“the two sons of Merops of Percote.”[1348]
All therefore were Trojans from Abydos to Adrasteia, divided, however, into two bodies, one governed by Asius, the other by the Meropidæ, as the country of the Cilicians is divided into the Thebaic and the Lyrnessian Cilicia. To this district may have belonged the country under the sway of Eurypylus, for it follows next to the Lyrnessis, or territory of Lyrnessus.[1349]
That Priam[1350] was king of all these countries the words with which Achilles addresses him clearly show;
“we have heard, old man, that your riches formerly consisted in what Lesbos, the city of Macar, contained, and Phrygia above it and the vast Hellespont.”[1351]
8. Such was the state of the country at that time. Afterwards changes of various kinds ensued. Phrygians occupied the country about Cyzicus as far as Practius; Thracians, the country about Abydos; and Bebryces and Dryopes, before the time of both these nations. The next tract of country was occupied by Treres, who were also Thracians; the plain of Thebe, by Lydians, who were then called Mæonians, and by the survivors of the Mysians, who were formerly governed by Telephus and Teuthoras.
Since then the poet unites together Æolis and Troja, and since the Æolians occupied all the country from the Hermus as far as the sea-coast at Cyzicus, and founded cities, we shall not do wrong in combining in one description Æolis, properly so called, (extending from the Hermus to Lectum,) and the tract which follows, as far as the Æsepus; distinguishing them again in speaking of them separately, and comparing what is said of them by Homer and by other writers with their present state.
9. According to Homer, the Troad begins from the city Cyzicus and the river Æsepus. He speaks of it in this manner:
“Aphneian Trojans, who inhabited Zeleia at the farthest extremity of Ida, who drink the dark waters of Æsepus, these were led by Pandarus, the illustrious son of Lycaon.”[1352]
These people he calls also Lycians. They had the name of Aphneii, it is thought, from the lake Aphnitis, for this is the name of the lake Dascylitis.
10. Now Zeleia is situated at the farthest extremity of the country lying at the foot of Ida, and is distant 190 stadia from Cyzicus, and about 80[1353] from the nearest sea, into which the Æsepus discharges itself.