Like the other great Oriental capitals of the Old World, the present condition of Troy is that of a mound, such as those in the plain of the Tigris and Euphrates, offering for ages the invitation to research, which has only been accepted and rewarded in our own day. The resemblance is so striking as to raise a strong presumption that, as the mounds of Nimrud and Hillah have been found to contain the palaces of the Assyrian and Babylonian kings, so we may accept the ruins found in the mound of Hissarlik as those of the capital of that primeval empire in Asia Minor.
As the mounds opened by Layard and his fellow laborers contained only the "royal quarters," which towered above the rude buildings of cities, the magnitude of which is attested by abundant proofs, so it is reasonable to believe that the ruins at Hissarlik are those of the royal quarter, the only really permanent part of the city built on the hill capping the lower plateau which lifted the huts of the common people above the marshes and inundations of the Scamander and the Simois. In both cases the fragile dwellings of the multitude have perished, and the pottery and other remains, which were left in the surface of the plateau of Ilium, would naturally be cleared away by the succeeding settlers. Homer's poetical exaggeration exalted the mean dwellings that clustered about the acropolis into the "well-built city" with her "wide streets."
The erroneous theory which assigns Troy to the heights of Bunarbashi could, in fact, never have gained ground, had its advocates employed the few hours which they spent on the heights, and in Bunarbashi itself, in making small holes, with the aid of even a single workman. No one can conceive how it is possible that the solution of the great problem, "ubi Troja fait"—which is surely one of the greatest interest to the whole civilized world—should have been treated so superficially that, after a few hours' visit to the Plain of Troy, men have sat down at home and written voluminous works to defend a theory, the worthlessness of which they would have perceived had they but made excavations for a single hour.
The view from the hill of Hissarlik is extremely magnificent. Before it lies the glorious Plain of Troy, which is covered with grass and yellow buttercups; on the north northwest, at about an hour's distance, it is bounded by the Hellespont. The peninsula of Gallipoli here runs out to a point, upon which stands a lighthouse. To the left of it is the island of Imbros, above which rises Mount Ida of the island of Samothrace, at present covered with snow; a little more to the west, on the Macedonian peninsula, lies the celebrated Mount Athos, or Monte Santo, with its monasteries, at the northwestern side of which there are still to be seen traces of that great canal, which, according to Herodotus (vii. 22, 23), was made by Xerxes, in order to avoid sailing round the stormy Cape Athos.
Returning to the Plain of Troy we see to the right of it, upon a spur of the promontory of Rhœteum, the sepulchral mound of Ajax, at the foot of the opposite Cape of Sigeum that of Patroclus, and upon a spur of the same cape the sepulchre of Achilles; to the left of the latter, on the promontory itself, is the Village of Yenishehr. The Plain, which is about two hours' journey in breadth, is thence bounded on the west by the shores of the Ægean, which are, on an average, about 131 feet high, and upon which we see first the sepulchral mound of Festus, the confidential friend of Caracalla, whom the Emperor (according to Herodian IV.) caused to be poisoned on his visit to Ilium, that he might be able to imitate the funeral rites which Achilles celebrated in honor of his friend Patroclus, as described by Homer. Then upon the same coast there is another sepulchral mound, called Udjek-Tepe, rather more than 78½ feet in height, which most archæologists consider to be that of the old man Æsyetes, from which Polites, trusting to the swiftness of his feet, watched to see when the Greek army would set forth from the ships.
"Swift Iris stood amidst them, and the voice
Assuming of Polites, Priam's son,
The Trojan scout, who, trusting to his speed,
Was posted on the summit of the mound
Of ancient Æsyetes, there to watch
Till from their ships the Grecian troops should march—"
Between the last-named mounds we see projecting above the high shores of the Ægean Sea the island of Tenedos, to which the crafty Greeks withdrew their fleet when they pretended to abandon the siege. To the south we see the Plain of Troy, extending again to a distance of two hours, as far as the heights of Bunarbashi, above which rises majestically the snow-capped Gargarus of Mt. Ida, from which Jupiter witnessed the battles between the Trojans and the Greeks.
One of the greatest difficulties has been to make the enormous accumulation of debris at Troy agree with chronology; and in this Dr. Schliemann only partially succeeded. According to Herodotus (vii. 43): "Xerxes in his march through the Troad, before invading Greece (B.C. 480) arrived at the Scamander and went up to Priam's Pergamus, as he wished to see that citadel; and, after having seen it, and inquired into its past fortunes, he sacrificed 1,000 oxen to the Ilian Athena, and the Magi poured libations to the manes of the heroes."
