Listed 100 (total found 115) sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "CANAKKALE Province TURKEY" .
ACHILLION (Ancient city) TURKEY
Achilleum (Achilleion), a small town near the promontory Sigeum in the Troad (Herod. v. 94), where, according to tradition, the tomb of Achilles was. (Strab. p. 594.) When Alexander visited the place on his Asiatic expedition, B.C. 334, he placed chaplets on the tomb of Achilles. (Arrian, i. 12.)
AGORA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Agora (Hagora), a town situated about the middle of the narrow neck
of the Thracian Chersonesus, and not far from Cardia. Xerxes, when invading Greece,
passed through it. (Herod. vii. 58; Scylax, p. 28; Steph. B. s. v.)
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ALOPEKONISSOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Alopeconnesus (Alopekonnesos), a town on the western coast of the
Thracian Chersonesus. It was an Aeolian colony, and was believed to have derived
its name from the fact that the settlers were directed by an oracle to establish
the colony, where they should first meet a fox with its cub. (Steph. B. s.v.;
Scymnus, 29; Liv. xxxi. 16; Pomp. Mela, ii. 2.) In the time of the Macedonian
ascendancy, it was allied with, and under the protection of Athens. (Dem. de
Coron. p. 256, c. Aristocr. p. 675.)
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AMAXITOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Hamaxitus (Hamaxitos), a town on the southwestern coast of Troas,
50 stadia south of Larissa, and close to the plain of Halesion. It was probably
an Aeolian colony, but had ceased to exist as early as the time of Strabo. (Scyl.
p. 36; Thucyd. viii. 101; Xenoph. Hellen. iii. 1. § 13; Strab. x. p. 473, xiii.
pp. 604, 612, 613.) According to Aelian (Hist. An. xii. 5), its inhabitants worshipped
mice, and for this reason called Apollo, their chief divinity, Smintheus (from
the Aeolian smintha, a mouse). Strabo relates the occasion of this as follows:
When the Teucrians fled from Crete, the oracle of Apollo advised them to settle
on the spot where their enemies issued from the earth. One night a number of field-mice
destroyed all their shields, and, recognising in this occurrence the hint of the
oracle, they established themselves there, and called Apollo Smintheus, representing
him with a mouse at his feet. Daring the Macedonian period, the inhabitants were
compelled by Lysimachus to quit their town and remove to the neighbouring Alexandria.
(Comp. Steph. B. s. v.; Plin. v. 33.) No ruins of this town have yet been discovered
(Leake, Asia Minor, p. 273); but Prokesch (Denkwurdigk. iii. p. 362) states that
architectural remains are still seen near Cape Baba, which he is inclined to regard
as belonging to Hamaxitus.
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ANTANDROS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Antandrus (Antandros: Eth. Antandrios: Antandro), a city on the coast
of Troas, near the head of the gulf of Adramyttium, on the N. side, and W. of
Adramyttium. According to Aristotle (Steph. B. s. v. Antandros), its original
name was Edonis, and it was inhabited by a Thracian tribe of Edoni, and he adds
or Cimmeris, from the Cimmerii inhabiting it 100 years. Pliny (v. 30) appears
to have copied Aristotle also. It seems, then, that there was a tradition about
the Cimmerii having seized the place in their incursion into Asia, of which tradition
Herodotus speaks (i. 6). Herodotus (vii. 42) gives to it the name Pelasgis. Again,
Alcaeus (Strab. p. 606) calls it a city of the Leleges. From these vague statements
we may conclude that it was a very old town; and its advantageous position at
the foot of Aspaneus, a mountain belonging to Ida, where timber was cut, made
it a desirable possession. Virgil makes Aeneas build his fleet here (Aen. iii.
5). The tradition as to its being settled from Andros (Mela, i. 18) seems merely
founded on a ridiculous attempt to explain the name. It was finally an Aeolian
settlement (Thuc. viii. 108), a fact which is historical.
Antandros was taken by the Persians (Herod. v. 26) shortly after the
Scythian expedition of Darius. In the eighth year of the Peloponnesian war it
was betrayed by some Mytilenaeans and others, exiles from Lesbos, being at that
time under the supremacy of Athens; but the Athenians soon recovered it. (Thuc.
iv. 52, 75.) The Persians got it again during the Peloponnesian war; but the townspeople,
fearing the treachery of Arsaces, who commanded the garrison there for Tissaphernes,
drove the Persians out of the acropolis, B.C. 411. (Thuc. viii. 108.) The Persians,
however, did not lose the place. (Xen. Hell. i. 1. 25)
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ARISVI (Ancient city) TURKEY
Arisba (Arisbe: Eth. Arisbaios), a town of Mysia, mentioned by Homer
(Il. ii. 837), in the same line with Sextus and Abydus. It was (Steph. B. s. v.
Arisbe) between Percote and Abydos, a colony of Mytilene, founded by Scamandrius
and Ascanius, son of Aeneas; and on the river Seilleis, supposed to be the Moussa-chai;
the village of Moussa may represent Arisba. The army of Alexander mustered here
after crossing the Hellespont. (Arrian. Anab. i. 12.) When the wandering Galli
passed over into Asia, on the invitation of Attalus, they occupied Arisba, but
were soon defeated (B.C. 216) by King Prusias. (Pol. v. 111) In Strabo's time
the place was almost forgotten. There are coins of Arisbe of Trajan's time, and
also autonomous coins.
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ASSOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Assus (Assos: Eth. Assius and Asseus: Asso), a city of Mysia, on the
gulf of Adramyttium, between Cape Lectum and Antandros. It was situated in a strong
natural position, was well walled, and connected with the sea by a long, steep
ascent. (Strab. p. 610.) The harbour was formed by a great mole. Myrsilus stated
that Assus was a settlement of the Methymnaei. Hellanicus calls it an Aeolic city,
and adds that Gargara was founded by Assus. Pliny (v. 32) gives to Assus also
the name Apollonia, which it is conjectured that it had from Apollonia, the mother
of Attalus, king of Pergamus. That Assus was still a place visited by shipping
in the first century of the Christian aera, appears from the travels of St. Paul.
(Acts, xx. 13.)
The neighbourhood of Assus was noted for its wheat. (Strab. p. 735.)
The Lapis Assius was a stone that had the property of consuming flesh, and hence
was called sarcophagus: this stone was accordingly used to inter bodies in, or
was pounded and thrown upon them. (Steph. B. s. v. Assos; Plin. ii. 96.)
Hermeias, who had made himself tyrant of Assus, brought Aristotle
to reside there some time. When Hermeias fell into the hands of Memnon the Rhodian,
who was in the Persian service, Assus was taken by the Persians. It was the birthplace
of Cleanthes, who succeeded Zeno of Citium in his school, and transmitted it to
Chrysippus.
The remains of Assus, which are very considerable, have often been
described. The name Asso appears to exist, but the village where the remains are
found is called Beriam Kalesi, or other like names. From the acropolis there is
a view of Mytilene. The wall is complete on the west side, and in some places
is thirty feet high: the stones are well laid, without cement. There is a theatre,
the remains of temples, and a large mass of ruins of great variety of character.
Outside of the wall is the cemetery, with many tombs, and sarcophagi, some of
which are ten or twelve feet long. Leake observes, the whole gives perhaps the
most perfect idea of a Greek city that any where exists. (Asia Minor, p. 128;
see also Fellows's Asia Minor, p. 46.)
Autonomous coins of Assus, with the epigraph ASSION, are rare. The
coins of the Roman imperial period are common.
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AVYDOS (Ancient city) MARMARA
Abydus (he Abudos, Abydum, Plin. v. 32: Eth. Abudenos, Abydenus),
a city of Mysia on the Hellespontus, nearly opposite Sestus on the European shore.
It is mentioned as one of the towns in alliance with the Trojans. (Il. ii. 836.)
Aidos or Avido, a modern village on the Hellespont, may be the site of Abydos,
though the conclusion from a name is not certain. Abydus stood at the narrowest
point of the Hellespontus, where the channel is only 7 stadia wide, and it had
a small port. It was probably a Thracian town originally, but it became a Milesian
colony. (Thuc. viii. 61.) At a point a little north of this town Xerxes placed
his bridge of boats, by which his troops were conveyed across the channel to the
opposite town of Sestus, B.C. 480. (Herod. vii. 33.) The bridge of boats extended,
according to Herodotus, from Abydus to a promontory on the European shore, between
Sestus and Madytus. The town possessed a small territory which contained some
gold mines, but Strabo speaks of them as exhausted. It was burnt by Darius, the
son of Hystaspes, after his Scythian expedition, for fear that the Scythians,
who were said to be in pursuit of him, should take possession of it (Strab. p.
591); but it must soon have recovered from this calamity, for it was afterwards
a town of some note; and Herodotus (v. 117) states that it was captured by the
Persian general, Daurises, with other cities on the Hellespont (B.C. 498), shortly
after the commencement of the Ionian revolt. In B.C. 411, Abydus revolted from
Athens and joined Dercyllidas, the Spartan commander in those parts. (Thuc. viii.
62.) Subsequently, Abydus made a vigorous defence against Philip II., king of
Macedonia, before it surrendered. On the conclusion of the war with Philip (B.C.
196), the Romans declared Abydus, with other Asiatic cities, to be free. (Liv.
xxxiii. 30.) The names of Abydus and Sestus are coupled together in the old story
of Hero and Leander, who is said to have swam across the channel to visit his
mistress at Sestus. The distance between Abydus and Sestus, from port to port,
was about 30 stadia, according to Strabo.
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BOZCAADA (Island) TURKEY
Tenedos (Eth. Tenedios: Tenedo, Turk. Bogdsha-Adassi). An island off
the coast of Troas, from which its distance is only 40 stadia, while from Cape
Sigeum it is 12 miles distant. (Strab. xiii. p. 604; Plin. ii. 106, v. 39.) It
was originally called Leucophrys, from its white cliffs, Calydna, Phoenice, or
Lyrnessus (Strab. l. c.; Paus. x. 14. § 3; Steph. B. s. v. Tenedos; Eustath. ad
Hom. Il. p. 33; Plin. l. c.), and was believed to have received the name of Tenedos
from Tennes, a son of Cycnus (Strab. viii. p. 380; Diod. v. 83; Conon, Narrat.
