THE PLAIN OF TROY.
According to Homer’s description of the Trojan territory, it combined certain prominent and remarkable features, not likely to be affected by any lapse of time. Of this nature was the Hellespont; the island of Tenedos; the plain itself; the river by whose inundations it was occasionally overflowed; and the mountain whence that river issued. The following is an abstract of Dr. Clarke’s accurate account of the vestiges of high antiquity contained in this truly classic spot.
“We entered an immense plain, in which some Turks were engaged in hunting wild-boars. Peasants were also employed in plowing a deep and rich soil of vegetable earth. Proceeding toward the east, and round the bay distinctly pointed out by Strabo as the harbor in which the Grecian fleet was stationed, we arrived at the sepulcher of Ajax, upon the ancient Rhœtean promontory. The view here afforded of the Hellespont and the plain of Troy is one of the finest the country affords. From the Aianteum we passed over a heathy country to Halil Elly, a village near the Thymbrius, in whose vicinity we had been instructed to seek the remains of a temple once sacred to the Thymbrean Apollo. The ruins we found were rather the remains of ten temples than of one. The earth to a very considerable extent was covered by subverted and broken columns of marble, granite, and of every order in architecture. Doric, Ionic and Corinthian capitals lay dispersed in all directions, and some of these were of great beauty. We observed a bass-relief representing a person on horseback pursued by a winged figure; also a beautiful representation, sculptured after the same manner, of Ceres in her car drawn by two scaly serpents.
“At the town or village of Tchiblack, we noticed very considerable remains of ancient sculpture, but in such a state of disorder and ruin, that no precise description of them can be given. The most remarkable are upon the top of a hill called Beyan Mezaley, near the town, in the midst of a beautiful grove of oak-trees, toward the village of Callifat. Here the ruins of a Doric temple of white marble lay heaped in the most striking manner, mixed with broken stelæ, cippi, sarcophagi, cornices and capitals of very enormous size, entablatures and pillars. All of these have reference to some peculiar sanctity by which this hill was anciently characterized. We proceeded hence toward the plain; and no sooner reached it, than a tumulus of very remarkable size and situation drew our attention, for a short time, from the main object of our pursuit. This tumulus, of a high conical form and very regular structure, stands altogether insulated. Of its great antiquity no doubt can be entertained by persons accustomed to view the everlasting sepulchers of the ancients. On the southern side of its base is a long natural mound of limestone: this, beginning to rise close to the artificial tumulus, extends toward the village of Callifat, in a direction nearly from north to south across the middle of the plain. It is of such hight that an army encamped on the eastern side of it, would be concealed from all observation of persons stationed on the coast, by the mouth of the Mender. If the poems of Homer, with reference to the plain of Troy, have similarly associated an artificial tumulus and a natural mound, a conclusion seems warranted, that these are the objects to which he alludes. This appears to be the case in the account he has given of the tomb of Ilus and the mound of the plain. From this tomb we descended into the plain, when our guides brought us to the western side of it, near its southern termination, to notice a tumulus, less considerable than the last described, about three hundred paces from the mound, almost concealed from observation by being continually overflowed, upon whose top two small oak-trees were then growing.
“We now came to an elevated spot of ground, surrounded on all sides by a level plain, watered by the Callifat Osmack, and which there is every reason to believe the Simoisian. Here we found, not only the traces, but also the remains of an ancient citadel. Turks were then employed raising enormous blocks of marble, from foundations surrounding the place; possibly the identical works constructed by Lysimachus, who fenced New Ilium with a wall. All the territory within these foundations was covered by broken pottery, whose fragments were parts of those ancient vases now held in such high estimation. Many Greek medals had been discovered in consequence of the excavations made there by the Turks. As these medals, bearing indisputable legends to designate the people by whom they were fabricated, have also, in the circumstances of their discovery, a peculiar connection with the ruins here, they may be considered as indicating, with tolerable certainty, the situation of the city to which they belonged. These ruins evidently appear to be the remains of New Ilium; whether we regard the testimony afforded by their situation, as accordant with the text of Strabo, or the discovery there made of medals of the city.”
The conclusions relative to Troas, drawn by this learned writer, are as follows. “That the river Mender is the Scamander of Homer, Strabo, and Pliny. The amnis navigabilis of Pliny flows into the archipelago, to the south of Sigeum. That the Aianteum, or tomb of Ajax, still remains, answering the description given of its situation by ancient authors, and thereby determining also the exact position of the naval station of the Greeks. That the Thymbrius is yet recognized, both in its present appellation Thymbreck, and in its geographical position. That the spacious plain lying on the north-eastern side of the Mender, and watered by the Callifat Osmack, is the Simoisian, and that stream the Simois. That the ruins of Palaio Callifat are those of the Ilium of Strabo. Eastward is the Throsmos, or mound of the plain. That Udjek Tepe is the tomb of Æsyetes. The other tombs mentioned by Strabo, as at Sigeum, are all in the situation he describes. That the springs of Bonarbashy may possibly have been the ‘Doiai Pelai’ of Homer; but they are not sources of the Scamander. They are, moreover, warm springs. That the source of the Scamander is in Gargarus, now called Kasdaghy, the highest mountain of all the Idæan chain. That the altars of Jupiter, mentioned by Homer, and by Eschylus, were on the hill called Kuchunlu Tepe, at the foot of Gargarus; where the ruins of the temple now remain. That Palae Scepsis is yet recognized in the appellation Esky Skupshu; that Æna is the Ainei of Strabo; and Æne Tepe, perhaps, the tomb of Æneas. That the extremity of the Adramyttian gulf inclines round the ridge of Gargarus, toward the north-east; so that the circumstance of Xerxes having this mountain upon his left, in his march from Antandrus to Abydus, is thereby explained. And lastly, that Gargarus affords a view, not only of all the plain of Troy, but of all the district of Troas, and a very considerable portion of the rest of Asia Minor.”