CHAP. IV. Remains of or some later Roman emperor or empress. As there were so many of these Iliean medals, I asked where they were found; and was answered, in modern Greek, at Palaio Callifat, Old Callifat, a short distance from the present village, in the plain towards the east'. I begged to be conducted thither; and took one of the peasants with me, as a guide. We came to an elevated spot of ground, surrounded on all sides by a level plain, watered by the Callifat Osmack, and which there is every reason to believe the Simoïsian. Here we found, not only the traces, but also the remains of an antient citadel. Turks were then employed raising enormous blocks of marble, from foundations surrounding the place; possibly the identical works constructed by Lysimachus, who fenced New Ilium with a wall. The appearance of the structure exhibited that colossal and massive style of architecture which bespeaks the masonry of the early ages of Grecian history. All the territory within these foundations was covered by broken pottery, whose fragments were parts of those antient vases now held in such high estimation. Here the peasants said they found the medals they had offered to us, and most frequently after heavy rains. Many had been discovered in consequence of the recent excavations made there by the Turks, who were removing the materials of the (1) Every traveller who has visited Greece will be aware of the importance of profiting by the mention of the word Palaio, as applied to the name of any place. It is a never-failing indication of the site of some antient city; and so it proved in the present instance. 1 the old foundations, for the purpose of constructing works at the Dardanelles. As these medals, bearing indisputable legends to designate the people by whom they were fabricated, have also, in the circumstances of their discovery, a peculiar connection with the Ruins here, they may be considered as indicating, with tolerable certainty, the situation of the city to which they belonged. Had we observed, in our route from Tchiblack, precisely the line of direction mentioned by Strabo, and continued a due course from east to west, instead of turning towards the south in the Simoïsian Plain to visit the village of Callifat, we should have terminated the distance he has mentioned, of thirty stadia, (as separating the city from the village of the Iliensians) by the discovery of these Ruins. They may have been the same which Kauffer noticed in his map, by the title of Ville de Constantine; but evidently appear to be the remains of New Ilium; whether we regard the testimony afforded by their situation, as accordant with the text of Strabo; or the discovery there made of medals of the city. Once in possession of this important point, a light breaks in upon the dark labyrinth of Troas; we stand with Strabo upon the very spot whence he deduced his observations concerning other objects in the district; looking down upon the Simoïsian Plain, and viewing the junction of the two rivers ("one flowing towards Sigeum, and the other towards Rhæteum, precisely (2) See the Map published by Arrowsmith of The Plain of Troy, from an original design by Kauffer. CHAP. IV. precisely as described by him) in front of the Iliensian city; being guided, at the same time, to Callicolone, the village of the Ilieans, and the sepulchres of Æsyetes, Batieia, and Ilus, by the clue he has afforded'. From the natural or artificial elevation of the territory on which the city stood, (an insulated object in the plain) we beheld almost every land-mark to which that author has alluded. The splendid spectacle presented towards the west by the snow-clad top of Samothrace, towering behind Imbrus, would baffle every attempt of delineation: it rose with indescribable grandeur, to a height beyond all I had seen for a long time; and while its ætherial summit shone with inconceivable brightness in a sky without a cloud, seemed, notwithstanding its remote situation, as if its vastness would overwhelm all Troas, should an earthquake heave it from its base. Nearer to the eye appeared the mouth of the Hellespont, and Sigeum. On the south, the Tomb of Æsyetes, by the road leading to Alexandria Troas2; and less remote, the Scamander, receiving Simoïs, or Callifat Water, at the boundary of the Simoïsian Plain. Towards the east, the Throsmos, with the sepulchres of Batieia and Ilus: and far beyond, in the (1) The Reader is requested to pay particular attention to the Map engraven as a Vignette to this Chapter, in order to observe the extraordinary coincidence between the actual survey of the Plain, and the description given by Strabo, in his account of Troas, lib. xiii. pp. 855, 861. Ed. Ox. (2) Ὁ νῦν δεικνύμενος τοῦ Αἰσυήτου τάφος κατὰ τὴν εἰς ̓Αλεξάνδρειαν ὁδόν. Strab. Geogr. lib. xiii. p. 863. Ed. Or. the great chain of Ida, Gargarus opposed to Samothrace3, dignified by equal if not superior altitude, and beaming the same degree of splendor from the snows by which it was invested. CHAP. IV. (3) It is only by viewing the stupendous prospect afforded in these classical regions, that any adequate idea can be formed of Homer's powers as a painter, and of the accuracy which distinguishes what Mr. Wood (Essay on Homer, p. 132.) terms his "celestial geography." Neptune placed on the top of Samothrace, commanding a prospect of Ida, Troy, and the fleet, observes Jupiter, upon Gargarus, turn his back upon Troas. What is intended by this averted posture of the God, other than that Gargarus was partially concealed by a cloud, while Samothrace remained unveiled; a circumstance so often realized? All the march of Juno, from Olympus, by Pieria and Æmathia, to Athos; from Athos, by sea, to Lemnos; and thence to Imbros, and Gargarus; is a correct delineation of the striking face of Nature, in which the picturesque wildness and grandeur of real scenery is further adorned by a sublime poetical fiction. Hence it is evident that Homer must have lived in the neighbourhood of Troy; that he borrowed the scene of the Iliad (as stated by Mr. Wood, p. 182.) from ocular examination; and the action of it, from the prevailing tradition of the times. CHAP. V. DISTRICT OF TROAS. Ford of the Mender-Fountains of Bonarbashy-their Temperature IT a con |