Camp. The two rivers being ascertained will assist dicks pastard as shown in the sketch. ed continually, should sometimes change accumulation of soil is greatest on the east e the torrents of the Kimair, Kalifat Osmak, for the Kirke-joss carries no alluvion,) the turally seek out its new channel on the west tance was least. Every change must thus have little more to the westward; and we see, acpresent channel K FB is not in the middle of lose to the western eminences. The stream of the have aided this effect. Secondly, we find such ed by Strabo's measurements; for the mouth of the which is now 30 stadia from the site of New Ilium, ime of Demetrius, no more than 20 (L. XIII, 598), not, therefore, be in any part of the present channel Thirdly, Sir William Gell observed the remains of hannels on the east side, where our reasonings would inTo look for the ancient course (Gell's Top. of Troy, p. nese may be considered as clear proofs that the river has westwards, near its mouth, though they do not determine ht of the change. But, assuming that the change has been in a ratio corresponding to the time, and that the distance estuary from I, which is now 30 stadia, was 20 stadia 2000 go, Mr. Maclaren has calculated that its position in the time her might be about E, to which point he has conducted the sed course of the river from F, following pretty nearly an channel observed by Sir W. Gell. The sandbank, which along the north edge of the shore, here (marked in Major I's map) shows, in his opinion, that this ground was origirmed by the Hellespont, and that it would consist of dry ike the point at Koum Kale, till the river in its migrations 1 it, and sweeping away the sands, replaced them by its ind mud, and converted the soil into a marsh. space thus marked out for the camp (bounded by a double the sketch) is about a mile long, by of a mile broad; but ling the small eminence on which the two westmost tumuli , the breadth of flat ground capable of receiving ships, is half a mile. The spot thus indicated as the site of the , corresponds in every essential feature with that of Homer. as situated on a wide bay into which the Scamander fell (Il. II, 140). Its position was good for defence, having the sea three sides, and it was conveniently placed for drawing daily plies from Thrace (II. 1x, 71). Its extent was such, that e voice of Agamemnon might be heard from the centre at both tremities (II. VIII, 222). The ships from want of room were ot drawn up in one line, but in rows behind one another like steps of a ladder (II. XIV, 30). Now, supposing that the vessels were 11 or 12 feet broad each, like those of which Xerxes employed 313 to make a bridge 7 stadia (3500 feet) long, and adding 8 feet large river 40 miles long, gave up its name to a small brook whieft joined it almost at the shore, after it had swallowed up many larger streams in its course, is about as probable as that the names of Scamander and Simois had been transferred to the wrong rivers -between the ages of Homer and Herodotus. With such a latitude of assumption it might be possible to prove that Troy was on Mount Ararat. With all these helps, however, the difficulty is not removed. For the place where the Trojans plunged in is called the ford (II. xx, 1), which implies that it was the point where the river was usually crossed. Again, the title of, the "river with deep gulfs," is given to a part of the Scamander near the city, and far from the ford (Il. xx1, 603). Moreover, the flood is not ascribed to the confluent stream, but to each river separately; for it is only after the Scamander bad overflowed the plain himself that he calls to Simois to swell his waters (Il. xx1, 234-324), and Chevalier testifies that his Scamander never overflows at all (Edinb. Trans. Vol. 111. Tableau, p. 59). Lastly, had Achilles crossed below the junction, he must necessarily have crossed Chevalier's Simois (the Mendere) again to get to Troy-of which Homer says not one word. 4. Homer mentions two springs, one hot, and one cold; but Chevalier's springs (at Y) are cold, and all of one temperature; and instead of two, there are twelve or sixteen. