CHAPTER IV. THE PLAIN OF TROY. General Observations on the Topography of Grecian Ci ties-Evidence of the Trojan War independent of Homer-Identity of the Plain-Importance of the Text of Strabo-Plan of the Author's Expedition-River MENDER- -Tomb of Ajax-Cement used in the AïANTEUMPlants-Halil Elly-Inscription-Thymbreck-Tchiblack-Remarkable Ruins-Probable Site of PAGUS ILIENSIUM-and of CALLICOLONE— -Route from the BEYAN MEZALEY-Antient Sepulchre and Natural MoundOpinion concerning Simois-Prevalent Errors with regard to Scamander-Ruins by the CALLIFAT OSMACK— Inscriptions-Village of Callifat-Medals-Remains of New Ilium. A per General Ob phy of Gre PECULIAR circumstance characterized the topo- CHAP. IV. graphy of the cities of Antient Greece; and this haps has not been considered so general as it really was. servations on Every metropolis possessed its Citadel and its Plain; the the TopograCitadel as a place of refuge during war; the Plain as a cian Cities. source of agriculture in peace. To this were some exceptions; as in the instance of Delphi, whose celebrity originated in secondary causes; but they were few, and be omitted. In the provinces of Greece, at this day, the ap pearance caused by a plain, flat as the surface of the ocean, surrounded by mountains, or having lofty rocks in its centre or sides, serves to denote the situation of Ruins proving to be those of some antient capital. Many of these plains border on the sea, and seem to have been formed by the re may CHAP. IV. tiring of its waters. Cities so situated were the most antient; Argos, Sicyon, Corinth, are of the number. The vicinity of fertile plains to the coast offered settlements to the earliest colonies, before the interior of the country became known. As population increased, or the first settlers were driven inward by new adventurers, cities more mediterranean were established; but all of these possessed their respective plains. The physical phænomena of Greece, differing from those of any other country, present a series of beautiful plains, successively surrounded by mountains of limestone ; resembling, although upon a larger scale, and rarely accompanied by volcanic products, the craters of the Phlegrean Fields. Every where their level surfaces seem to have been deposited by water, gradually retired or evaporated; they consist, for the most part, of the richest soil, and their produce is yet proverbially abundant. Evidence of the Trojan dent of Homer. In this manner stood the cities of Argos, Sicyon, Corinth, Megara, Eleusis, Athens, Thebes, Amphissa, Orchomenus, Cheronea, Lebadea, Larissa, Pella, and many other. Pursuing the inquiry over all the countries bordering the Ægean, we find every spacious plain accompanied by the remains of some city, whose celebrity was proportioned to the fertility of its territory, or the advantages of its maritime position. Such, according to Homer, were the circumstances of association characterizing that district of Asia Minor, in which Troy was situated. With these facts in contemplation, it is unreasonable to War Indepen- suppose, that a plain, boasting every advantage which Nature could afford, would offer an extraordinary exception to customs so general among antient nations; that it should remain untenanted and desolate; and no adventurers occupy its fertile soil. It is still more difficult to believe, when the monuments of a numerous people, and the ruins of many cities, all having reference, by indisputable record, to one more antient, as their magna parens, have been found in such a plain, that the compositions of any Bard, however celebrated, should have afforded the sole foundation of a belief that such a people and city did really exist. Among the gems, vases, marbles, and medals, found in other countries representing subjects connected with the Trojan war, yet destitute of any reference to the works of Homer, we meet with documents proving the ex- CHAP. IV. istence of traditions independent of his writings(42); and in these we have evidence of the truth of the war, which cannot be imputed to his invention (43). With regard to other antiquities where coincidence may be discerned between the representation of the Artist and the eircumstances of the Poem, it may also be urged, that they could not all originate in a single fiction, whatever might have been the degree of popularity that fiction had obtained. Every sculptured onyx, and pictured patera, derived from sepulchres of most remote antiquity in distant parts of all the Isles and Continents of Greece, cannot owe the subjects they represent to the writings of an individual. This were to contradict all our knowledge of antient history and of mankind. It is more rational to conclude, that both the Artist and the Poet borrowed the incidents they pourtray from the traditions of their country; that even the Bard himself found, in the remains of former ages, many of the subjects afterwards introduced by him among his writings. This seems evident from his description of the Shield of Achilles; and, if it should be remarked, that works of art cannot be considered as having afforded representations of this nature in the early period to which allusion is made, it would be expedient to dwell upon this particular part of Homer's Poem, and, from the minuteness of the detail, derive, not only internal evidence of an exemplar whence the imagery was derived, but also of the perfection attained by the arts of Greece in