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that time covered with snow, ascertain, from the appearance of the plain, and the objects connected with it, whether its summit might be deemed the Gargarus of Homer; described as being upon the left of the army of Xerxes, during its march from Antandrus to Abydus.* Abydus. But as the Thymbrius, a river still retaining its ancient name, in the appellation Thymbreck, and which here disembogues itself near the embouchure of the Mender, has been confounded by Dr. Chandler with the Simois of Homer, we determined first upon an excursion along its banks, to the ruins situated at a place now called Halil Elly; and to Thymbreck Keuy, or the village of Thymbra.

We crossed the Mender by a wooden bridge, immediately after leaving Koum-kalé; and ascertained its breadth, in that part, to equal one hundred and thirty yards. We then enter

ed au immense plain, in which some Turks were engaged hunting wild boars. Peasants were also employed in ploughing a deep and rich soil of vegetable earth. Proceeding toward the east, and round the bay distinctly pointed out by Strabo,† as the harbour in which the Grecian fleet was stationed, we arrived at the sepulchre of Ajax, upon the ancient Rhotean promontory. Concerning this tumulus, there is every reason to believe our information correct. If we had only the text of Strabo for our guidance, there would be little ground for incredu lity; and, by the evidence afforded in a view of the monument itself, we have the best comment upon his accuracy. It is one of the most interesting objects to which the attention of the literary traveller can possibly be directed. Instead of the simple Stélé, usually employed to decorate the summit of the most ancient sepulchral mounds, all writers, who have mentioned the tomb of Ajax, relate, that it was surmounted by a shrine, in which the statue of the hero was preserved. Religious regard for this hallowed spot continued through so many ages, that even to the time in which christianity decreed the destruction of the Pagan idols, the sanctity of the AIANTEUM was maintained and venerated. Such importance was annexed to the inviolability of the monument, that after Anto

Herodot. lib. vii.

↑ Strab. Geogr. lib. xvii. p. 859. Ed. Ox.

Diodorus Siculus, describing the visit paid by Alexander the Great to the Tomb of Achilles, says he anointed the Stele with perfumes, and ran naked round it with his companions. At the Tomb of Ajax be performed rites and made offerings; but no mention occurs of the Stele. Diodor. Sic. lib. xvii.

See the proofs adduced, in regular series, by Chandler, in his History of Ilium: Lond. 1902.

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ny had carried into Egypt the consecrated image, it was again recovered by Augustus, and restored to its pristine shrine. These facts may possibly serve to account for the present appearance of the tomb, on whose summit that shrine itself, and a considerable portion of the superstructure, remain unto this hour. Pliny, moreover, mentions the situation of the tomb as being in the very station of the Grecian fleet; and, by giving åts exact distance from Sigeum, not only adds to our conviction of its identity, but marks at the same time, most decisively, the position of the Portus Achæorum. In all that remains of former ages, I know of nothing likely to affect the mind by emotions of local enthusiasm more powerfully than this most interesting tomb. It is impossible to view its sublime and simple form, without calling to mind the veneration so long paid to it; without picturing to the imagination a successive series of mariuers, of kings and heroes, who from the Hellespont, or by the shores of Troas and Chersonesus, or on the sepulchre itself, poured forth the tribute of their homage; and finally, without representing to the mind the feelings of a native, or of a traveller, iu those times, who, after viewing the existing monument, and witnessing the instances of public and of private regard so constantly bestowed upon it, should have been told the age was to arrive when the existence of Troy, and of the mighty dead entombed upon its plain, would be considered as having no foundation in truth.

The present appearance of the shrine, and of a small circular superstruction, do not seem to indicate higher antiquity than the age of the Romaus. Some have believed, from the disclosure of the shrine, that the tomb itself was opened; mistaking it for a vault, although its situation near the summit might have controverted the opinion. This was perhaps constructed when Augustus restored the image Antony had taken from the Aianteum. A cement was certainly employed in the work; and the remains of it to this day offer an opportunity of confuting very prevailing error concerning the buildings of the ancients. The Greeks erected many of their most stupendous edifices without cementation; hence it has been supposed that the appearance of mortar in a building precludes its claim to antiquity. This notion is however set aside at once

Strab. Geogr. lib. xvii. p. 858. Ed. Ox.

+ "Fuit et 4eantium, a Rhodiis conditum in altero cornu (Rhateo) Ajace ibi sepulto, XXX. stadiorum intervallo a Sigeo, et ipso in statronę classis suæ." Sic. leg. Casaub. in Plin. lib. v. C, 30.

by reference to the pyramids of Egypt in building these, mortar was undoubtedly used.

The view here afforded of the Hellespont and the plain of Troy is one of the finest the country affords. Several plants, during the season of our visit, were blooming upon the soil. Upon the tomb itself we noticed the silvery mezereon, the poppy, the beardless hypecoum, and the field star of Bethlehem.‡ From the Avanteum we passed over a heathy country to Halil Elly, a village near the Thymbrius, in whose vicinity we had been instructed to seek the remains of a temple once sacred to the Thymbreau Apollo. The ruins we found were rather the remains of ten temples than of one. The earth to a very considerable extent was covered by subverted and broken columus of marble, granite, and of every order in architecture. Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian capitals, lay dispersed in all directions, and some of these were of great beauty. We observed a bas-relief representing a person on horseback pursued by a winged figure; also a beautiful representation, sculptured after the same manner, of Ceres in her car drawn by two scaly serpents. Of three inscriptions which I copied among these ruins, the first was engraven upon the shaft of a marble pillar. This we removed, and brought to England. It is now in the vestibule of the public library at Cambridge; and commemorates the public services of a Phrontistes of Drusus Cæsar.|| The names of persons belonging to the family of Germanicus occur frequently among inscriptions found in and near the Troas Drusus, the son of Germanicus, was himself appointed to a government in the district. The second inscription has been once before printed, but most erroneously: it may there fore be again presented to the public, in a more accurate form.** Whatsoever tends in any degree to illustrate the origin of the Fuins in which it was discovered, will be considered interesting; although, after all, we must remain in a state of the greatwest uncertainty with regard to the city alluded to in either of these documents. Possibly it may have been Scamandria,

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To prove this, the author brought specimens from the spot, of the mortar employed in building the greater pyramid. March 3d.

