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 Samothrace[286], 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 people[287].”
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.”