28; Cic. in Verr. i. 1. 9). The island is described as being 80 stadia in circumference,
and containing a town of the same name, which was an Aeolian settlement, and situated
on the eastern coast. (Herod. i. 149; Thucyd. vii. 57.) The town possessed two
harbours, one of which was called Boreion (Arrian, Anab. ii. 2. § 2; Scylax, p.
35, who, however, notices only one), and a temple of the Smynthian Apollo. (Strab.
l. c.; Hom. Il. i. 38, 452.) In the Trojan legend, the island plays a prominent
part, and at an early period seems to have been a place of considerable importance,
as may be inferred from certain ancient proverbial expressions which owe their
origin to it, such as Tenedios pelekus (Steph. B. s. v.; Apostol. xviii. 28; Diogenian.
viii. 58; comp. Cic. ad Quint. Frat. ii. 1. 1), Tenedios anthropos (Zenob. vi.
9; Eustath. ad Dionys. 536), Tenedios hauletes (Steph. B. s. v.; Plut. Quaest.
Gr. 28), Tenedion kakon (Apostol. x. 80), and Tenedios xunegoros (Steph. B. s.
v.). The laws and civil institutions of Tenedos seem to have been celebrated for
their wisdom, if we may credit Pindar, whose eleventh Nemean ode is inscribed
to Aristagoras, a prytanis or chief magistrate of the island. We further know
from Stephanus B. that Aristotle wrote on the polity of Tenedos. During the Persian
wars the island was taken possession of by the Persians (Herod. vi. 31), and during
the Peloponnesian War it sided with Athens and paid tribute to her (Thuc. l. c.
ii. 2), which seems to have amounted to 3426 drachmae every year. (Franz, Elem.
Epigraph. n. 52.) Afterwards, in B.C. 389, Tenedos was ravaged by the Lacedaemonians
for its fidelity to Athens (Xen. Hist. Gr. v. 1. 6); but though the peace of Antalcidas
gave up the island to Persia, it yet maintained its connection with Athens. (Demosth.
c. Polycl. p. 1223, c. Theocr. p. 1333.) In the time of Alexander the Great, the
Tenedians threw off the Persian yoke, and, though reconquered by Pharnabazus,
they soon again revolted from Persia. (Arrian, Anab. ii. 2, iii. 2.) During the
wars of Macedonia with the Romans, Tenedos, owing to its situation near the entrance
of the Hellespont, was an important naval station. (Polyb. xvi. 34, xxvii. 6;
Liv. xxxi. 16, xliv. 28.) In the war against Mithridates, Lucullus fought a great
naval battle near Tenedos. (Plut. Luc. 3; Cic. p. Arch. 9, p. Mur. 15.) In the
time of Virgil, Tenedos seems to have entirely lost its ancient importance, and,
being conscious of their weakness, its inhabitants had placed themselves under
the protection of Alexandria Troas (Paus. x. 14. § 4). The favourable situation
of the island, however, prevented its utter decay, and the emperor Justinian caused
granaries to be erected in it, to receive the supplies of corn conveyed from Egypt
to Constantinople. (Procop. de Aed. v. 1.) The women of Tenedos are reported to
have been of surpassing beauty. (Athen. xiii. p. 609.) There are but few ancient
remains in the island worthy of notice.
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CHRYSSI (Ancient city) TURKEY
Chrysa (Chruse, Chrusa: Eth. Chruseus). Stephanus (s. v.) has a list of various
places so called. He does not decide which is the Chrysa of Homer (Il. i. 37,
390, 431). He mentions a Chrysa on the Hellespont, between Ophrynium and Abydus.
Pliny (v. 30) mentions Chryse, a town of Aeolis, as no longer existing in his
time. He also mentions a Chryse in the Troad, and apparently places it north of
the promontory Lectum, and on the coast. He says that Chrysa did not exist, but
the temple of Smintheus remained; that is, the temple of Apollo Smintheus. The
name Smitheus, not Smintheus, appears on a coin of Alexandria of Troas (Harduin?s
note on Plin. v. 30). The Table places Smynthium between Alexandria and Assus,
and 4 miles south of Alexandria. Strabo places Chrysa on a hill, and he mentions
the temple of Smintheus, and speaks of a symbol, which recorded the etymon of
the name, the mouse which lay at the foot of the wooden figure, the work of Scopas.
According to an old story, Apollo had his name Smintheus, as being the mouse destroyer;
for Sminthus signified mouse, according to Apion. Strabo has an argument to show
that the Chrysa of the Iliad was not the Chrysa near Alexandria, but the other
place of the same name in the plain of Thebe, or the Adramyttene. He says that
this Chrysa was on the sea, and had a port, and a temple of Smintheus, but that
it was deserted in his time, and the temple was transferred to the other Chrysa.
There is, however, little weight in Strabo's argument, nor is the matter worth
discussion.
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DARDANELLES (Sea strait) CANAKKALE
Hellespontus (ho Hellespontos, Horn. Il. ii. 845, Odyss. xxiv. 82;
Helles pontos, -hudor, -porthuos, Aesch. Pers. 722; Hellespontus, Pontus Helles,
Hellespontum Pelagus, Fretum Hellesponticum: Eth. Hellespontios, Hellespontias,
Hellespontis, Steph. B.: The Dardanelles; Golfo di Galippoli; Stambul Denghiz),
the strait which divides Europe from Asia and unites the Propontis with the Aegaean
sea.
The Greeks explained the origin of the name by the well-known legend
of Phryxus and Helle, and in the later poets (Ovid, Her. xviii. 117, 137; Prop.
i. 20. 19; Lucan v.56; Avien. 692) frequent allusion is made to this tradition.
The broad Hellespont of the Homeric poems (Il. vii. 86) - for the
interpretation of Mr. Walpole and Dr. Clarke (Trav. vol. iii. p. 91) of platus
Hellespontos by salt Hellespont is too unpicturesque to be adopted - was probably
conceived to be a wide river, flowing through thickly wooded banks into the sea.
(Comp. Herod. vii. 35; Walpole, Turkey and Greece, vol. i. p. 101; Schlichthorst,
Geogr. Homer. p. 127.)
Herodotus (iv. 85), Strabo (xiii. p. 591), and Pliny (iv. 12, vi.
1) give 7 stadia as the breadth of the Hellespont in its narrowest part. Tournefort
(vol. ii. lett. iv.) and Hobhouse (Albania, vol. ii. p. 805) allow about a mile.
Some modern French admeasurements give the distance as much greater. The Due de
Raguse (Voyage en Turquie, vol. ii. p. 164) nearly coincides with Herodotus.
The bridge, or rather two separate bridges, which Xerxes threw across
the Hellespont, stretched from the neighbourhood of Abydos, on the Asiatic coast,
to the coast between Sestus and Madytus, on the European side; and consisted of
360 vessels in the bridge higher up the stream, and 314 in the lower one. If the
breadth be estimated at a mile or 5280 feet, 360 vessels, at an average of 14
2/3 feet each, would exactly fill up the space. (Grote, Hist. of Greece, vol.
v. p. 26; comp. Rennell, Geog. of Herod. vol. i. p. 158; Kruse, Uber die Schiffbrucken
der Perser, Breslau, 1820; Choiseul-Gouffier, Voyage Pittoresque, vol. ii. p.
449; Bahr, ad Herod. vii. 36.) The length of the strait was estimated by Herodotus
(iv. 85) at 400 stadia. This admeasurement of course depends upon the point assigned
by the ancients to the extremity of the Hellespont, a point which is discussed
by Hoblouse (Albania, vol. ii. p. 791). In the later years of the Peloponnesian
War the Hellespont was the scene of the memorable battles of Cynossema and Aegospotami.
In B.C. 334 the Hellespont was crossed by Alexander, with an army
of about 35,000 men. (Arrian, Anab. i. 11; Diod. Sic. xvii. 1.)
The Hellespont issues from the Propontis near Gallipoli, the road
of which is the anchorage for the Ottoman fleet. A little lower, on the Asiatic
side, is Lampsaki, close to which the current sweeps as before, nearly SW. to
the bay of Sestos, a distance of about 20 miles, with an ordinary width of from
2 1/2 to 3 miles. At Sestos the stream becomes narrower, and takes a SSE. direction
as it passes Abydos, and proceeds to the town of Charnak Kal'eh-S&;acute; from
the last point it flows SW. for 3 miles to Point Berber, and from thence onward
in the same direction, but rather increasing in width, for a distance of 9 3/4
miles to the Aegaean sea.
About 1 1/2 miles below the W. point of the bay of Madytus are the
famous castles of the Dardanelles, which give their name to the straits; or the
castles of Anatoli and Rum-ili: Tchannak-Ka'leh-Si, on the Asiatic side, and Kilidu-l-Bahr,
on the European. (Chesney, Exped. Euphrat. vol. i. p. 318.)
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DARDANOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Dardanus, Dardanum (he Dardanos, to Dardanon: Eth. Dardaneus), a city
of the Troad, originally named Teucris. According to the legend told by Mnaseas
(Steph. B. s. v. Dardanos), Dardanus built or settled Dardanus, and named the
country Dardania, which was called Teucris before. This old story of Dardanus
being the founder of the city, is reported by various other authorities. (Apollod.
iii. 12. § 1; Diod. iv. 75; Conon. apud Phot. Narr. 21.) It seems that the city
was sometimes called Dardania as well as the country. Pliny (v. 30) names it Dardanium.
