Ruins of Ancient Cities (Vol. 2 of 2)

The reader is requested to observe that on the destruction of old Ilium, another town or rather village was erected; and that this village was called New Ilium. This was the place visited by Alexander. It had only one temple. This temple Alexander visited. He viewed also all the antiquities which remained. He poured libations on the altar of Jupiter Hercéus to Priam, and prayed that the vengeance which the gods had taken of the son of Achilles, for having slain that unfortunate father and king, might not descend upon him, whose descendant he was. One of the Ilians offered him a lyre, which he said was the lyre of Paris; but Alexander refused, saying, “I set but little value on the lyre of Paris; but it would give me great pleasure to see that of Achilles, to which he sang the glorious actions of the brave;” alluding to a passage in the ninth book of the Iliad:

“Amused, at case, the god-like man they found,Pleased with the solemn harp’s harmonious sound:With this he soothes his angry soul, and singsThe immortal deeds of heroes and of kings.”

He then desired to be shown the tombs of the heroes.

Quintus Curtius says, that when Alexander arrived at Illium, Menetius the governor crowned him with a crown of gold; and that Chares the Athenian did the same, – coming from Sigeum for that purpose. “Alexander was at length,” says Mr. Mitford, “amidst the scenes, sacred in his eyes, in which were performed the wondrous deeds that Homer, his favourite poet, had immortalised. He was treading on the ground which Achilles, the hero that was the object of his emulation and envy, fought, and conquered, and fell. Thoughts, emotions, and wishes, of the most ardent kind, doubtless swelled his heart and fired his brain.” On the site of Troy there stood only a village. The temple of Minerva, however, still existed, and thither he proceeded. It contained some consecrated suits of armour, which were said to have been preserved there ever since the Trojan war. One of these he took away to be borne before him on solemn occasions, and in battle; and in the place of it he dedicated his own. He performed rites and made offerings at the tombs of the heroes; especially those of Achilles and Ajax Telamon. He adorned the tumulus of Achilles, whom he regarded as his ancestor, with the choicest flowers that could be collected in the neighbourhood, anointed the pillar on it with delicious perfumes, and, with his companions, ran naked, as the custom was, round its base. He also wept on reflecting, that he had, as yet, done little to make men associate his name with so great a hero as Achilles, – thinking that hero beyond all others happy, not only in having so excellent a friend as Patroclus when living; but inasmuch that he had so noble a poet as Homer to celebrate him when dead. “What a number of writers of his actions,” says Cicero, in his defence of Archias, “is Alexander reported to have had in his retinue; and yet, when he stood near the tumulus of Achilles at Sigeum he exclaimed, ‘O fortunate youth! to have found a Homer to be the herald of thy valour!’” Nor did he ever forget the emotions felt in that, to him, sacred place. When, therefore, he had conquered the Persians at the Granicus, he is said to have adorned the temple with offerings, ordered Curators to repair the buildings, and raised Ilium to the rank of a city. He also declared it free from tribute; and when he had entirely conquered Persia, he wrote a letter to the inhabitants, promising to raise their town to importance, to render their temple famous, and to hold the sacred games there. In his memorandum-book, also, appeared after his death, a resolution to erect a temple to Minerva, which should be in splendour and magnificence, not unequal to any other then existing in any place. All this was prevented by his death.

After that occurrence, Ilium was chiefly indebted to Lysimachus. He enlarged its temple, encircled the town with walls to the extent of five miles, and collected into it the inhabitants of the old cities about it, which had gone to decay. Games also were subsequently instituted. He also patronised Alexandria Troas.

Some time after the Troia was invaded by Philip, last king of Macedon, because Attalus, who had assumed the title of King of Pergamum, had given himself out as an ally of the Romans. At a subsequent period, the Gauls marched into Ilium; but soon after deserted it, because part of it was not defended by a wall.

When Antiochus, commonly called the Great, invaded Europe, he went to Ilium, in order to sacrifice to Minerva. The year after, the Roman admiral, Caius Livius, performed the same ceremony; which having done he gave audience in the kindest manner to ambassadors from the neighbouring places, which had surrendered to the Romans.