the period when the description was given (44). Later poets, particularly Virgil and Ovid, evidently borrowed the machinery of their poems from specimens of antient art, which even their commentators are allowed to contemplate(45); and in the practice existing at this day among itinerant hards of Italy, who recite long poems upon the antiquities of the country, we may observe eustoms of which Homer himself afforded the prototype (46). These observations are applicable only to the question of the war of Troy, so far as the truth of the story is implicated. The identity of the place where that war was carried on, so many ages ago, involves argument which can be supported only by practical observation, and the evidence of our senses. It will be separately and distinctly CHAP. IV. determined, either by the agreement of natural phænomena with the locality assigned them by Homer, or of existing artificial monuments with the manners of the people whose history has been by him illustrated. To this part of the inquiry the attention of the Reader is therefore now particularly requested. Identity of the Plain. It seems hardly to admit of doubt, that the Plain of Anatolia, watered by the Mender, and backed by a mountainous ridge, of which Kazdaghy is the summit, offers the precise territory alluded to by the Poet. The long controversy, excited by Mr. Bryant's publication, and since so vehemently agitated, would probably never have existed, had it not been for the erroneous maps of the country, which, even to this hour, disgrace our geographical knowledge of that part of Asia. According to Homer's description of the Trojan territory, it combined certain prominent and remarkable features, not likely to be effected by any lapse of time. Of this nature was the Hellespont; the Island of Tenedos; the Plain itself; the River by whose inundations it was occasionally overflowed; and the Mountain whence that river issued. If any one of these be found retaining its original appellation, and all other circumstances of association characterize its vicinity, our knowledge of the country is placed beyond dispute. But the Island of Tenedos, corresponding in all respects with the position assigned to it by Homer, still retains its antient name unaltered; and the Inscriptions, found upon the Dardanelles, prove those straits to have been the Hellespont. The discovery of Ruins, which I shall presently shew to have been those of the ILIUM of Strabo, may serve not only to guide us in our search after objects necessary to identify the locality alluded to by Homer, but perhaps to illustrate, in a certain degree, even the position of Troy itself; concerning whose situation, no satisfactory evidence has, in my opinion, resulted from any Importance of modern investigation. That it was not altogether unknown Stralo in the time of Augustus, is proved by the writings of Strabo, who, more than once, expressly assigns to the antient city, the place then occupied by the Village of the Iliensians. The text of that author may now be considered as affording a safer clue in reconciling the description of Tro the Text of as given by Homer with the existing realities of the coun- CHAP. IV. try, than the poems of the Bard himself; because the comment afforded by Strabo combines all the advantages of observation made eighteen centuries ago, both with regard to the country and the reference borne to its antiquities, by documents, written in a language which may be considered as his own. The traditions of the country concerning the Trojan war were not then more remote from their origin, than are at this hour the oral records of England with regard to its first invasion by the Danes or Normans. Comparing the site of the place called Ilium in his time, with that of antient Troy, Strabo says, (Ilus) "did not build the city where it now is, but nearly thirty stadia further eastward, towards Ida and Dardania, where the Iliensian village is now situated." If, therefore, I shall hereafter succed in ascertaining precisely the locality of the Ilium of Strabo, by the discovery of Ruins which bear evidence of their being the remains of that city, a beacon will be established, whence, with his bearings and distances, we may search with reasonable expectation of being able to point out some even of the artificial monuments belonging to the Plain. But further, if, with reference to the situation of Troy itself, having pursued the clue thus afforded, we find any thing to indicate the site of the Village, where it was believed, in the time of Strabo, and where he maintains, that antient Ilium stood, we cannot be very far from the truth. Previously however to the introduction of observations relating rather to the conclusion of our examination of the country, the Reader may feel his curiosity gratified by an account of our expedition, from the moment in which we landed at Koum-kalé. We had resolved to penetrate those recesses of the mountains, whence the principal river derives its origin; a region then unexplored by any traveller: and afterwards, by ascending Kazdaghy, the loftiest ridge of the whole chain, at that time covered with snow, ascertain, from the appearance of the Plain, and the objects connected with it, whether its suminit might be deem ed the Gargarus of Homer; described as being upon the left of the army of Xerxes, during its march from Antandrus to Abydus (46). But as the Thymbrius, a river still Plan of the Author's |