It was situated on the Hellespont, about a mile south of the promontory Dardanis
or Dardanium (Map of the Plain of Troy, by Capt. Graves and T. A. B. Spratt, Esq.,
London Geog. Journal, vol. xii.), and 70 stadia from Abydus. Between Abydus and
Dardanus, says Strabo, is the Rhodius. There are two streams marked in the map:
one nearer Dardanus, which enters the Hellespont close to the promontory of Dardanis;
and another near Sultania, a little north of which is the site of Abydus. Dr.
Forchhammer, in the map referred to, which contains his determination of the ancient
sites, makes the stream at Sultania to be the ancient Rhodius; and this appears
to be right, according to Strabo, who says that it enters the sea opposite to
Cynossema in the Chersonesus. Strabo adds, however, some say that the Rhodius
flows into the Aesepus; but of course the Rhodius must then be a different river
from the stream that enters the sea between Abydus and Dardanus. Homer mentions
the Rhodius (Il. xii. 20).
Strabo observes that the Dardanus of his time, the town on the coast,
was not the old town of Dardanus, or Dardania, which appears from the Iliad to
have been at the foot of Ida. It was an older town than Ilium, and did not exist
in Strabo's time. The later town was an Aeolian settlement, and it is mentioned
among the towns on the Hellespont, which Daurises the Persian took after the burning
of Sardis. (Herod. v. 117.) In another place (vi. 43), Herodotus observes that
Dardanus bordered on the territory of Abydus; which might also be safely inferred
from the passage in the fifth book. It is mentioned by Scylax in his Periplus
of the Troad. In the battle between the Athenians and Peloponnesians in the twenty-first
year of the Peloponnesian War (B.C. 411), the line of the 68 ships of the Peloponnesians
extended from Abydus to Dardanus (Thuc. viii. 104); a statement that can hardly
be correct, for the ships that were outside of the promontory of Dardanis would
be completely separated from the rest. Strabo says that Dardanus was so weak a
place, that the kings, by whom he means Alexander's successors, some of them several
times removed all the people to Abydus, and others moved them back again to their
old place. On this spot L. Cornelius Sulla and Mithridates met, after Sulla had
crossed over from Europe, and here they came to terms about putting an end to
the war, B.C. 84. (Strab. p. 595; Plut. Sulla, c. 24.) It was at that time a free
city, having been declared such by the Romans after the peace with king Antiochus,
B.C. 190, in honour of the Trojan descent of the people. (Liv. xxxvii. 9, 37,
xxxviii. 39.)
There are many imperial coins of Dardanus; and the name of the river
Rhodius appears on a medal of Domna. Sestini, Mon. Vet. p. 76. (Cramer, Asia Minor,
vol. i. p. 82.) This seems to show that the stream which flows into the Hellespont
near the cape Dardanis, is the Rhodius, and not the river nearer Abydus; but it
is not decisive. The modern name Dardanelles is generally supposed to be derived
from the name of Dardanus.
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GARGARA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Gargara or Gargaron, one of the heights of Mount Ida in Troas (Hom. Il. viii.
48, xiv. 292), which continued to bear this name even in the time of Strabo (xiii.;
comp. Plin. v. 32; Macrob. Sat. v. 20; Steph, B. s. v.). Its modern name is said
to be Kazdag. A town of the same name existed from early times upon that height,
or rather on a branch of it forming a cape on the north of the bay of Adramyttium,
between Antandrus and Assus. In the earliest times it is said to have been inhabited
by Leleges, but afterwards to have received Aeolian colonists from Assus, and
others from Miletupolis (Strab.; Mela, i. 18; Ptol.v. 2. 5). The name of this
town is in some authors misspelt Iarganon, as in Ptolemy, and Sagara, as in Hierocles.
The territory round Gargara was celebrated for its fertility (Virg. Georg. i.
103; Senec. Phoen. iv. 608). The modern village of Ine probably occupies the site
of ancient Gargara.
GOKCEADA (Island) TURKEY
Imbros (Imbros: Eth. Imbrios), an island in the Aegaean sea, off the
SW. coast of the Thracian Chersonesus, and near the islands of Samothrace and
Lemnos. According to Pliny (iv. 12. s. 23), Imbros is 62 miles in circumference;
but this is nearly double its real size. It is mountainous and well wooded, and
its highest summit is 1845 feet above the level of the sea. It contains, however,
several fertile valleys, and a river named Ilissus in antiquity. (Plin. l. c.)
Its town on the northern side was called by the same name, and there are still
some ruins of it remaining. Imbros was inhabited in early times by the Pelasgians,
and was, like the neighbouring island of Samothrace, celebrated for its worship
of the Cabeiri and Hermes, whom the Carians called Imbrasus. (Steph. B. s. v.
Imbros.) Both the island and the city of Imbros are mentioned by Homer, who gives
to the former the epithet of paipaloesse.. (Il. xiii. 33, xiv.281, xxiv. 78, Hymn.
in Apoll. 36.) The island was annexed to the Persian empire by Otanes, a general
of Dareius, at which time it was still inhabited by Pelasgians. (Herod. v. 26.)
It was afterwards colonised by the Athenians, and was no doubt taken by Miltiades
along with Lemnos. It was always regarded in later times as an ancient Athenian
possession: thus the peace of Antalcidas, which declared the independence of all
the Grecian states, nevertheless allowed the Athenians to retain possession of
Lemnos, Imbros, and Scyros (Xen. Hell. iv. 8. 15, v. 1. § 31); and at the end
of the war with Philip the Romans restored to the same people the islands of Lemnos,
Imbros, Delos, and Seyros. (Liv. xxxiii. 30.)
The coins of Imbros have the common Athenian emblem, the head of Pallas.
Imbros seems to have afforded good anchorage. The fleet of Antiochus first sailed
to Imbros and from thence crossed over to Sciathus. (Liv. xxxv. 43.) The ship
which carried Ovid into exile also anchored in the harbour of Imbros, which the
poet calls Imbria tellus. (Ov. Trist. i. 10, 18.) The island is still called by
its ancient name.
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KARDIA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Cardia (Kardia: Caridia), one of the chief towns of the Thracian
Chersonesus, situated at the head of the gulf of Melas. It was originally a colony
of the Milesians and Clazomenians; but subsequently, in the time of Miltiades,
the place also received Athenian colonists. (Herod. vii. 58, vi. 33, ix. 115;
Scym. Chius, 699; Dem. c. Philip. i. p. 63, de Halon. pp. 87, 88, and elsewhere.)
The town was destroyed by Lysimachus (Paus. i. 9. § 10), and although it was afterwards
rebuilt, it never again rose to any degree of prosperity, as Lysimachia, which
was built in its vicinity and peopled with the inhabitants of Cardia, became the
chief town in that neighbourhood. (Strab. vii. p. 331; Pans. i. 10. § 5, iv. 34.
§ 6; Appian, B.C. iv. 88; Ptol. iii. 12. § 2; Steph. B. s. v.) Cardia was the
birthplace of king Eumenes (Nep. Eum. 1) and of the historian Hieronymus. (Paus.
i. 9. § 10.)
KEVRIN (Ancient city) TURKEY
Cebrene (KebreWe or Cebren, a town of Mysia, in a district Cebrenia
(KebreWia). There was a river Cebren (KebreW). The Ethnic names are KebreWos,
KebreWeus, and KebreWios (Steph. s. v. KebreWia); but the Ethnic name is properly
KebreWieus, as Strabo has it. Cebrenia was below Dardania, and a plain country
for the most part. It was separated from the Scepsia or territory of Scepsis by
the river Scamander. The people of Scepsis and the Cebrenii were always quarrelling,
till Antigonus removed both of them to his new town of Antigonia, afterwards called
Alexandria Troas. The Cebrenii remained there; but the Scepsii obtained permission
from Lysimachus to go home again. Strabo speaks of a tribe in Thrace called Cebrenii,
near a river Arisbus; but we cannot conclude any thing from this as to the origin
of the Cebrenii. Ephorus, in the first book of his history (quoted by Harpocrat.
s. v. KebreWa), says that the Aeolians of Cumae sent a colony to Cebren. The city
Cebren surrendered to Dercyllidas the Lacedaemonian (Xen. Hell. iii. 1. 17), who
marched from thence against Scepsis and Gergitha. Geographers have differed as
to the position of Cebrenia. Palaescepsis was near the banks of the Aesepus, and
the Scepsis of Strabo's time was 40 stadia lower down than Old Scepsis. Now, Old
Scepsis was higher up than Cebrenia, near the highest part of Ida, and its territory
extended to the Scamander, where Cebrenia began. Again, the territory of the Assii
and the Gargareis was bounded by Antandria (on the east), and the territory of
the Cebrenii, the Neandrieis, and the Hamaxiteis. Thus Cebrenia is brought within
tolerably definite limits. Leake (Asia Minor, p. 274) supposes Cebrenia to have
occupied the higher region of Ida on the west, and its plain to be the fine valley
of - the Mendere as far down as Ene, probably Neandria. This seems to agree with
Strabo's description. Leake also supposes that the town Cebren may be a place
called Kushunlu Tepe, not far from Baramitsh. Dr. E. D. Clarke found considerable
remains at Kushunlu Tepe; but remains alone do not identify a site.
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KOLONES (Ancient city) TURKEY
Colonae (Kolonai) or Colone, a town in the Troad, 140 stadia from
Ilium. (Strab. pp. 589, 604; Thuc. i. 131; Xen. Hell. iii. 1. 13; Paus. x. 14.
§ 1.) According to tradition, Colonae was in early times the residence of a Thracian
prince Cycnus, who possessed the adjoining country and the island of Tenedos,
opposite to which Colonae was situated on the mainland. Colonae was probably one
of the towns from which the inhabitants were removed to supply the population
of Alexandria in Troas. Pliny (v. 30) places it in the interior, and speaks of
it as one of the places that had disappeared.
KREMASTI (Ancient city) TURKEY
Cremaste (Kremaste), a place mentioned by Xenophon (Hell. iv. 8. §
37). He speaks of the plain near Cremaste, where there are the gold mines of the
Abydeni. If Cremaste was a village, it was probably on a hill above the plain.