Ilium, when Scipio arrived there, (B. C. 190) was what we should now call a village-city: and so says Demetrius of Scepsis; who, going thither about that time, saw it so poor and neglected a place, that most of the houses had no roofs on them. Such is the account given by Strabo. The Romans, however, were proud of acknowledging the Ilians as their progenitors. “An insatiable desire,” says Dr. Chandler, “to contemplate the household gods of their ancestors, the places of their nativity, the temples and images, which they had frequented or worshipped, possessed the Romans; while the Ilians were delighted that their posterity (in the line of Æneas) already conquerors of the West and Africa, laid claim to Asia as the kingdom of their forefathers.”

The Romans embellished the city, and conferred many privileges upon it, on the ground that Ilium was the parent of Rome. “The Romans,” says Justin, “entering into Asia, came to Troy, where there was great rejoicing between the Trojans and the Romans; the Trojans declaring how Æneas came from them, and the Romans vaunting themselves to be descended from them: and there was as great a rejoicement between both parties, as there is wont to be at the meeting of parents and children after a long absence.”

We now pass to the period when Julius Cæsar, after the battle of Pharsalia, pursuing his rival, landed in the Troia, “full of admiration of the ancient renown of the place, and desirous to behold the spot from which he derived his origin;” for Cæsar insisted that his family was of the true Ænean race. The Ilians had sided with Pompey, and bore no great affection to Cæsar; “although,” says Lucan,

“The tales of Troy proud Cæsar’s lineage grace,With great Æneas and the Julian race.”

Notwithstanding this, Cæsar forgave their offences against him, and enlarged their territory, confirmed their liberties, and granted them even additional privileges. Not only this; Suetonius relates, that it was currently reported, that he had contemplated the design of removing the seat of empire to Ilium, or Alexandria, and leaving Rome to be governed by lieutenants. Whether Cæsar really entertained such an idea is not certain; but it is quite certain that Augustus entertained a similar project; and perhaps he had actually put it in practice, had not Horace written an ode to dissuade him from it; and his councillors urgently followed the poet’s example, by the counsel they gave him.

During the reign of Tiberius, Ilium was visited by Germanicus. This visit is recorded by Tacitus. “On his return from the Euxine, he intended to visit Samothrace286, famous for its rites and mysteries; but the wind springing up from the north, he was obliged to bear away from the coast. He viewed the ruins of Troy, and the remains of antiquity in that part of the world; renowned for so many turns of fortune, the theatre of illustrious actions, and the origin of the Roman people287.”

When the Romans were delivered from the flattery that pursued the Julian line, of their being sprung from Troy, Ilium began to fall to decay; and in the time of Pliny the Elder, who flourished in the reign of Vespasian, many cities had perished. These are enumerated by him, and thence by Dr. Chandler: – “There has been Achilleum, a town near the tomb of Achilles, built by the Mitylenians, and afterwards by the Athenians. There has been Æantium, too, built by the Rhodians, near where Ajax was buried. Palæscepsis, Gergithos, Neandros, and Colone, had perished. Dardanus is still a small town. There had been a Larissa and a Chrysa. The Sminthean temple and Hamaxitus remained.” He mentions Troas Alexandria, a Roman colony; but this city, too, was on the decline; and as, in another place, he says, “very many mice came forth at Troas, insomuch that now they have driven the inhabitants away from thence.”

We pass over passages in the works of Lucian and Philostratus; since no confidence in respect to the real condition of Ilium can be placed in them. The extravagances of Caracalla are upon more respectable record. Terrified by several dreams he had had, Caracalla voyaged to Pergamum, to inquire of the god Æsculapius in what manner he could be relieved from them; from that city he passed to Ilium. “At Ilium,” says Chandler, on the authority of Herodian, “Caracalla was seized with a passion to imitate Achilles, as he had before done Alexander the Great. He wanted a Patroclus, whose funeral he might solemnize; when, during his stay there, Festus, his remembrancer and favourite freedman, died of a distemper; but so opportunely, that others said he was taken off by poison for the purpose. Caracalla ordered, after the example of Achilles, a large pile of wood to be collected. The body was carried forth from the city, and placed on it in the middle. He slew a variety of animals as victims. He set fire to the pile; and, holding a phial in his hand, and pouring a libation, as Achilles had done, invoked the winds to come and consume it. His seeking, for he was nearly bald, a lock of hair to throw into the flames, excited laughter; but the little which he had he cut off. He is said to have continued the farce, by allotting prizes for games; and to have concluded it, by imagining that he had taken Troy, and distributing money among his soldiers on the occasion.”

