The person praised in this inscription can by no means have been the Emperor Caligula, for in that case the title αὐτοκράτωρ would have been added. But as this word is wanting, the person meant is certainly Caius Cæsar, the son of Vipsanius Agrippa and of Julia, the daughter of Octavianus. He had a brother called Lucius. Both were adopted by Augustus, and owing to this adoption they received the title of “υἱὸς τοῦ Σεβαστοῦ,” and both were selected by Augustus as his successors. Caius Cæsar, born in the year 20 B.C., was adopted at the age of three years. He took part in the Trojan games, which Augustus instituted at the dedication of the temple of Marcellus. At the age of fifteen he was appointed Consul, and when nineteen he was made Governor of Asia. During his administration there he became involved in a war with Phraates the king of Armenia, was wounded, and died in the year 4 after Christ, on the 21st of February, at the age of 24.[219] As in the inscription he is called the kinsman, the benefactor, and the patron of Ilium, it is probable that he often came here during his administration; at all events, he took great interest in the city, and lavished favours upon it. The family of the Julii always attached great importance to their descent from Iülus (or Ascanius) the son of Æneas; and the sole political object of Virgil’s Æneid was to prove and glorify their genealogy. This explains the favours which the Julii lavished upon Ilium, and their hatred against the Greeks because they destroyed Troy, and also because they had espoused the cause of Mark Antony.
An oka of wine, which contains about two ordinary wine-bottles, last year cost 1¼ piaster (25 centimes); now it costs 2 piasters (40 centimes) the oka; but it is of a most excellent quality, and I prefer it to any French wine.
CHAPTER XVI.
Increased number of workmen—Further uncovering of the great buttress—Traces of a supposed small temple—Objects found on its site—Terra-cotta serpents’ heads: great importance attached to the serpent—Stone implements: hammers of a peculiar form—Copper implements: a sickle—Progress of the works at the south-east corner—Remains of an aqueduct from the Thymbrius—Large jars, used for cellars—Ruins of the Greek temple of Athena—Two important inscriptions discussed—Relations of the Greek Syrian Kings Antiochus I. and III. to Ilium.