As Strabo speaks of gold mines at Astyra, it has been conjectured that Astyra
and Cremaste are either the same place, or two adjacent places. Gold mines belonging
to Lampsacus are mentioned by Pliny (xxxvii. 11) and by Polyaenus (ii. 1. § 26);
and they may be the same as those of Cremaste, if we suppose Cremaste to be between
Abydus and Lampsacus.
LAMPONION (Ancient city) TURKEY
Lamponeia or Lamponeium (Lamponeia, Lamponion an Aeolian town in the south-west
of Troas, of which no particulars are known, except that it was annexed to Persia
by the satrap Otanes in the reign of Darius Hystaspis. It is mentioned only by
the earliest writers. (Herod. v. 26; Strab. xiii.; Steph. B. s. v.)
LAMPSAKOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Lampsakenos: Eth. Lampsakenos. Sometimes also called Lampsacum (Cic.
in Verr. i. 2. 4; Pomp. Mela, i. 19), was one of the most celebrated Greek settlements
in Mysia on the Hellespont. It was known to have existed under the name of Pityusa
or Pityussa before it received colonists from the Ionian cities of Phocaea and
Miletus. (Strab. xiii. p. 589; Steph. B. s. v.; Plin. v. 40; Hom. Il. ii. 829
; Plut. de Virt. Mul. 18.) It was situated, opposite to Callipolis, in the Thracian
Chersonesus, and possessed an excellent harbour. Herodotus (vi. 37) relates that
the elder Miltiades, who was settled in the Thracian Chersonesus, made war upon
the Lampsaceni, but that they took him by surprise, and made him their prisoner.
Being threatened, however, by Croesus, who supported Miltiades, they set him free.
During the Ionian revolt, the town fell into the hands of the Persians. (Herod.
v. 117.) The territory about Lampsacus produced excellent wine, whence the king
of Persia bestowed it upon Themistocles, that he might thence provide himself
with wine. (Thucyd. i. 138; Athen. i. p. 29; Diod. xi. 57; Plut. Them. 29; Nepos,
Them. 10; Amm. Marc. xxii. 8.) But even while Lampsacus acknowledged the supremacy
of Persia, it continued to be governed by a native prince or tyrant, of the name
of Hippocles. His son Aeantides married Archedice, a daughter of Pisistratus,
whose tomb, commemorating her virtues, was seen there in the time of Thucydides
(vi. 59). The attempt of Euagon to seize the citadel, and thereby to make himself
tyrant, seems to belong to the same period. (Athen. xi. p. 508.) After the battle
of Mycale, in B.C. 479, Lampsacus joined Athens, but revolted after the failure
of the great Athenian expedition to Sicily; being, however, unfortified, it was
easily reconquered by a fleet under Strombichides. (Thuc. viii. 62.) After the
time of Alexander the Great, the Lampsaceni had to defend their city against the
attacks of Antiochus of Syria; they voted a crown of gold to the Romans, and were
received by them as allies. (Liv. xxxiii. 38, xxxv. 42, xliii. 6; Polyb. xxi.
10.) In the time of Strabo, Lampsacus was still a flourishing city. It was the
birthplace of many distinguished authors and philosophers, such as Charon the
historian, Anaximenes the orator, and Metrodorus the disciple of Epicurus, who
himself resided there for many years, and reckoned some of its citizens among
his intimate friends. (Strab. 1. c.; Diog. Laert. x. 11.) Lampsacus possessed
a fine statue by Lysippus, representing a prostrate lion, but it was removed by
Agrippa to Rome to adorn the Campus Martius. (Strab. l. c.) Lampsacus, as is well
known, was the chief seat of the obscene worship of Priapus, who was believed
to have been born there of Aphrodite. (Athen. i. p. 30; Pans. ix. 31. § 2; Apollon.
Rhod. i. 983 ; Ov. Fast. vi. 345; Virg. Georg. iv. 110.) From this circumstance
the whole district was believed to have derived the name of Abarnis or Aparnis
(aparneisthai), because Aphrodite denied that she had given birth to him. (Theophr.
Hist. Plant. i. 6, 13.) The ancient name of the district had been Bebrycia, probably
from the Thracian Bebryces, who had settled there. (Comp. Hecat. Fragm. 207; Charon,
Fragm. 115, 119; Xenoph. Anab. vii. 8. § 1; Polyb. v. 77; Plin. iv. 18, v. 40;
Ptol. v. 2. § 2; Steph. B. s. v.) The name of Lamsaki is still attached to a small
town, near which Lampsacus probably stood, as Lamsaki itself contains no remains
of antiquity. There are gold and silver staters of Lampsacus in different collections
; the imperial coins have been traced from Augustus to Gallienus.
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LYSIMACHIA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Lysimachia (Lusimachia or Lusimacheia). An important town on the north-western
extremity of the Thracian Chersonesus, not far from the Sinus Melas. It was built
by Lysimachus in B.C. 309, when he was preparing for the last struggle with his
rivals; for the new city, being situated on the isthmus, commanded the road from
Sestos to the north and the mainland of Thrace. In order to obtain inhabitants
for his new city, Lysimachus destroyed the neighbouring town of Cardia, the birthplace
of the historian Hieronymus. (Strab. ii. p. 134, vii. p. 331; Paus. i. 9. § 10;
Diod xx. 29; Polyb. v. 34; Plin. H. N. iv. 18.) Lysimachus no doubt made Lysimachia
the capital of his kingdom, and it must have rapidly risen to great splendour
and prosperity. After his death the city fell under the dominion of Syria, and
during the wars between Seleucus Callinicus and Ptolemy Euergetes it passed from
the hands of the Syrians into those of the Egyptians. Whether these latter set
the town free, or whether it emancipated itself, is uncertain, at any rate it
entered into the relation of sympolity with the Aetolians. But as the Aetolians
were not able to afford it the necessary protection, it was destroyed by the Thracians
during the war of the Romans against Philip of Macedonia. Antiochus the Great
restored the place, collected the scattered and enslaved inhabitants, and attracted
colonists from all parts by liberal promises. (Liv. xxxiii. 38, 40; Diod. Exc.
de Virt. et Vit. p. 574.) This restoration, however, appears to have been unsuccessful,
and under the dominion of Rome it decayed more and more. The last time the place
is mentioned under its ancient name, is in a passage of Ammianus Marcellinus (xxii.
8). The emperor Justinian restored it and surrounded it with strong fortifications
Procop. de Aed. iv. 10), and after that time it is spoken of only under the name
of Hexamilium (Hexamilion; Symeon, Logoth. p. 408). The place now occupying the
place of Lysimachia, Ecsemil, derives its name from the Justinianean fortress,
though the ruins of the ancient place are more numerous in the neighbouring village
of Baular.
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MADYTOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Madytus (Madutos: Eth. Madutios), an important port town in the Thracian
Chersonesus, on the Hellespont, nearly opposite to Abydos. (Liv. xxxi. 16, xxxiii.
38; Mela, ii. 2; Anna Comn. xiv. p. 429; Steph. Byz. s. v.; Strab. vii. p. 331.)
Ptolemy (iii. 12. § 4) mentions in the same district a town of the name of Madis,
which some identify with Madytus, but which seems to have been situated more inland.
It is generally believed that Maito marks the site of the ancient Madytus.
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NEANDRIA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Neandreia, Neandrium, Neandrus (Neandreia, NeandrioW, Neandros: Eth.
Neandreus or Neandrieus), a town in Troas, probably founded by Aeolians; in the
time of Strabo it had disappeared, its inhabitants, together with those of other
neigh-bouring places, having removed to Alexandreia. (Strab. xiii. pp. 604, 606.)
According to Scylax (p. 36) and Stephanus Byz. (s. v.), Neandreia was a maritime
town on the Hellespont ; and Strabo might perhaps be supposed to be mistaken in
placing it in the interior above Hamaxitus ; but he is so explicit in his description,
marking its distance from New Ilium at 130 stadia, that it is scarcely possible
to conceive him to be in the wrong. Hence Leake (Asia Minor, p. 274), adopting
him as his guide, seeks the site of Neandreia in the lower valley of the Scamander,
near the modern town of Ene.
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PAKTYI (Ancient city) TURKEY
Pactye (Paktue, Herod. vi. 36; Strab. vii. p. 331), a town of the Thracian Chersonese,
on the coast of the Propontis, 36 stadia from Cardia, whither Alcibiades retired
after the Athenians had for the second time deprived him of the command. (Diod.
xxii. 74; Nepos, Alc. 7; cf. Plin. iv. 18; Scyl. p. 28.) Perhaps St. George.
PARION (Ancient city) TURKEY
Parium (Parion: Eth. Parianos), a coast-town of Mysia, on the Hellespont,
on the west of Priapus, in the district called Adrasteia, from an ancient town
which once existed in it (Strab. xiii. p. 588). Pliny, (v. 40) is mistaken in
stating that Homer applied the name of Adrasteia to Parium, and the only truth
that seems to lie at the bottom of his assertion is that a town Adrasteia did
at one time exist between Priapus and Parium, and that on the destruction of Adrasteia
all the building materials were transferred to Parium. According to Strabo, Pariumt
was a colony of Milesians, Erythraeans, and Parians ; while Pausanias (ix. 27.
§ 1) calls it simply a colony of Erythrae. According to the common traditions,
it had received its name from Parius, a son of Jason. (Eustath. ad Hom. Od. v.
125, ad Dion. Per. 517; Steph. B. s. v.)
The harbour of Parium was larger and better than that of the neighbouring
Priapus; whence the latter place decayed, while the prosperity of the former increased.
In the time of Augustus, Parium became a Roman colony, as is attested by coins
and inscriptions. It contained an altar constructed of the stones of an oracular
temple at Adrasteia which had been removed to Parium; and this altar, the work
of Hermocreon, is described as very remarkable on account of its size and beauty.
