[1392] The Scamander no longer unites with the Simoïs, and for a considerable length of time has discharged itself into the Archipelago. The ancient mouth of these rivers preserve, however, the name Menderé, which is an evident alteration of Scamander, and the name Menderé has also become that of the ancient Simoïs. It is to be observed that Demetrius of Scepsis, whose opinions on what regards these rivers and the position of Troy are quoted by Strabo, constantly takes the Simoïs or Menderé for the Scamander of Homer. The researches of M. de Choiseul-Gouffier on the Troad appear to me clearly to demonstrate that Demetrius of Scepsis is mistaken.—Gossellin.
[1393] The temple or tomb of Protesilaus, one of the Greek princes who went to the siege of Troy, and the first who was killed on disembarking. Artayctes, one of the generals of Xerxes, pillaged the temple and profaned it by his debauchery. According to Herodotus, (b. ix. 115,) who narrates the circumstance, the temple and the tomb of Protesilaus must have been in Eleussa (Paleo-Castro) itself, or at least very near this city. Chandler thought he had discovered this tomb near the village which surrounds the castle of Europe.
[1394] The port of the Achæans, the spot, that is, where the Greeks disembarked on the coast of the Troad, at the entrance of the Hellespont, appears to have been comprehended between the hillock called the Tomb of Achilles and the southern base of the heights, on which is situated another tomb, which goes by the name of the Tomb of Ajax. This space of about 1500 toises in length, now sand and lagunes, where the village Koum Kale and the fortress called the New Castle of Asia stand, and which spreads across the mouth of the Menderé, once formed a creek, the bottom of which, from examination on the spot, extended 1200 or 1500 toises from the present shore. It is from the bottom of this marshy creek the 12 stadia must be measured which Strabo reckons from the Port of the Achæans to New Ilium. These 12 stadia, estimated at 700 to a degree, (like the generality of other measures adopted by Strabo in this district,) are equal to 977 toises, and conduct in a straight line to the western point of the mountain Tchiblak, where there are remains of buildings which may be the vestiges of New Ilium.
The other 30 stadia, which, according to Strabo, or rather according to Demetrius of Scepsis, was the distance from New Ilium to the town of the Ilienses, are equal to 2440 toises, and terminate at the most eastern edge of the table-land of Tchiblak, in a spot where ruins of a temple and other edifices are seen. Thus there is nothing to prevent our taking this place for the site of the town of the Ilienses, and this is the opinion of many modern travellers. But did this town occupy the same ground as the ancient Ilium, as Demetrius of Scepsis believed? Strabo thinks not, and we shall hereafter see the objections he has to offer against the opinion of Demetrius.—Gossellin.
[1395] Consequently ancient Ilium, according to Strabo, was forty-two stadia from the coast. Scylax places it at twenty-five stadia; but probably the copyists of this latter writer have confounded the numerical Greek letters κε (25) with με (45).
[1396] According to Homer, (Od. xxiv. 75,) Patrocles must have the same tomb with Achilles, as their ashes were united in the same urn; those of Antilochus were contained in a separate urn.
[1397] Il. v. 642.
[1398] Il. v. 641.
[1399] This plain, according to Demetrius, was to the east of the present Menderé, and was enclosed by this river and the mountain Tchiblak.
[1400] Il. xvi. 738.