صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

the Castle Hill at Cambridge. The first inquiry that sug gests itself, in a view of this extraordinary scene, naturally involves the original cause of the veneration in which the place was anciently held. Does it denote the site of Pagus Iliensium, whose inhabitants believed that their village stood on the site of ancient Troy ?* This place was distant thirty stadiaf from the New Ilium of Strabo; and the distance corresponds with the relative situation of this hill and Palaio Callifat, or Old Calli fat, where New Ilium stood; as will hereafter be proved. Or may it be considered the eminence‡ described by Strabo as the beautiful colone, five stadia in circumference, near which Simois flowed; and Tehiblack, the Pagus Iliensium? It was rather more than a mile distant from the Village of the Ileans, and stood above it; exactly as this hill is situated with. regard to Tchiblack.**

It will now be curious to observe, whether an inscription we discovered here does not connect itself with these inquiries. It was found upon the fluted marble shaft of a Doric pillar two feet in diameter; so constructed, as to contain a cippus, or inscribed slab, upon one side of it;ft presenting the following characters:

* Strab. Geogr. lib. xiii. p. 861. Ed. Ox.

Three English miles and six furlongs.

+ Ἡ καλη Κολωνη λύφος τις.

Rather more than half a mile.

Ten stadia.

** It is a feature of Nature so remarkable. and so artificially characterized at this Hour, that future travellers will do well to give it due attention. In our present state of ignorance concerning Troas, we must proceed with diffidence and caution; nothing has been decided concerning the side of the plain on which this hill stands, and where all the objects most worthy of attention seem to me concentrated. I do not hesitate in expressing a conviction, that when the country shall have been properly examined on the northeastern side of the Mender, instead of the southwestern, many of the difficulties impeding a reconciliation of Homer's Poems with the geography of the country, will be done away. This has not yet been attempted.

tt The cippus, or inscribed part of the pillar, was two feet eleven inches long, and two feet four inches wide.

1

ΤΙΒΕΡΙΩΙΚΔΑΥΔΙΩ ΚΑΙΣΑΡΙ
ΓΕΡΜΑΝΙΚΩΙ ΚΑΠΟΥΛΙΑΣΕΒΑ
ΣΤΗ ΑΓΡΙΠΠΕΙΝΗ ΚΑΙ ΤΟ ΣΤΕΚ
ΤΟΙΣ ΑΥΤΩΝ ΚΑΙ ΤΗΣΥ,.
ΚΑΙΤΗΙΑΘΗΝΑΤΗ ΙΛΙΑΔ

ΙΔΗΜΩ ΤΙΒΕΡΙΟΣΚΑΙ.
ΦΑΝΟΥΣΥΙΟ Σ ΦΙΛΟΚΑΣ ΑΡΚΑ
ΤΗ ΓΥΝΗ ΑΥΤΟΥΚΛΑΥΔ...
ΙΝΟΣ ΘΥΓΑΤΗΡ ΠΑΡΜΕΝ....
ΤΗΝ ΣΤΟ ΑΝΚΑΤΑ ΕΝΑΥΤΗΠΑ
ΝΤΑΚΑΤΑΣΚΕΥΑΣΑΝΤΕΣΕ

ΚΤΩΝΙΔΙΩΝ ΑΝΕΘΗΚΑΝ

The inscription records the consecration of a stoa, and alt things belonging to it, to Tiberius Claudius Cæsar Germanicus, the emperor, and to Julia Augusta Agrippina, his wife, and their children, and to Minerva of Ilium. The reason why the Emperor Claudius and his children were honoured by the Ilienses, is given by Suetonius and Tacitus. * Eckhel

mentions, I know not on what authority, a fane consecrated to the Ilian Minerva, as having existed in the Pagus Fliensium, which Alexander adorned after his victory at Granicus.t Arrian states merely the offerings to Minerva of Ilium, making no mention of the fane; but Strabo, who expressly alludes to the temple, places it in the Iliensian city. But whence originated the sanctity of this remarkable spot, still shaded by a grove of venerable oaks, beneath whose branches a multitude of votive offerings yet entirely cover the summit of the bill? An inscription commemorating the pious tribute of a people in erecting a portico to the family of Claudius Cæsar and the Iliean Minerva, can only be referred to the in

"Iliensibus Imperator Claudius tributa in perpetuum remisit, oratore Nerone Casare. Eckhel. Doctrina Num. Vet. vol. ii. p. 483. Vindob. 1794.

