of the ancient Simoïs. It is to be observed that Demetrius of Scepsis, whose opinions on what regards these rivers and the position of Troy are quoted by Strabo, constantly takes the Simoïs or Menderé for the Scamander of Homer. The researches of M. de Choiseul-Gouffier on the Troad appear to me clearly to demonstrate that Demetrius of Scepsis is mistaken.—Gossellin.

1393The temple or tomb of Protesilaus, one of the Greek princes who went to the siege of Troy, and the first who was killed on disembarking. Artayctes, one of the generals of Xerxes, pillaged the temple and profaned it by his debauchery. According to Herodotus, (b. ix. 115,) who narrates the circumstance, the temple and the tomb of Protesilaus must have been in Eleussa (Paleo-Castro) itself, or at least very near this city. Chandler thought he had discovered this tomb near the village which surrounds the castle of Europe.

1394The port of the Achæans, the spot, that is, where the Greeks disembarked on the coast of the Troad, at the entrance of the Hellespont, appears to have been comprehended between the hillock called the Tomb of Achilles and the southern base of the heights, on which is situated another tomb, which goes by the name of the Tomb of Ajax. This space of about 1500 toises in length, now sand and lagunes, where the village Koum Kale and the fortress called the New Castle of Asia stand, and which spreads across the mouth of the Menderé, once formed a creek, the bottom of which, from examination on the spot, extended 1200 or 1500 toises from the present shore. It is from the bottom of this marshy creek the 12 stadia must be measured which Strabo reckons from the Port of the Achæans to New Ilium. These 12 stadia, estimated at 700 to a degree, (like the generality of other measures adopted by Strabo in this district,) are equal to 977 toises, and conduct in a straight line to the western point of the mountain Tchiblak, where there are remains of buildings which may be the vestiges of New Ilium.The other 30 stadia, which, according to Strabo, or rather according to Demetrius of Scepsis, was the distance from New Ilium to the town of the Ilienses, are equal to 2440 toises, and terminate at the most eastern edge of the table-land of Tchiblak, in a spot where ruins of a temple and other edifices are seen. Thus there is nothing to prevent our taking this place for the site of the town of the Ilienses, and this is the opinion of many modern travellers. But did this town occupy the same ground as the ancient Ilium, as Demetrius of Scepsis believed? Strabo thinks not, and we shall hereafter see the objections he has to offer against the opinion of Demetrius.—Gossellin.

The other 30 stadia, which, according to Strabo, or rather according to Demetrius of Scepsis, was the distance from New Ilium to the town of the Ilienses, are equal to 2440 toises, and terminate at the most eastern edge of the table-land of Tchiblak, in a spot where ruins of a temple and other edifices are seen. Thus there is nothing to prevent our taking this place for the site of the town of the Ilienses, and this is the opinion of many modern travellers. But did this town occupy the same ground as the ancient Ilium, as Demetrius of Scepsis believed? Strabo thinks not, and we shall hereafter see the objections he has to offer against the opinion of Demetrius.—Gossellin.

1395Consequently ancient Ilium, according to Strabo, was forty-two stadia from the coast. Scylax places it at twenty-five stadia; but probably the copyists of this latter writer have confounded the numerical Greek letters κε (25) with με (45).

1396According to Homer, (Od. xxiv. 75,) Patrocles must have the same tomb with Achilles, as their ashes were united in the same urn; those of Antilochus were contained in a separate urn.

1397Il. v. 642.

1398Il. v. 641.

1399This plain, according to Demetrius, was to the east of the present Menderé, and was enclosed by this river and the mountain Tchiblak.

1400Il. xvi. 738.

1401If the name Cebrene or Cebrenia were derived from Cebriones, it would have been, according to analogy, Cebrionia; but it would have been better to have supposed the name to have been derived from Cebren, the more so as this river was supposed to be the father of Œnone the wife of Alexander (Paris). Whatever may be the origin of the name, the city Cebrene was, according to Ephorus, a colony of Cyme in Æolia.

1402The position of the tomb of Æsyetes is said to be near a village called by the Turks Udjek, who also give the name Udjek-tepe to the tomb itself. The tomb of Ilus, it is presumed, must be in the neighbourhood of the ancient bed of Scamander, and Batieia below the village Bounar-bachi.

1403This and the following paragraph more especially are at variance with the conjecture of those who place New Ilium at the village Tchiblak, situated beyond and to the north of the Simoïs.

1404As there are no mountains on the left bank of the Menderé, at the distance at which Demetrius places the town of the Ilienses, the long ridge or height of which Strabo speaks can only be referred to the hill of Tchiblak. In that case the Simoïs of Demetrius must be the stream Tchiblak, which modern maps represent as very small, but which Major Rennell, on authority as yet uncertain, extends considerably, giving it the name Shimar, which according to him recalls that of Simoïs.—Gossellin.

1405Kramer proposes the insertion of ὤν before τῶν εἰρημένων ἀγκώνων ἐπ’ εὐθείας, by which we are to understand that the extremities of the arms and of the ridge are in the same straight line.Groskurd reads μεταξὺ before τ. ε. α., changes the construction of the sentence, and reads the letter ψ instead of ε. His translation is as follows: “Both-mentioned plains are separated from each other by a long neck of land between the above-mentioned arms, which takes its commencement from the present Ilium and unites with it, extending itself in a straight line as far as Cebrenia, and forms with the arms on each side the letter ψ.”The topography of the plain of Troy and its neighbourhood is not yet sufficiently known to be able to distinguish all the details given by Demetrius. It appears only that he took the Tchiblak for the Simoïs, and placed the plain of Troy to the right of the present Menderé, which he called the Scamander. This opinion, lately renewed by Major Rennell, presents great and even insurmountable difficulties when we endeavour to explain on this basis the principal circumstances of the Iliad. It must be remembered that in the time of Demetrius the remembrance of the position of ancient Troy was entirely lost, and that this author constantly reasoned on the hypothesis, much contested in his time, that the town of the Ilienses corresponded with that of ancient Ilium.Observations on the Topography of the plain of Troy by James Rennell.—Gossellin.