In the age of Gallienus, and in that subsequent, Ilium and the Troas were twice ravaged by the Goths.

The project of Constantine the Great is now to be referred to. It is thus related by Sozomenus, translated by Mr. Dalzell: – “Having taken possession of the plain, which lies before Ilium, near the Hellespont, beyond the tomb of Ajax, where the Greeks, at the time that they were engaged in the expedition against Troy, are said to have had a station for their ships and tents, he there traced the outline and ground-plot of a city; and he constructed gates in a conspicuous place; which still at this day are seen at sea by those who sail along the west. While he was employed in this undertaking, God appeared to him by night, and warned him to go in quest of another place.” The Deity, also, is said to have conducted him to Byzantium, and commanded him to establish his residence there, to enlarge the town into a city, and to call it by his own name.

From this period, little is related of Ilium, or the Troas, commanding any peculiar interest, till the period when both became possessed by another, and, till then, an unknown people. It is related in the annals of this new and strange people, that Soliman, son of Orchan, taking an airing on horseback, in the country, lately conquered, came to some fine ruins of edifices, which had remained there from the time of the destruction of Troy, and which he beheld with wonder. After viewing these ruins, he was observed to remain musing and silent. On being asked the reason, he answered that he was considering how the sea between them and the opposite coast could be crossed, without the knowledge of the Christians. Two of his retinue offered to pass over privately at the strait, which is described as a Greek mile wide. A fleet was provided, they landed before day-break, and lay concealed among vines; until, a Greek coming by, they seized, and returned with him to the emperor; who gave orders that their captive should be kindly treated; and, on his undertaking to serve as a guide to the castle erected by Justinian, above Sestos, caused trees to be cut down, and a large raft to be constructed; on which, with about four-score men, Soliman crossed the strait; and arriving, under colour of night, at the fortress, found, without the entrance – such was the supine negligence and security of the Greeks, – a dunghill as high as the wall. His soldiers mounted over it, and easily got possession of the place; the people, a few exempted, being engaged abroad in the harvest-work. Thus did the Turks obtain their first footing in Europe, (A. D. 1357.)

“If we reflect,” says Dr. Chandler; to whose pages not only ourselves, but all the encyclopedias have been so largely indebted on all articles relating to the Troas; “if we reflect on the ravages, committed on the borders of the Hellespont, and on the destruction of the cities there, we shall not be surprised, that the coasts are desolate, and that the interior country of the Troas, returned nearly to its more ancient state, is occupied almost entirely by villages, herdsmen, and shepherds; who are no longer distinguished by the appellation of Ilians, Dardanians, Cebrenians, and so on; but as Greeks and Turks, or Turcomans, slaves, the masters and their dependants. The ancient places, which we have noticed, and of which few remain, or have possessed any consequence under the Turks, have all of them, especially those by the sea-side, been ransacked and plundered of their materials, for a long series of years. Constantinople has been adorned or enlarged from their stores, as well under the Roman and the Greek as the Mahometan emperors. Towns and villages, which have risen in their vicinity, public baths, mosques, castles, and other edifices, have been constructed from their relics; and the Turkish burying-grounds, which are often very extensive, are commonly rich in broken pillars and marble fragments, once belonging to them. The Troia had been left in ruins; and was a desert, in the time of Strabo. Since, in many instances, the very ruins have perished: but the desert remains; and, as then, still affords much, and that no vulgar matter for a writer.”

