Yet must we not conceive that this was the old Troy, or re-built in the same place with it: for Troas was placed about thirty Furlongs West, and upon the Sea shore; so that, to hold a clearer apprehension hereof than is commonly delivered in the Discourses of the Ruines of Troy, we may consider one Inland Troy or old Ilium, which was built farther within the Land, and so was removed from the Port where the Grecian Fleet lay in Homer; and another Maritime Troy, which was upon the Sea Coast placed in the Maps of Ptolomy, between Lectum and Sigæum or Port Janizam, Southwest from the old City, which was this of S. Paul, and whereunto are appliable the particular accounts of Bellonius, when, not an hundred years ago, he described the Ruines of Troy with their Baths, Aqueducts, Walls and Towers, to be seen from the Sea as he sailed between it and Tenedos; and where, upon nearer view, he observed some signs and impressions of his conversion in the ruines of Churches, Crosses, and Inscriptions upon Stones.
Nor was this onely a famous City in the days of S. Paul, but considerable long after. For, upon the Letter of Adrianus, Philostrat. in Vita Herodis Attici. Herodes Atticus, at a great charge, repaired their Baths, contrived Aqueducts and noble Water-courses in it. As is also collectible from the Medals of Caracalla, of Severus, and Crispina; with Inscriptions, Colonia Alexandria Troas, bearing on the Reverse either an Horse, a Temple, or a Woman; denoting their destruction by an Horse, their prayers for the Emperour’s safety, and, as some conjecture, the memory of Sibylla, Phrygia or Hellespontica.
Nor wanted this City the favour of Christian Princes, but was made a Bishop’s See under the Archbishop of Cyzicum; but in succeeding discords was destroyed and ruined, and the nobler Stones translated to Constantinople by the Turks to beautifie their Mosques and other Buildings.
Concerning the Dead Sea, accept of these few Remarks.
In the Map of the Dead Sea we meet with the Figure of the Cities which were destroyed: of Sodom, Gomorrha, Admah and Zeboim; but with no uniformity; men placing them variously, and, from the uncertainty of their situation, taking a fair liberty to set them where they please.
For Admah, Zeboim and Gomorrha, there is no light from the Text to define their situation. But, that Sodom could not be far from Segor which was seated under the Mountains near the side of the Lake, seems inferrible from the sudden arrival of Lot, who, coming from Sodom at day break, attained to Segor at Sun rising; and therefore Sodom is to be placed not many miles from it, not in the middle of the Lake, which against that place is about eighteen miles over, and so will leave nine miles to be gone in so small a space of time.
The Valley being large, the Lake now in length about seventy English miles, the River Jordan and divers others running over the Plain, ’tis probable the best Cities were seated upon those Streams: but how the Jordan passed or winded, or where it took in the other Streams, is a point too old for Geography to determine.
For, that the River gave the fruitfulness unto this Valley by over watring that low Region, seems plain from that expression in the Text,[275] that it was watered, sicut Paradisus et Ægyptus, like Eden and the Plains of Mesopotamia, where Euphrates yearly overfloweth; or like Ægypt where Nilus doth the like: and seems probable also from the same course of the River not far above this Valley where the Israelites passed Jordan, where ’tis said that Jordan overfloweth its Banks in the time of Harvest.
That it must have had some passage under ground in the compass of this Valley before the creation of this Lake, seems necessary from the great current of Jordan, and from the Rivers Arnon, Cedron, Zaeth, which empty into this Valley; but where to place that concurrence of Waters or place of its absorbition, there is no authentick decision.