Strabo and Pliny (vii, 2) mention, as a curiosity, that there existed at Parium
a family called the Ophiogenes (Ophiogeneis), the members of which, like the Libyan
Psylli, had it in their power to cure the bite of a snake by merely touching the
person that had been bitten. Parium is also mentioned in Herod. v. 117; Xenoph.
Anab. vii. 2. § 7, 3. § 16; Ptol. v. 2. § 2; Appian, Mithrid. 76; Mela, i. 19;
Polyaen. vi. 24. The present town occupying the site of Parium bears the name
of Kemer or Kamares, and contains a few ancient remains. The walls fronting the
sea still remain, and are built of large square blocks of marble, without mortar.
There are also ruins of an aqueduct, reservoirs for water, and the fallen architraves
of a portico. The modern name Kamares seems to be derived from some ancient subterraneous
buildings (kamarai) which still exist in the place. (Walpole, Turkey, p. 88; Sestini,
Num. Vet. p. 73.)
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PIONIES (Ancient city) TURKEY
(Pionia: Eth. Pionita), a town in the interior of Mysia, on the river Satnioeis,
to the northwest of Antandrus, and to the north-east of Gargara. (Strab. xiii.) Under the Roman dominion it belonged to the jurisdiction of Adramyttium (Plin. v. 32), and in the ecclesiastical notices it appears as a bishopric of
the Hellespontine province. (Hierocl.; Sestini)
SISTOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Sestus (Sestos: Eth. Sestios), the principal town of the Thracian
Chersonesus, and opposite to Abydus, its distance from which is variously stated
by ancient writers, probably because their measurements were made in different
ways; some speaking of the mere breadth of the Hellespont where it is narrowest;
others of the distance from one city to the other; which, again, might be reckoned
either as an imaginary straight line, or as the space traversed by a vessel in
crossing from either side to the other, and this, owing to the current, depended
to some extent upon which shore was the starting point. Strabo (xiii. p. 591)
states that the strait is 7 stadia across near Abydus; but that from the harbour
of Abydus to that of Sestus, the distance is 30 stadia.1 (On
this point the following references may be consulted: Herod. vii. 34; Xen. Hell.
iv. 8. 5; Polyb. xvi. 29; Scyl. p. 28; Plin. iv. 11. s. 18. Ukert (iii. 2. § 137,
note 41) has collected the various statements made by the moderns respecting this
subject.)
Owing to its position, Sestus was for a long period the usual point
of departure for those crossing over from Europe to Asia; but subsequently the
Romans selected Callipolis as the harbour for that purpose, and thus, no doubt,
hastened the decay of Sestus, which, though never a very large town, was in earlier
times a place of great importance. According to Theopompus (ap. Strab. l. c.),
it was a well-fortified town, and connected with its port by a wall 200 feet in
length (skelei diplethroi). Dercyllidas, also, in a speech attributed to him by
Xenophon (Hell. iv. 8. § 5), describes it as extremely strong.
Sestus derives its chief celebrity from two circumstances,- the one
poetical the other historical. The former is its connection with the romantic
story of Hero and Leander, too well known to render it necessary to do more than
merely refer to it in this place (Ov. Her. xviii. 127; Stat. Silv. i. 3. 27, &c.);
the latter is the formation (B.C. 480) of the bridge of boats across the Hellespont,
for the passage of the army of Xerxes into Europe; the western end of which bridge
was a little to the south of Sestus (Herod. vii. 33). After the battle of Mycale,
the Athenians seized the opportunity of recovering the Chersonesus, and with that
object laid siege to Sestus, into which a great many Persians had hastily retired
on their approach, and which was very insufficiently prepared for defence. Notwithstanding
this, the garrison held out bravely during many months; and it was not till the
spring of B.C. 478 that it was so much reduced by famine as to have become mutinous.
The governor, Artayctes, and other Persians, then fled from the town in the night;
and on this being discovered, the inhabitants opened their gates to the Athenians.
(Herod. ix. 115, seq.; Thuc. i. 89.) It remained in their possession till after
the battle of Aegospotami, and used to be called by them the corn-chest of the
Piraeeus, from its giving them the command of the trade of the Euxine. (Arist.
Rhet. iii. 10. § 7.) At the close of the Peloponnesian War (B.C. 404), Sestus,
with most of the other possessions of Athens in the same quarter, fell into the
hands of the Lacedaemonians and their Persian allies. During the war which soon
afterwards broke out between Sparta and Persia, Sestus adhered to the former,
and refused to obey the command of Pharnabazus to expel the Lacedaemonian garrison;
in consequence of which it was blockaded by Conon (B.C. 394), but without much
result, as it appears. (Xen. Hell. iv. 8. 6) Some time after this, probably in
consequence of the peace of Antalcidas (B.C. 387), Sestus regained its independence,
though only for a time, and perhaps in name merely; for on the next occasion when
it is mentioned, it is as belonging to the Persian satrap, Ariobarzanes, from
whom Cotys, a Thracian king, was endeavouring to take it by arms (B.C. 362?).
He was, however, compelled to raise the siege, probably by the united forces of
Timotheus and Agesilaus (Xen. Ages. ii. 26; Nep. Timoth. 1); the latter authority
states that Ariobarzanes, in return for the services of Timotheus in this war,
gave Sestus and another town to the Athenians2 , from whom it is said to have
soon afterwards revolted, when it submitted to Cotys. But his successor, Cersobleptes,
surrendered the whole Chersonesus, including Sestus, to the Athenians (B.C. 357),
who, on the continued refusal of Sestus to yield to them, sent Chares, in B.C.
353, to reduce it to obedience. After a short resistance it was taken by assault,
and all the male inhabitants capable of bearing arms were, by Chares' orders,
barbarously massacred. (Diod. xvi. 34.)
After this time we have little information respecting Sestus. It appears
to have fallen under the power of the Macedonians, and the army of Alexander the
Great assembled there (B.C. 334), to be conveyed from its harbour in a Grecian
fleet, from Europe to the shores of Asia. By the terms of the peace concluded
(B.C. 197) between the Romans and Philip, the latter was required to withdraw
his garrisons from many places both in Europe and in Asia; and on the demand of
the Rhodians, actuated no doubt by a desire for free trade with the Euxine, Sestus
was included in the number. (Liv. xxxii. 33.) During the war with Antiochus, the
Romans were about to lay siege to the town (B.C. 190); but it at once surrendered.
(Liv. xxxvii. 9.) Strabo mentions Sestus as a place of some commercial importance
in his time; but history is silent respecting its subsequent destinies. According
to D'Anville its site is occupied by a ruined place called Zemenic; but more recent
authorities name it Jalowa (Mannert, vii. p. 193). (Herod. iv. 143; Thuc. viii.
62; Polyb. iv. 44; Diod. xi. 37; Arrian, Anab. i. 11. § § 5, 6; Ptol. iii. 12.
§ 4, viii. 11. § 10; Steph. B. s. v.; Scymn. 708; Lucan ii.674.)
1 Lord Byron, in a note referring to his feat of
swimming across from Sestus to Abydus, says:--The whole distance from the place
whence we started to our landing on the other side, including the length we were
carried by the current, was computed by those on board the frigate at upwards
of 4 English miles, though the actual breadth is barely one. This corresponds
remarkably well with the measurements given by Strabo, as above.
2 There is much obscurity in this part of Grecian history, and
the statement of Nepos has been considered inconsistent with several passages
in Greek authorities, who are undoubtedly of incomparably greater weight than
the unknown compiler of the biographical notices which pass under the name of
Nepos. (See Diet. Biogr. Vol. III. p. 1146, a.)
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SKIPSIS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Scepsis (Skepsis: Eth. Skepsios), a town in the SE. of Mysia, on the
river Aesepus, 150 stadia to the SE. of Alexandria Troas, and not far from Dicte,
one of the highest points of Mount Ida. It was apparently a place of the highest
antiquity; for it was believed to have been founded immediately after the time
of the Trojan War, and Demetrius, a native of the place, considered it to have
been the capital of the dominions of Aeneas. (Strab. xiii. p. 607). The same author
stated that the inhabitants were transferred by Scamandrius, the son of Hector,
and Ascanius, the son of Aeneas, to another site, lower down the Aesepus, about
60 stadia from the old place, and that there a new town of the same name was founded.
The old town after this was distinguished from the new one by the name of Palaescepsis.
For two generations the princes of the house of Aeneas maintained themselves in
the new town; but the form of government then became an oligarchy. During this
period, colonists from Miletus joined the Scepsians, and instituted a democratic
form of government. The descendants of the royal family, however, still continued
to enjoy the regal title and some other distinctions. (Strab. l. c. comp. xiii.
p. 603; xiv. p. 635; Plin. v. 2; Steph. B. s. v.) In the time of Xenophon (Hell.
iii. 1. § 15), Scepsis belonged to Mania, a Dardanian princess; and after her
death it was seized by Meidias, who had married her daughter; but Dercyllidas,who
had obtained admission into the town under some pretext, expelled Meidias, and
restored the sovereign power to the citizens. After this we hear no more of Scepsis
until the time of the Macedonian supremacy, when Antigonus transferred its inhabitants
to Alexandria Troas, on account of their constant quarrels with the town of Cebrene
in their neighbourhood. Lysimachus afterwards allowed them to return to their
ancient home, which at a later time became subject to the kings of Pergamum. (Strab.
xiii. p. 597.) This new city became an important seat of learning and philosophy,
and is celebrated in the history of the works of Aristotle. Strabo (xiii. p. 608)
relates that Neleus of Scepsis, a pupil of Aristotle and friend of Theophrastus,
inherited the library of the latter, which also contained that of Aristotle. After
Neleus' death the library came into the hands of persons who, not knowing its
value, and being unwilling to give them up to the library which the Pergamenian
kings were collecting, concealed these literary treasures in a pit, where they
were exposed to injury from damp and worms. At length, however, they were rescued
from this place and sold to Apellicon of Teos. The books, in a very mutilated
condition, were conveyed to Athens, and thence they were carried by Sulla to Rome.