These remarks lead us, naturally, to that part of our subject, which relates to the present state in which these ruins lie. So much, however, has been written on the subject of Troy, and so many different opinions have been started, that the subject has become no little embarrassing; and the more so, since the compiler of these pages has not been on the scene of observation himself. In this dilemma, he thinks the wisest and best course is, to select such passages and descriptions as appear to him the most probable, and therefore the most characteristic of truth; leaving all references to the individual authorities to a general acknowledgment at the end.

It seems hardly to admit of doubt, that the plain of Anatolia, watered by the Mendar,288 and backed by a mountainous ridge, of which Kazdaghy is the summit, is the precise territory, alluded to and described by Homer. And this is rendered the more probable, since Homer’s description contained certain prominent and remarkable features, not likely to be affected by any lapse of time. To increase the probability of this, the text of Strabo is considered very important; more especially as it illustrates, to a certain degree, even the position of Troy itself: for that it was not altogether unknown, in the time of Augustus, is proved by that celebrated geographer, who, more than once, expressly assigns to the ancient city the place then occupied by the village of the Iliensians. “Ilus,” says he, “did not build the city where it now is; but nearly thirty stadia farther eastward, towards Ida, and Dardania, where the Iliensian village is now situated.” This locality of Ilium has been discovered by Dr. Clarke, in the remains of that city. Crossing the Mendar, over a wooden bridge, that celebrated traveller entered an immense plain, in which some Turks were hunting wild boars. Proceeding then towards the east, and round the bay, distinctly pointed out by Strabo as the harbour in which the Grecian fleet was stationed, he arrived at the sepulchre of Ajax. Around this tomb Alexander is described as having performed rites, and made offerings. In former times, it was surmounted by a shrine, in which was preserved the statue of the hero. This statue Antony stole and took with him into Egypt; but, having been recovered by Augustus, it was by him restored to its ancient shrine; which, with a considerable portion of the structure, still remains. “It is impossible,” says Dr. Clarke, “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 kings, and heroes, and mariners, 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, in 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 view of the Hellespont, and the plain of Troy, from the top of this tomb, is one of the finest the country affords; and, travellers have the pleasure of seeing poppies and mezereons, and the field-star of Bethlehem, growing upon it.

From this spot the traveller passes over a heathy country to a village called Habil Elly, where he finds the remains of a temple, which seems to be those of ten temples rather than one. Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian capitals, lie dispersed in every direction, and some of them are of great beauty. On these are many inscriptions; amongst which are these remarkable words: – “The Ilians to their country’s God, Æneas.”

From these ruins you proceed through a dilapidated valley, full of vineyards and almond-trees; and, after a space, you find the remains of an ancient paved way. You then come to the village of Tchiblack, where you see many remains of ancient sculpture in a state of disorder and ruin. The most remarkable are those upon the top of a hill near the village, in the middle of a grove of oak trees. Here the ruins of a Doric temple, formed of white marble, lay heaped, mixed with sarcophagi, cippæ, stelæ, cornices, and capitals of large size, pillars, and entablatures. The village near which all these are, is supposed to be no other than ancient Ilium! of “Troy divine.” On these fragments are to be read various inscriptions.

At no great distance, of a high, conical, and regular shape, a tumulus stands, insulated. It is of great antiquity. On the southern side of its base is a long natural mound of limestone. It is, we are told, of such height, that an army encamped on the eastern side of it would be concealed from all observation of persons, stationed upon the coast, by the mouth of the Mendar. On the surface of the tomb itself are found fragments of the vases of ancient Greece; – a circumstance, attributed to the veneration paid to the tombs of Troas, in all the ages of history, until the introduction of Christianity.

At some distance from this tomb is another tumulus, less considerable. There are ruins, also, on the southern side of the water, called Callifat289.

These consist of beautiful Doric pillars, whose capitals and shafts are of the finest white marble. Among them, also, are entire shafts of granite. As the temples of Jupiter were always of the Doric order, these are supposed to have belonged to a temple dedicated to that deity. Among these ruins was found an inscription, which Dr. Clarke sent to Cambridge. This is as old as the archonship of Euclid. It was on the lower part of a plain marble pillar; the interpretation of which sets forth, that “those partaking of the sacrifice, and of the games, and of the whole festival, honoured Pytha, daughter of Scamandrotimus, native of Ilium, who performed the office of Canephoros, in an exemplary and distinguished manner, for her piety towards the goddess.”