† Eckhel. Doct. Num. Vet. vol. ii. p. 83. Vindob., 1794.

* Τὴν δὲ τῶν Ἰλήτων πόλιν τὴν νῦν, Strab. Geogr. lib. xiii. p. 865. Ed. ΌΣ

habitants of that district of Troas who were styled Пlienses. It has been shown, that Claudius, after the example of Alexander,* had perpetually exempted them from the payment of any tribute. In their district stood the Pagus Iliensium, with the (callicolone) beautiful hill; and nearly thirty stadiat farther toward the west, reversing the order of the bearing given by Strabo, the Iliensium Civitas. If, therefore, this hill, so preeminently entitled to the appellation of Callicolone, from the regularity of its form, and the groves by which it seems for ages to have been adorned, be further considered, on account of its antiquities, an indication of the former vicinity of the Iliensian village, it should follow, that observing a westward course, the distance of three miles and three quarters, or nearly so, would terminate in the site of the Iliensian city; and any discovery ascertaining either of these places would infallibly identify the position of the other. This line of direction we observed in our route, advancing by a cross road into thre plain.

There were other inscriptions, commemorating the good offices of Roman emperors; but these were so much mutilated, that no decisive information could be obtained from them. Upan one we read :.

ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΣ ΦΥΛΗ
ΣΕΞΤΟΝΙΟΥΛΙΟ.....

ΝΑΤΟΝΚΟΣΜΟΝΤΗΣ

ΠΟΛΕΩΣ ΕΠΑΡΧΟΝΣΠΕΙ

ΡΗΣΦΛΑΒΙΑΝΗΣ

THE ALEXANDRIAN TRIBE HONOUR SEXTUS JULIUS, THE
MAGISTRATE OF THE CITY. PRÆFECT OF THE
FLAVIAN COHORT," &c.

Another, inscribed upon the cover of a large marble sarcophagus, mentioned a portico, and the daughter of some person for whom both the ZTOA and the ZOPOz had been constructed.

As we journeyed from this place, we found, in a corn field. below the hill, a large block of inscribed marble; but owing to

*Arriam Expedit. lib. i.

Three miles and three quarters.
Strab. Geogr. lib. xiii.

the manner in which the stone was concealed by the soil, as well as the illegibility of the inscription, we could only dis cern the following characters, in which the name of Julite again occurs:

ΙΟΥΛΙΟΥ....

APXON

ΚΟΣΜΟΝ.

*

sustaining what was before advanced, concerning the preva lence of names belonging to the family of Germanicus, or of persons who flourished about his time. Upon a medal of Claudius, described by Vaillant, belonging to Cotycium, a city of Phrygia, bordering upon Troas,† we read the words EIN IOTWe proceeded hence toward the plain; and no sooner reached it, than a tumulus of very remarkable size and situation drew our attention, for a short time, from the main object of our pursuit.

ΛΙΟΥ ΥΙΟΥ ΚΟΤΙΑΕΩΝ.