It is singular that Scylax (p. 36) enumerates Scepsis among the Aeolian coast-towns;
for it is evident from Strabo (comp. Demosth. c. Aristocr. p. 671) that it stood
at a considerable distance from the sea. The town of Palaescepsis seems to have
been abandoned entirely, for in Pliny's time (v. 33) not a vestige of it existed,
while Scepsis is mentioned by Hierocles (p. 664) and the ecclesiastical notices
of bishoprics. In the neighbourhood of Scepsis there existed very productive silver
mines. It was the birthplace of Demetrius and Metrodorus. The former, who bestowed
much labour on the topography of Troas, spoke of a district, Corybissa, near Scepsis,
of which otherwise nothing is known. Extensive ruins of Scepsis are believed to
exist on an eminence near the village of Eskiupshi. These ruins are about 3 miles
in circumference, and 8 gates can be traced in its walls. (Forbiger, Handbuch
der Alt. Geogr. >vol. ii. p. 147.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
TROY (Ancient city) TURKEY
Ilium, Ilios (Ilion, he Ilios: Eth. Ilieus, f. Ilias), sometimes also
called Troja (Troia), whence the inhabitants are commonly called Troes, and in
the Latin writers Trojani. The existence of this city, to which we commonly give
the name of Troy, cannot be doubted any more than the simple fact of the Trojan
War, which was believed to have ended with the capture and destruction of the
city, after a war of ten years, B.C. 184. Troy was the principal city of the country
called Troas. As the city has been the subject of curious inquiry, both in ancient
and modern times, it will be necessary, in the first instance, to collect and
analyse the statements of the ancient Writers; and to follow up this discussion
by an account of the investigations of modern travellers and scholars to identify
the site of the famous city. Our most ancient authority are the Homeric poems;
but we must at the very outset remark, that we cannot look upon the poet in every
respect as a careful and accurate topographer; but that, admitting his general
accuracy, there may yet be points on which he cannot be taken to account as if
it had been his professed object to communicate information on the topography
of Troy.
The city of Ilium was situated on a rising ground, somewhat above
the plain between the rivers Seamander and Simois, at a distance, as Strabo asserts,
of 42 stadia from the coast of the Hellespont. (Hom. Il. xx. 216, fol.; Strab.
xiii. p. 596.) That it was not quite in the plain is clear from the epithets enemoessa,
aipeine, and ophruoessa. Behind it, on the south-east, there rose a hill, forming
a branch of Mount Ida, surmounted by the acropolis, called Pergamum (to Pergamon,
Hom. Il. iv. 508, vi. 512; also ta Pergama, Soph. Phil. 347, 353, 611; or, he
Pergamos, Hom. Il. v. 446, 460.) This fortified acropolis contained not only all
the temples of the gods (Il. iv. 508, v. 447,512, vi. 88, 257, xxii. 172, &c.),
but also the palaces of Priam and his sons, Hector and Paris (Il. vi. 317, 370,
512, vii. 345). The city must have had many gates, as may be inferred from the
expression pasai pulai (Il. ii. 809, and elsewhere), but only one is mentioned
by name, viz., the Skaiai pulai, which led to the camp of the Greeks, and must
accordingly have been on the northwest part of the city, that is, the part just
opposite the acropolis (Il. iii. 145, 149, 263, vi. 306, 392, xvi. 712, &c.).
The origin of this name of the left gate is unknown, though it may possibly have
reference to the manner in which the signs in the heavens were observed; for,
during this process, the priest turned his face to the north, so that the north-west
would be on his left hand. Certain minor objects alluded to in the Iliad, such
as the tombs of Ilus, Aesyetes, and Myrine, the Scopie and Erineus, or the wild
fig-tree, we ought probably not attempt to urge very strongly: we are, in fact,
prevented from attributing much weight to them by the circumstance that the inhabitants
of New Ilium, who believed that their town stood on the site of the ancient city,
boasted that they could show close to their walls these doubtful vestiges of antiquity.
(Strab. xiii. p. 599.) The walls of Ilium are described as lofty and strong, and
as flanked with towers; they were fabled to have been built by Apollo and Poseidon
(Il. i. 129, ii. 113, 288, iii. 153, 384, 386, vii. 452, viii. 519). These are
the only points of the topography of Ilium derivable from the Homeric poems. The
city was destroyed, according to the common tradition, as already remarked, about
B.C. 1184; but afterwards we hear of a new Ilium, though we are not informed when
and on what site it was built. Herodotus (vii. 42) relates that Xerxes, before
invading Greece, offered sacrifices to Athena at Pergamum, the ancient acropolis
of Priam; but this does not quite justify the inference that the new town of Ilium
was then already in existence, and all that we can conclude from this passage
is that the people at that time entertained no doubt as to the sites of the ancient
city and its acropolis. Strabo (xiii. p. 601) states that Ilium was restored during
the last dynasty of the Lydian kings; that is, before the subjugation of Western
Asia by the Persians: and both Xenophon (Hellen. i. 1. § 4) and Scylax (p. 35)
seem to speak of Ilium as a town actually existing in their days. It is also certain
that in the time of Alexander New Ilium did exist, and was inhabited by Aeolians.
(Demosth. c. Aristocr. p. 671; Arrian, Anab. i. 11. § 7; Strab. xiii. p. 593,
foll.) This new town, which is distinguished by Strabo from the famous ancient
city, was not more than 12 stadia, or less than two English miles, distant from
the sea, and was built upon the spur of a projecting edge of Ida, separating the
basins of the Scamander and Simois. It was at first a place of not much importance
(Strab. xiii. pp. 593, 601), but increased in the course of time, and was successively
extended and embellished by Alexander, Lysimachus, and Julius Caesar. During the
Mith<*>idatic War New Ilium was taken by Fimbria, in B.C. 85, on which occasion
it suffered greatly. (Strab. xiii. p. 594; Appian, Mithrid. 53; Liv. Epit. lxxxiii.)
It is said to have been once destroyed before that time, by one Charidemus (Plut.
Sertor. 1.; Polyaen. iii. 14); but we neither know when this happened, nor who
this Charidemus was. Sulla, however, favoured the town extremely, in consequence
of which it rose, under the Roman dominion, to considerable prosperity, and enjoyed
exemption from all taxes. (Plin. v. 33.) These were the advantages which the place
owed to the tradition that it occupied the identical site of the ancient and holy
city of Troy: for, it may here be observed, that no ancient author of Greece or
Rome ever doubted the identity of the site of Old and New Ilium until the time
of Demetrius of Scepsis, and Strabo, who adopted his views; and that, even afterwards,
the popular belief among the people of Ilium itself, as well as throughout the
world generally, remained as firmly established as if the criticism of Demetrius
and Strabo had never been heard of. These critics were led to look for Old Ilium
farther inland, because they considered the space between New Ilium and the coast
far too small to have been the scene of all the great exploits described in the
Iliad; and, although they are obliged to own that not a vestige of Old Ilium was
to be seen anywhere, yet they assumed that it must have been situated about 42
stadia from the sea-coast. They accordingly fixed upon a spot which at the time
bore the name of Ilieon kome. This view, with its assumption of Old and New Ilium
as two distinct places, does not in any way remove the difficulties which it is
intended to remove; for the spaee will still be found far too narrow, not to mention
that it demands of the poet what can be demanded only of a geographer or an historian.
On these grounds we, in common with the general belief of all antiquity, which
has also found able advocates among modern critics, assume that Old and New Ilium
occupied the same site. The statements in the Iliad which appear irreconcilable
with this view will disappear if we bear in mind that we have to do with an entirely
legendary story, which is little concerned about geographical accuracy.
The site of New Ilium (according to our view, identical with that
of Old Ilium) is acknowledged by all modern inquirers and travellers to be the
spot covered with ruins now called Kissarlik, between the villages of Kum-kioi,
Kalli-fatli, and Tchiblak, a little to the west of the last-mentioned place, and
not far from the point where the Simois once joined the Scamander. Those who maintain
that Old Ilium was situated in a different locality cannot, of course, be expected
to agree in their opinions as to its actual site, it being impossible to fix upon
any one spot agreeing in every particular with the poet' s description. Respecting
the nationality of the inhabitants of Ilium, we shall have to speak in the article
Troas (Comp. Spohn, de Agro Trojano, Lipsiae, 1814, 8vo.; Rennell, Observations
on the Topography of the Plain of Troy, London, 1814,4to.; Choiseul-Gouffier,
Voyage Pittoresque de la Grece, Paris, 1820, vol. ii. p. 177, fell.; Leake, Asia
Minor, p. 275, foll.; Grote Hist. of Greece, vol. i. p. 436, foll.; Eckenbrecher,
uber die Lage des Homerischen Ilion, Rhein. Mus. Neue Folge, vol. ii. pp. 1-49,
where a very good plan of the district of Ilion is given. See also, Welcker, Kleine
Schriften, vol. ii. p. 1, foil.; C. Maclaren, Dissertation on the Topography of
the Trojan War, Edinburgh, 1822; Mauduit, Decouvertes dans la Troiade, &c., Paris
& Londres, 1840.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ALEXANDRIA TROAS (Ancient city) TURKEY
also Troas simply, on the sea-coast southwest of Troy, was enlarged by Antigonus, hence called Antigonia, but afterwards it resumed its first name. It flourished greatly, both under the Greeks and the Romans; and both Iulius Caesar and Constantine thought of establishing the seat of the Empire in it.
AMAXITOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
(Hamaxitos). A small town on the coast of the Troad.
ANTANDROS (Ancient city) TURKEY
An Aeolian colony on the Adramyttian Gulf, at the foot of Mount Ida.
AVYDOS (Ancient city) MARMARA
A town of the Troad on the Hellespont, and a Milesian colony, nearly opposite to Sestos, but a little lower down the stream. The bridge of boats which Xerxes constructed over the Hellespont, B.C. 480, commenced a little higher up than Abydos, and touched the European shore between Sestos and Madytus.
