Troy

TROY and TROAD. The Troad rpcpos), or land of Troy, is the north-west promontory of Asia Minor, between the valleys of the Caicus on the south and the Aesepus flowing into Propontis on the east. The eastern limit was variously defined by ancient writers. Geographically, it is undoubtedly (as Strabo says) the range of Ida, which, from the north shore of the Adramyttian gulf, sends its north-western spurs nearly to the coast of the Propontis. The greatest length of the Troad from north-west at Cape Sigeum (Yeni Shehr), to the south-west at Cape Lectum (Baba Kale), is about 4o m.; the breadth, not much greater. The central area is drained by the Menderes (anc. Scamander), which rises in Ida and reaches the Hellespont east of Cape Sigeum.

Timber is supplied by pine forests on Mt. Ida. But the plains and hills are fairly wooded. Besides valonia oak, there are elm, willow, cypress and tamarisk, with lotus, galingale and reeds, as in Homeric days, about the streams. The vine is cultivated; watermelons are abundant ; cotton, wheat and maize are grown. Even under Turkish rule, the natural advantages of the land miti gated the poverty of its inhabitants; in antiquity it was fertile and populous.

Early History.

In Greek legend, Priam of Troy ruled all that is bounded by "Lesbos, Phrygia and the Hellespont" (IL xxiv. 544). The Achaeans under Agamemnon destroyed Troy, and overthrew Priam's dynasty. But there is Homeric prophecy that Aeneas and his descendants shall still rule over the Troes, in a passage probably later than the bulk of the book, and it is certain that in the 7th or 6th century B.C. reputed descendants reigned somewhere in the Troad. Thracian tribes, including Bithynians and Treres, swept into Asia Minor from Europe in the 7th century B.C., and the Ionian poet, Callinus, recorded the terror which they caused.

Greek Settlements.

The earliest and most important of the Greek settlements were Aeolic, mainly from Lesbos and Cyme in Aeolis; some may have been as early as the 13th century B.C. About 62o B.C. Athenians occupied Sigeum, and were resisted by Aeolic colonists from Mytilene, already established in that neigh bourhood.

Chief Greek towns in the Troad were Ilium in the north, Assus (q.v.) in the south, and Alexandria Troas (q.v.) in the west. The site of the Greek Ilium is marked by the low mound of Hissarlik (Turk. "place of fortresses") in the Trojan plain, about 3 m. from the Hellespont, the traditional site of Homer's "Troy." When

Xerxes visited the Trojan plain, he "went up to the Pergamon of Priam," and sacrificed to the Ilian Athena. Ilium yielded to Der cyllidas in 399 B.C., and was captured by Charidemus in 359 B.C., but was evidently still of small importance when, in 334 B.C., Alexander visited it on landing in the Troad. In their temple of Athena the Ilians showed him arms which had served in the Trojan war, including the shield of Achilles. Either then or after the battle of Granicus, Alexander enlarged the town to be a "city," with political independence and exemption from tribute. Lysimachus executed the intentions of Alexander when north west Asia Minor fell to him in 301 B.c., building a wall 5 m. in circumference, incorporating decayed towns of the neighbourhood, and building a temple of Athena. In the 3rd century B.C. Ilium was the head of a federal league of free Greek towns, from Lampsacus on the Hellespont to Gargara on the Adramyttian gulf. In 278 B.C. the Gauls, under Lutarius, occupied Ilium, but abandoned it. Forty years later (218 B.c.) other Gauls brought by Attalus I. for his war against Achaeus, deserted his standard, pillaged the towns on the Hellespont, and besieged Ilium, from which, however, they were driven off by the troops of Alexandria Troas. In the 2nd century B.C. Ilium was in decay; as Demetrius of Scepsis says, the houses "had not even roofs of tiles." The temple of Ilian Athena, however, retained its prestige; in 192 B.C. Antiochus the Great visited it before sailing to the aid of the Aetolians. In 190 B.C., before the battle of Magnesia, Romans and Ilians were alike eager to recall the legend of Roman descent from Aeneas; Lucius Scipio offered sacrifice to the Ilian Athena; and after the defeat of Antiochus the Romans annexed Rhoeteum and Gergis to Ilium, "not so much in reward of recent services, as in memory of the source from which their nation sprang." The later history of Ilium is a catalogue of Roman benefactions, though, in 85 B.C., when Fimbria took it, he left it in ruins; Sulla, however, was careful to rebuild it; Augustus confirmed its ancient privileges and gave it new territory; Caracalla (A.D. 211 217) , like Alexander, paid honours to the tomb of Achilles. In the 4th century, the Ilians were attracting tourists by their pseudo Trojan memorials. After the 4th century the place is lost to view.