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arvense.

Daphne argentea, Anemone coronaria, Hypecoum imberbe, Ornithogalum arve Our artist, Monsieur Preaux, as well as another of our company, Don Tita Lusicrt, of Naples, then employed in making drawings for the British Ambassador, although both accustomed to the view of architectural remains, declared, they could reconcile the ruins at Halil Elly to no account yet given of the country, ancient or modern. This inscription has been already published in the account given of the Greek marbles at Cambridge. See p. 13: No. XXI. of that work.

**It was also since copied by Mr. Walpole, from whose copy it is here given, ac-companied by his notes. See the following page.

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but in the multitude of cities belonging to Troas a mere conjecture, without any positive evidence, is less pardonable than silence. The inscription, offering our only remaining clue, sets forth, that the tribe Attalis commemorated Sextus Julius Festus, a magistrate of the city, and præfect of the Fla vian cohort, who had been gymnasiarch, and given magnifi cently and largely, to the senators and all citizens, oil and qintment for some public festival.

ΗΑΤΤΑΛΙΣ ΦΥΛΗ

ΣΕΞΤΟΝ ΙΟΥΛΙΟΝ Φ.
ΤΟΝ ΚΟΣΜΟΝΤΗΣ Π
ΟΛΕΩΣ ΕΠΑΡΧΟΝΣΠΕΙΡΗΣ
ΕΑΑΒΙΑΝΗΣ ΓΥΜΝΑΣΙΑΡ

4.

ΧΗΣΑΝΤΑΛΑΜΠΡΩΣ ΚΑΙ ΦΙ
ΛΟΤΕΙΜΩΣ ΚΑΙ ΠΡΩΤΟΝ
ΤΩΝ ΑΠΑΙΩΝΟΣ ΚΑΙ
ΜΕΧΡΙΝΥΝΜΟΝΟΝΕΛΑΙ

ΟΜΕΤΡΗΣΑΝΤΑΤΟΥΣ

ΤΕΒΟΥΛΕΥΤΑΣ ΚΑΙΠΟ

ΛΕΙΤΑΣ ΠΑΝΤΑΣΚΑΪΑΝ

ΕΙΨΑΝΤΑ ΕΚΛΟΥ ΤΗΡΩΝ

ΔΗΜΕΙ

The third inscription, and perhaps the most important, had these remarkable words:

ΟΤΙΛΙΕΙΣ

ΤΟΝ ΠΑΤΡΙΟΝΘΕΟΝ

ΑΙΝΕΙΑΝ

THE ILIEANS TO THEIR COUNTRY'S GOD, ÆNEAS

If this had been found by a late respectable and learnedauthor, it might have coufirmed him in the notion that the Thymbrius was in fact the Simois, as he believed; and perhaps have suggested, in the present name of the place, Halil Ili, (or, as I have written it, Halil Elly, to conform to the mode of pronunciation,) and etymology+ from IAION.

From the ruins at Halil Elly we proceeded through a delightful valley, full of vineyards, and almond-trees in full bloom, intending to pass the night at the village of Thymbreck. We found no antiquities, nor did we hear of any in the neighbourhood. The next day, returning toward Halïl Elly, we left it upon our right, and crossed the Thymbrius by a ford. In summer this river becomes almost dry; but during winter it often presents a powerful torrent, carrying all before it. Not one of the maps, or of the works yet published uponTroas, has informed us of its termination: according to some, it empties itself into the Mender near its embouchure; others describe it as forming a junction near Tchiblack; a circumstance of considerable importance; for if this last position be true, the ruins at Tehiblack may be those of the temple of the Thymbræan Apollo. Strabo expressly states the situation of the temple to be near the place where the Thymbrius discharges itself into the Scamander.‡ After we had passed the ford, we ascended a ridge of hills, and found the remains of a very ancient paved way. We then came to the town or village of Tchiblack, where we noticed very considerable remains of ancient sculpture, but in such a state of disorder and ruin, that no precise description of them can be given. The most remarkable are upon the top of a hill called Beyan Mezaley, near the town, in the midst of a beautiful grove of oak trees, toward the village of Callifat. Here the ruins of a Doric

temple of white marble lay heaped in the most striking manner, mixed with broken stélæ, cippi, sarcophagi, cornices and capitals of very enormous size, entablatures, and pillars.-All of these have reference to some peculiar sanctity by which this hill was anciently characterized. It is of a conical form, and stands above the town of Tchiblack, appearing as large as

The author of the History of Ilium, &c. &c.

Elly, in the language of the country, signifies a district; so that the name of this place admits a literal interpretation, signifying "The District of Halil;" which may be further interpreted, The District of the Sun," from one of the names of Apollo, AlL or ΑΕΛΙΟΣ.

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

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