where the poet describes Lectum in appropriate terms, for he says correctly that Lectum is a part of Ida, and that this was the first place of disembarkation for persons intending to ascend Mount Ida.[1323] [He is exact in the epithet “abounding with springs;” for the mountain, especially in that part, has a very large supply of water, which appears from the great number of rivers which issue from it;
“all the rivers which rise in Ida, and proceed to the sea, the Rhesus, and Heptaporus,”[1324]
and others, which he mentions afterwards, and which are now to be seen by us.]
In speaking of the projections like feet on each side of Ida, as Lectum, and Zeleia,[1325] he distinguishes in proper terms the summit Gargarum,[1326] calling it the top[1327] (of Ida), for there is now in existence in the higher parts of Ida a place, from which the present Gargara, an Æolian city, has its name. Between Zeleia and Lectum, proceeding from the Propontis, are first the parts extending to the straits at Abydos. Then the parts below the Propontis, extending as far as Lectum.
6. On doubling Lectum a large bay opens,[1328] formed by Mount Ida, which recedes from Lectum, and by Canæ, the promontory opposite to Lectum on the other side. Some persons call it the Bay of Ida, others the Bay of Adramyttium. On this bay are situated the cities of the Æolians, extending, as we have said, to the mouths of the Hermus. I have mentioned also in a former part of my work, that in sailing from Byzantium in a straight line towards the south, we first arrive at Sestos and Abydos through the middle of the Propontis; then at the sea-coast of Asia as far as Caria. The readers of this work ought to attend to the following observation; although we mention certain bays on this coast, they must understand the promontories also which form them, situated on the same meridian.[1329]
7. Those who have paid particular attention to this subject conjecture, from the expressions of the poet, that all this coast was subject to the Trojans, when it was divided into nine dynasties, but that at the time of the war it was under the sway of Priam, and called Troja. This appears from the detail. Achilles and his army perceiving, at the beginning of the war, that the inhabitants of Ilium were defended by walls, carried on the war beyond them, made a circuit, and took the places about the country;
“I sacked with my ships twelve cities, and eleven in the fruitful land of Troja.”[1330]
By Troja he means the continent which he had ravaged. Among other places which had been plundered, was the country opposite Lesbos,—that about Thebe, Lyrnessus, and Pedasus belonging to the Leleges, and the territory also of Eurypylus, the son of Telephus;
“as when he slew with his sword the hero Eurypylus, the son of Telephus;”[1331]