Groskurd reads μεταξὺ before τ. ε. α., changes the construction of the sentence, and reads the letter ψ instead of ε. His translation is as follows: “Both-mentioned plains are separated from each other by a long neck of land between the above-mentioned arms, which takes its commencement from the present Ilium and unites with it, extending itself in a straight line as far as Cebrenia, and forms with the arms on each side the letter ψ.”

The topography of the plain of Troy and its neighbourhood is not yet sufficiently known to be able to distinguish all the details given by Demetrius. It appears only that he took the Tchiblak for the Simoïs, and placed the plain of Troy to the right of the present Menderé, which he called the Scamander. This opinion, lately renewed by Major Rennell, presents great and even insurmountable difficulties when we endeavour to explain on this basis the principal circumstances of the Iliad. It must be remembered that in the time of Demetrius the remembrance of the position of ancient Troy was entirely lost, and that this author constantly reasoned on the hypothesis, much contested in his time, that the town of the Ilienses corresponded with that of ancient Ilium.Observations on the Topography of the plain of Troy by James Rennell.—Gossellin.

1406Il. xx. 51.

1407Il. x. 430.

1408Tumbrek.

1409Erineos, a wild fig-tree. Homer, it is to be observed, speaks of a single wild fig-tree, whereas Strabo describes a spot planted with them. This place, or a place near the ancient Ilium, is called by the Turks, according to M. Choiseul-Gouffier, Indgirdagh—i.e. the mountain of fig-trees, although none were to be found there whether cultivated or wild.

1410Il. vi. 433.

1411Il. ix. 352.

14121628 toises. The alluvial deposit has now extended the mouth of the Menderé 3400 toises from the ruins where the measurement indicated the position of New Ilium.—Gossellin.

1413The passage is corrupt, and the translation is rather a paraphrase, assisted by the conjectures of Kramer.

1414Od. xiv. 469.

1415Od. xiv. 496.

1416Il. xx. 209.

1417Il. xviii. 254.

1418Hestiæa was distinguished for her commentary on Homer somewhat in the same manner as Madame Dacier in modern times.

1419Il. ii. 792.

1420M. Lechevalier, who extends Ilium and its citadel Pergamus to the highest summit of the mountain Bounar-bachi, acknowledges that the nature of the ground would prevent the course of Hector and Achilles taking place round this position, in consequence of the rivers and the precipices which surround it on the S. E. To meet the objection which these facts would give rise to, M. Lechevalier interprets the expressions of Homer in a manner never thought of by the ancient grammarians, although they contorted the text in every possible manner, to bend it to their peculiar opinions. Would it not be more easy to believe that at the time of the siege of Troy this city was no longer on the summit of the mountain, nor so near its ancient acropolis as it was at first; and that the inhabitants moved under the reign of Ilus, as Plato says, and as Homer leads us to conclude, to the entrance of the plain and to the lower rising grounds of Ida? The level ground on the top mountain which rises above Bounar-bachi, and on which it has been attempted to trace the contour of the walls of ancient Ilium and of its citadel, is more than 3200 toises in circumference.But it is difficult to conceive how, at so distant a period and among a people half savage, a space of ground so large and without water could be entirely occupied by a town, whose power scarcely extended beyond 25 leagues. On the other hand, as the exterior circuit of this mountain is more than 5500 toises, it is not to be conceived how Homer, so exact in his description of places, should have represented Achilles and Hector, already fatigued by a long-continued battle, as making an uninterrupted course of about seven leagues round this mountain, before commencing in single combat. It appears to me therefore that the Troy of Homer must have covered a much less space of ground than is generally supposed, and according to all appearances this space was bounded by a hillock, on which is now the village of Bounar-bachi. This hillock is about 700 or 800 toises in circumference; it is isolated from the rest of the mountain; and warriors in pursuing one another could easily make the circuit. This would not prevent Pergamus from being the citadel of Ilium, but it was separated from it by an esplanade, which served as a means of communication between the town and the fortress.—Gossellin.

But it is difficult to conceive how, at so distant a period and among a people half savage, a space of ground so large and without water could be entirely occupied by a town, whose power scarcely extended beyond 25 leagues. On the other hand, as the exterior circuit of this mountain is more than 5500 toises, it is not to be conceived how Homer, so exact in his description of places, should have represented Achilles and Hector, already fatigued by a long-continued battle, as making an uninterrupted course of about seven leagues round this mountain, before commencing in single combat. It appears to me therefore that the Troy of Homer must have covered a much less space of ground than is generally supposed, and according to all appearances this space was bounded by a hillock, on which is now the village of Bounar-bachi. This hillock is about 700 or 800 toises in circumference; it is isolated from the rest of the mountain; and warriors in pursuing one another could easily make the circuit. This would not prevent Pergamus from being the citadel of Ilium, but it was separated from it by an esplanade, which served as a means of communication between the town and the fortress.—Gossellin.

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