This tumulus, of a high conical form, and very regular structure, stands altogether insulated. Of its great antiquity no doubt can be entertained by persons accustomed to view the everlasting sepulchres of the ancients. On the southern side of its base is a long natural mound of limestone: this, beginning to rise close to the artificial tumulus, extends toward the village of Callifat, in a direction nearly from north to south across the middle of the plain. It is of such height, that an army, encamped on the eastern side of it, would be concealed from all observation of persons stationed upon the coast, by the mouth of the Mender. It reaches nearly to a small and almost stagnant river, hitherto unnoticed, called Callifat Osmack, or Callifat Water, taking its name from the village near which it falls into the Mender: our road to that place afterward led us along the top of the mound. Here then both art and nature have combined to mark the plain by circumstances

* Numism. Imperat. August et Cæs. p. 12. par. 1698.

[ocr errors]

See the observation of Mentelle, (Encyclop. Method. Geogr. Ancienne. Par. 1787.) who thus places it on the authority of Pliny. This position of the city does not, howover, appear warranted by any explicit declaration of that author. Pliny's words are: Septentrionali sui parte Galatia contermina, Meridiana Lycaonia, Pisidia, Mygdonidque, ab oriente Cappadociam attingit. Oppida ibi celeberrima, præter jam dicta, Ancyra, Andria, Celana, Colossa, Carina, Cotiaion, Cerana, Iconium, Midaion." Plin. Hist. Nat. tom. i. lib. v. p. 284. Ed. L. Bat. 1635.

Mr. Bryant says, the tumuli on the plain of Troy are Thracian. In addition

of

to the passages in Strabo which prove the Phrygians, these from country,

to have been in the custom of erecting tumuli, the following Athenæus may be added: You may see every where in the Peloponnesus, but particularly at Lacedæmon, large heaps of earth, which they call the tombs of the Phrygians, who same with Pelops.' . xiv. p. 625." Walpole's MS. Journal,

of feature and association not likely to occur elsewhere; although such as any accurate description of the country might well be expected to include: and if the poems of Homer, with reference to the Plain of Troy, have similarly associated an artificial tumulus and a natural mound, a conclusion seems warranted, that these are the objects to which he alludes. This appears to be the case in the account he has given of the tomb of Ilus and the mound of the plain.*

Upon the surface of the tomb itself, in several small channels caused by rain, we found fragments of the vases of ancient Greece. I know not any other cause to assign for their appearance, than the superstitious veneration paid to the tombs of Troas in all the ages of history, until the introduction of christianity. Whether they be considered as the remains of offerings and libations made by Greeks or Romans, they are indisputably not of modern origin. The antiquity of earthenware, from the wheel of a Grecian potter, is as easily cognizable as any work left for modern observation; and, as a vestige of that people, denoting the site of their cities, towns, and public monuments, may be deemed perhaps equal in împortance to medals and inscriptions.

From this tomb we rode along the top of the mound of the plain, in a southwestern direction, toward Callifat. After we had proceeded about half its length, its inclination became southward. Having attained its extremity in that direction, we descended into the plain, when our guides brought us to the western side of it, near its southern termination, to notice a tumulus, less considerable than the last described, about three hundred paces from the mound, almost concealed from observation by being continually overflowed, upon whose top two small oak trees were then growing. This tumulus will not be easily discerned by future travellers, from the uniformity of its appearance at a distance with the rest of the vast plain în which it is situated, being either covered with corn, or fur

[ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors]

The Trojans were encamped (iπ bgwoμw ridío10) upon, or near, the mound of the plain (II. K. 160.); and Hector holds his council with the chiefs, apart from the camp, at the tomb of Ilus (II. K. 415.) which was therefore near the mound. Their coincidence of situation induced Mr. Chevalier to conclude they were one and the same. Descript of the Plain of Troy, p. 113. Mr. Bryant combated this opinion. Observations upon a Treatise, &c. p. 9. Mr. Morritt very properly derides the ab surdity of supposing the council to be held at a distance from the army, Vindicat, of Homer, R. 96.

These are still in our possession, and resemble the beautiful earthenware found in the sepulchres of Athens, and at Nola in Italy. The durability of such a substance is known to all persons conversant in the arts; it is known to have resisted the at facks of water and air, at least two thousand years.

« السابقةمتابعة »