BOZCAADA (Island) TURKEY
A small island of the Aegaean Sea, off the coast of Troas, of
an importance very disproportionate to its size, on account of its position near
the mouth of the Hellespont, from which it is about twelve miles distant. It appears
in the legend of the Trojan War as the station to which the Greeks withdrew their
fleet, in order to induce the Trojans to think that they had departed, and to
receive the wooden horse. In the Persian War it was used by Xerxes as a naval
station. It afterwards became a tributary ally of Athens, and adhered to her during
the whole of the Peloponnesian War, and down to the peace of Antalcidas, by which
it was surrendered to the Persians. At the Macedonian conquest the Tenedians regained
their liberty. The women of the island were noted for their beauty.
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CHRYSSI (Ancient city) TURKEY
A city on the coast of the Troad, near Thebes, with a temple of Apollo Smintheus; celebrated by Homer.
DARDANELLES (Sea strait) CANAKKALE
(Hellespontos). Now the Dardanelles, the long narrow strait
which joins the Propontis (Sea of Marmora) with the Aegean Sea. Its length is
some fifty miles, and its width varies from six at the upper end to one or less.
The narrowest part is between the ancient cities of Sestus and Abydus, where Leander
is said to have swum across to visit Hero. Here, also, Xerxes crossed on his bridge
of boats. The name Hellespontos (Sea of Helle) was derived from the myth of Helle.
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DARDANOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Also Dardanum (Dardanon), a Greek city in the Troad on the Hellespont,
twelve Roman miles from Ilium, built by Aeolian colonists, at some distance from
the site of the ancient city Dardania. From Dardanum arose the name of the Castles
of the Dardanelles, after which the Hellespont is now called.
ELEOUS (Ancient city) TURKEY
or Eleus (Elaious or Eleous). A town on the southeast point of the Thracian Chersonesus, with a harbour and an heroum of Protesilaus.
GARGARA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Gargara (ta Gargara). The southern summit of Mount Ida, in the Troad, with a city of the same name at its foot.
GOKCEADA (Island) TURKEY
An island in the north of the Aegaean Sea, near the Thracian Chersonesus, about twenty-five miles in circumference. Like the neighbouring island of Samothrace, it was one of the chief seats of the worship of the Cabeiri.
KALLIPOLIS (Ancient city) TURKEY
The modern Gallipoli, a town in the Thracian Chersonesus opposite Lampsacus.
KARDIA (Ancient city) TURKEY
A town on the Thracian Chersonese, on the Gulf of Melas, the birthplace of Eumenes. It was destroyed by Lysimachus, who built the town of Lysimachia in its immediate neighbourhood.
LAMPSAKOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
(Lampsakos). An important city of Mysia in Asia Minor, on the coast of the Hellespont; a colony of the Phocaeans; celebrated for its wine, and the chief seat of the worship of Priapus. Here were born Anaximenes, Charon, the historian, and the philosophers Adimantus and Metrodorus.
LYSIMACHIA (Ancient city) TURKEY
(Lusimachia or Lusimacheia). An important town of Thrace, on the Gulf of Melas, and on the isthmus connecting the Thracian Chersonesus with the mainland, founded B.C. 309 by Lysimachus, who removed to his new city the inhabitants of the neighbouring town of Cardia.
MADYTOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
A sea-port town on the Thracian Chersonesus.
PAKTYI (Ancient city) TURKEY
A town in the Thracian Chersonesus, on the Propontis, to which Alcibiades retired when he was banished by the Athenians, B.C. 407.
PARION (Ancient city) TURKEY
A city of Mysia, on the Propontis, founded by a colony from Miletus, Paros, and Erythrae. It was known for its local worship of Apollo, Dionysus, and Eros. Under Augustus it was made a Roman colony.
PRIAPOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
(Priapos). A Mysian city on the Propontis, a chief seat of the worship of the god Priapus. The surrounding district was called Priapis or Priapene.
SAROS (Gulf) TURKEY
(Melas Kolpos). A gulf between the coast of Thrace and the Thracian Chersonesus.
SISTOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Now Ialova; a town in Thrace, situated at the narrowest part
of the Hellespont, opposite Abydos in Asia, from which it was only seven stadia
distant. It was founded by the Aeolians. It was celebrated in Grecian poetry on
account of the loves of Leander and Hero, and in history on account of the bridge
of boats which Xerxes here built across the Hellespont. It was taken by the Romans
in B.C. 190.
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SKIPSIS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Scepsis (Skepsis, probably Eski-Upshi, or EskiShupshe). An ancient city in the interior of the Troad, southeast of Alexandria, in the mountains of Ida. Here the manuscripts of Aristotle and Theophrastus were buried to prevent their transference to Pergamum. (See Strabo, p. 608, and the article Aristoteles.) At Scepsis, Metrodorus, the philosopher, and Demetrius, the grammarian, were born.
TROY (Ancient city) TURKEY
The scene of the Iliad is laid before the walls of Ilios or
Troy, described by the poet as a populous and warlike city, mistress of the Troad,
or northwest promontory of Asia Minor, and ruled by King Priam. In the Greek myths
Ilios was founded by Ilus, son of Tros and greatgrandson of Dardanus. In the reign
of Laomedon, son of Ilus, the city was fortified with huge walls by Poseidon and
Apollo; but as Laomedon refused to pay the price agreed upon for this service,
he incurred the hostility of his mighty assistants. Laomedon was succeeded by
his son Podarces, or Priam, who became a great monarch, with fifty sons, including
Hector and Paris, and twelve daughters. Paris, by the help of Aphrodite, carried
off Helen, wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta; and to avenge this insult an army
of Achaeans besieged the city for ten years, and finally captured and destroyed
it. For a fuller account of the mythical history of Troy, see Dardanus; Ilus;
Laomedon; Paris; Trojan War.
It is impossible to determine how much, if any, of historical
truth is contained in these legends, and particularly in the Homeric account of
the Trojan War. But recent excavations have done much to show that the siege of
Troy was not all a myth. Where the ancient city stood, or where the poet conceived
that it stood, has been the subject of endless discussion. A brief history of
this controversy will be the best introduction to an account of the present state
of the question.
Long after the assumed date of the fall of Troy, but before
the Persian wars, the Greek town of (Novum) Ilium was founded at the low mound
of Hissarlik, nearly four miles from the Hellespont at Sigeum and about three
miles from the nearest point on the coast. Its inhabitants asserted that the city
of Priam had never been completely destroyed and that their own town was the immediate
successor of Homeric Ilios. This claim seems to have been generally allowed. Hellanicus
expressly approved it, and Herodotus describes, without dissent, the visit of
Xerxes to the spot, to which he was drawn by its legendary fame. The Spartan admiral
Mindarus, during the Peloponnesian War, and Alexander the Great, almost a century
later, each offered sacrifice to the Ilian Athene, in recognition of the ancient
glory of the town. But in the second century B.C. Demetrius of Scepsis advanced
the theory that Homeric Troy could not have stood on the site of (Novum) Ilium.
His chief reasons were: (1) that the plain between Ilium and the sea was an alluvial
deposit, and must have been far too small, in the days of Homer, for the mighty
combats described in the Iliad;
(2) the flight of Hector from Achilles three times around the
walls of the city could not have taken place at the site of Ilium, for the mound
on which the latter stands (the modern Hissarlik) was not an isolated hill, but
a spur from Mount Ida, so that at one point the runners would have had to ascend
a considerable incline. Demetrius would look for ancient Ilios apparently at a
site now called Hanai-tepeh, opposite Bunarbashi. In these opinions he was followed
by Strabo, our chief authority for the geography of the Troad; and most modern
scholars, until recent years, including such men as Welcker, Kiepert, Von Moltke,
E. Curtius, and Jebb, have agreed with them. It has been the accepted belief that
it was impossible to separate truth from fiction in the Iliad, and that we must
not therefore hope to find anywhere a site exactly corresponding to the poet's
description. According to this modern view, the ancient capital of the Troad was
situated on a high hill called Bali Dagh, much farther inland than Hissarlik,
and this mountain fortress was transformed, by the poet's imaginaton, into a great
city--the capital of a mighty empire. George Grote almost alone, with his usual
perspicacity, maintained that there was "every reason for presuming that
the Ilium visited by Xerxes and Alexander was the holy Ilium present to the mind
of Homer;" and the excavations of the last two decades have rendered it quite
certain that he was right in his adherence to the general opinion of antiquity.
But before giving an account of these excavations, it may be
well to glance at some of the circumstances which seem to favor the Hissarlik
site. Its distance from the coast is such as to agree with the Homeric conception
of the rapid ebb and flow of the tide of battle between the ships and the city
walls, and the frequent and speedy journeys of messengers, and king Priam himself.
The situation on the level plain, but with the low mound of from fifty to sixty-five
feet in height for the citadel, is more favourable for a great and wealthy city
than the almost inaccessible steep of Bali Dagh; while the latter is too far from
the coast (over ten miles) to meet the conditions mentioned above. Professor Virchow
has shown that the river Scamander (Mendere), which now discharges near Cape Sigeum,
must formerly have followed the course of the present KalifatliAsmak, farther
north, thus bringing it between the city and the ships, and providing for its
union with the Simois (Dumbrek-su); and so removing all objection to the Hissarlik
site on this score. The view of Demetrius, that the plain is an alluvial deposit,
is clearly founded on Herodotus ii. 11, where it is stated that the plain was
originally a bay. But Herodotus manifestly did not think that the plain lay under
water in the Trojan period, for he could not, in that case, have believed in the
identity of Troy and Ilium, as his recital of the visit of Xerxes would seem to
indicate that he did. The statement, if true, must refer to some remote period
of antiquity, for Scylax makes the distance of Ilium from the sea almost precisely
the same as the distance from Hissarlik to-day, showing that the alluvial deposit
has not materially extended the plain in the last 2000 years, at least. The objection
to the Hissarlik site, based upon the flight of Hector around the walls, amounts
to nothing, since this whole story is manifestly a poetic exaggeration, like the
battle of Achilles with the Scamander; and we need not expect to find the exact
spot where such fictitious and impossible occurrences took place. But if importance
is attached to this point, it may be added that recent excavations prove that
this ridge was originally about forty feet lower than at present, as it was gradually
raised by the clearing away of debris from the citadel mound. At its former insignificant
height it might easily have been surmounted by the two stout warriors. It may
be added that the ruins on the Bali Dagh consist of nothing more than the remains
of a small circuit wall, indicating that we have to do with an unimportant mountain
fortress, which may have commanded the Scamander gorge--a fortress which could
never have been described as a great and populous city "on the plain".