In the village of Callifat there are several capitals of Corinthian pillars. Medals, too, are sometimes dug up there; not of ancient Troy, however, but of the Roman emperors. Not far from Callifat are also to be seen traces of an ancient citadel. These are the remains of a city, called New Ilium290. “We stand,” says Dr. Clarke, “with Strabo, upon the very spot, whence he deduced his observations, concerning other objects in the district; looking down upon the Simoisian plain, and viewing the junction of the two rivers (‘one flowing towards Sigeum, and the other towards Rhætium,’ precisely as described by him), in front of the Iliensian city.”

From the national and artificial elevation of the territory on which this city stood, this accomplished traveller saw almost every landmark to which that author alludes. “The splendid spectacle,” says he, “presented towards the west by the snow-clad top of Samothrace, towering behind Imbrus, would baffle every attempt at delineation. It rose with indescribable grandeur beyond all I had seen of a long time; and whilst its ethereal summit shone with inconceivable brightness in a sky without a cloud, seemed, notwithstanding its remote situation, as if its vastness would overwhelm all Troas, should an earthquake heave it from its base.”

Besides these, there are various tumuli in the Troas, which are distinguished by the names of Homer’s heroes; the tomb of Achilles, for instance, and two others, near the Sigæan promontory, mentioned by Strabo, Ælian, and Diodorus Siculus. When Alexander came to visit these, he anointed the Hêle of Achilles with perfumes; and, as we have already related, ran naked around it, according to the custom of honouring the manes of a hero in ancient times. One of the other tombs was that of Patroclus. Alexander crowned the one, and his friend Hephæstion the other291.

There, on the green and village-cotted hill, is(Flanked by the Hellespont and by the sea)Entomb’d the bravest of the brave, Achilles.They say so; – (Bryant says the contrary.)And further downward, tall and towering, still isThe tumulus – of whom? Heaven knows; ‘t may bePatroclus, Ajax, or Protesilaus;All heroes, who, if living still, would slay us.High barrows, without mark, or name,A vast, untill’d, and mountain-skirted plain,And Ida in the distance, still the same;And old Scamander (if ‘tis he) remain:The situation still seemed formed for fame;A hundred thousand men might fight againWith ease; but where they fought for Ilion’s walls,The quiet sheep feed, and the tortoise crawls.

These tombs have been so celebrated in all ages, that we give place, willingly, to a description of them by Mr. Franklin; more particularly as he has mentioned several particulars, unnoticed by other travellers.

Not far from the site of Ilium are to be observed a number of antiquities, fragments of Doric and Ionic pillars of marble, some columns of granite, broken bas-reliefs, and, “in short,” says Dr. Clarke, “those remains so profusely scattered over this extraordinary country, serving to prove the number of cities and temples once the boast of Troas.”

At no great distance is the steep, which some have supposed the spot on which stood the citadel of Priam. On the edge of this is a tumulus, ninety-three yards in circumference, which is called the tomb of Hector; it is formed entirely of loose stones. From this spot the whole isle of Tenedos is seen, and a most magnificent prospect of the course of Scamander to the sea, with all Troas, and every interesting object it contains.

Rather more than one hundred and twenty paces from this tumulus is another tumulus; the base of this is one hundred and thirty-three yards in circumference. Some little way from this is a third, ninety yards in circumference. The former is called the tomb of Priam; the latter the tomb of Paris. At a short distance farther on are beheld foundations of buildings; but these are not supposed to be of any high antiquity, nor even so high as to be classed with a Roman interdict. They are therefore, with probability, assigned to those pirates which at different times have infested the Hellespont. Near them are tumuli of much higher antiquity; but whether they belong to Trojan times, or to those in which the Milesians formed settlements on the coast, is not determined.

Four hours’ distance from Bonarbashy, situated on the Scamander, is a town called Æné, the Æneia of Strabo. It is ornamented with cypresses, and backed by lofty rocks and mountains. In this town medals have been found, and some have supposed that Æneas was buried here; it is, however, more probable that the town was named after him.