It would thus appear that on topographical grounds alone the
question, though a difficult one, might fairly be decided in favour of the Hissarlik
site. It remains to show how recent discoveries have converted this probability
into a practical certainty. In 1870 Dr. Heinrich Schliemann, a retired German
merchant and enthusiastic archaeologist, began his excavations at Hissarlik. These
excavations were continued, with various interruptions, until his death in 1890.
During their progress, the scholarly world, incredulous at first, gradually came
more and more to the belief that the Homeric Ilios had actually been found. After
1882 Schliemann had the cooperation of Dr. W. Dorpfeld, afterwards secretary of
the German Archaeological Institute at Athens, whose adhesion added much to the
weight of authority in favour of Schliemann's views. The remains which have been
unearthed were found in no less than seven different layers, of which the uppermost
contained what could be positively identified as ruins of the Hellenistic and
Roman city of Ilium. The four layers below this contained nothing but traces of
small and mean buildings of a village character. It was in the two lowest layers
that the most interesting discoveries were made. The lowest settlement of all
was built upon the solid rock, and the remains consisted of fortification walls
eight feet thick, built of rough limestone, with house walls, two to three feet
in thickness, of small stones cemented with clay. Utensils were found, very rarely
of metal, but usually of stone, with vases of black baked clay. The potter's wheel
was apparently known to the inhabitants of this settlement, but was not so often
employed as later. The debris of this first city, which Schliemann decided to
be pre-Homeric, is about eight feet in depth. Above this was a layer of earth
nearly two feet in thickness, showing a long period of desertion, and over this
the great layer of debris, in which were found the remains of the second city,
now generally believed to be Homeric Ilios.
Here the great citadel walls were discovered. These consisted
of a stone substructure 13 feet wide at the top, which is level, the depth varying
according to the irregularities of the surface below. On this was built a wall
of brick, from 11 to 13 feet in thickness, and rising originally, as well as can
be estimated, to a height of 13 feet. These bricks are sundried, and measure 18X9X3
1/2 inches. In the walls were found long, hollow channels, one foot square, which
Dr. Dorpfeld first considered to have been made for the purpose of conducting
heat to bake the bricks after the wall had been built. But this theory has now
been abandoned, and it is generally believed that the marks of heat about these
channels were caused, at the time of the destruction of the city, by the burning
of beams which had been imbedded in the walls to give them stronger cohesion.
These circuit walls seem to have formed an equilateral of about 165 feet on each
side, with projecting bastions at the corners. The walls are pierced by several
gates, of which the central one on the south side is the oldest. This consists
of a tower 130 feet long by 59 feet broad, and projecting 59 feet beyond the wall.
Through this tower the road to the citadel passed, and by means of the projecting
wing was protected all the way from the foot of the acropolis hill. The side walls
of this passage were buttressed with thick wooden braces, which were probably
connected at the top, thus forming a continuous flat roof over the whole gateway.
Such a roofed gate we may suppose the poet to have had in mind in Iliad, iii.
145, when he describes the elders as sitting "on the Scaean gates."
The other two gates cannot be described for lack of space.
In the centre of the citadel lies the building, which is generally
considered to be the palace. The ruins consist of a gateway , opening upon the
courtyard, beyond which stand the chief apartments of the palace, the megaron
or men's apartment on the left and the women's apartments on the right. The megaron
is 66 feet in depth, with an entrance hall 37 feet square in front of it, and
in its centre are slight remains of a large round hearth, which thus occupied
the central point of the whole palace, as described in the Iliad and Odyssey.
The women's apartment is considerably smaller, consisting of
a series of three rooms 15 feet wide and 20, 24, and 29 feet long respectively.
But besides these remains of walls and buildings, numerous articles of gold and
silver were found by Dr. Schliemann, showing conclusively that the ruins were
those of a prosperous and wealthy city. In May, 1873, the so-called "great
treasure" was found buried within the fortification wall, near the southwestern
gate. This consisted of a great variety of articles, packed into one another in
the form of a rectangular mass, apparently placed originally in a wooden chest,
and stored for safe keeping in a hollow in the wall.
The most valuable were two large diadems of gold, formed of
a number of small pendant chains of beautiful workmanship. Gold earrings were
found in large numbers, as well as cups, vases, bracelets, and other ornaments
of gold or silver, with spear-heads, battle-axes, and knife blades, and numerous
other articles of various kinds.
Space will not allow a description of the remains found in
the five upper layers, which are not materially different from those of the same
period elsewhere. But in general it may be said that these excavations show that
the hill of Hissarlik was inhabited, without serious interruption, from the late
Graeco-Roman period back to a time before the dawn of history. At a date so early
that we cannot estimate it even approximately the hill was covered with fortifications
and palaces. Captain E. Botticher, to be sure, has attempted to prove that the
so-called citadel is nothing but a huge fire-necropolis, and even went so far
as to accuse Schliemann of ill faith in describing what he found. But a conference
of scholars, which met at Hissarlik in March, 1890, at Schliemann's invitation,
decided: (1) that the site was well suited for a fortress;
(2) that traces of fortifications of different epochs can be
seen there;
(3) that the "corridors" of Botticher did not exist;
(4) that the hill did not consist of a series of artificial
terraces, each smaller than the one below. On the contrary each layer occupies
more space than the one below it (showing the gradual extension by the accumulation
of debris);
(5) that the ruins in the second layer resemble those at Tiryns
and Mycenae;
(6) that the numerous upright jars which were found contained
grain and not human bones;
(7) that no traces were found of the burning of corpses. This
decision overthrew the theory of Botticher (who was indeed compelled to withdraw
his accusation of bad faith), and went far to satisfy scholars that Schliemann's
discoveries have actually revealed the site of Homeric Ilios.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
The name of the city of Troy or Ilium; also applied to the country. The mythical account of the kingdom of Troy is briefly as follows. Teucer, the first king, had a daughter who married Dardanus, the chieftain of the country northeast of the Troad (Dardania). Dardanus had two sons, Ilus and Ericthonius, and the latter was the father of Tros, from whom the country and people derived the names of Troas and Troes. Tros was the father of Ilus, who founded the city, which was called after him Ilium, and also, after his father, Troia. The next king was Laomedon, and after him Priam. In his reign the city was taken and destroyed by the confederated Greeks, after a ten years' siege. As to the historical facts which may be regarded as established, there is evidence of a considerable city having been sacked and burned at a period which archaeologists put not later than the twelfth century B.C. That this invasion may have been an enterprise of the Achaeans at that time is neither impossible nor unlikely. If the interpretation of recent Egyptian discoveries is right which makes Achaeans appear as assailants of Egypt in the reign of Rameses III., it would follow that the Achaeans of the twelfth or thirteenth century had power and spirit enough for such an enterprise; but in any case the history of Tiryns and Mycenae, as attested by their ruins, is evidence to the existence of their power at that time. There is therefore no reason why the traditions upon which the Iliad is based should not be regarded as true in their main outlines. It is probable enough that to avenge an act of piracy (which is a common and simple explanation of the rape of Helen) the Greeks of the "Achaean" period besieged and sacked Troy and thence returned to hold their own possessions undisturbed until the Dorian invasion. That there was no Greek settlement upon the site of Troy until a much later period is deduced from the remains of towns of a low state of civilization and of small importance which have been discovered above the ruins of the second city.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
AVYDOS (Ancient city) MARMARA
City of northern Asia
Minor, on the southern side of the Hellespont.
Abydos was a colony of Miletus
founded around 675 B. C. It is near that city that Xerxes had two bridges built
over the Hellespont in order
to invade Greece via Thracia
in 480, starting the second Medean War. It is on this occasion that, after a tempest
destroyed the bridges while under construction, Xerxes, as Herodotus tells us,
had the sea whipped (and the engineers beheaded)!
Bernard Suzanne (page last updated 1998), ed.
This extract is cited July 2003 from the Plato and his dialogues URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks.
CHERSONISOS (Peninsula) TURKEY
Thracian peninsula on the northern border of the Hellespont
(today's Dardanelles), the strait leading from the Aegean
Sea to Propontis (today's
Sea of Marmara) and the Euxine
Pontus (today's Black Sea).
“Chersonesos” is in fact the Greek word for “peninsula”.
Thus, several other peninsulas, aside from Thracian Chersonese, where also called
“Chersonese”, including Taurician Chersonese, or Tauris
(today's Crimea) ; the Chersonese of Bybassia, the peninsula on which was located
the city of Cnidus in southern
Asia Minor ; and a peninsula
on the coast of the Saronic Gulf,
between Troezen and Epidaurus.
Bernard Suzanne (page last updated 1998), ed.
This text is cited July 2003 from the Plato and his dialogues URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks.
ALEXANDRIA TROAS (Ancient city) TURKEY
But the site on which Alexandreia now lies used to be called Sigia.
At that time he had already devoted attention to Alexandreia, which had indeed already been founded by Antigonus and called Antigonia, but had changed its name, for it was thought to be a pious thing for the successors of Alexander to found cities bearing his name before they founded cities bearing their own.
AMAXITOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
ANTANDROS (Ancient city) TURKEY
ALOPEKONISSOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Total results on 27/9/2001: 4
DARDANELLES (Sea strait) CANAKKALE
Total results on 23/7/2001: 637 for Hellespont, 5 for Hellespontus.
LYSIMACHIA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Total results on 27/9/2001: 4
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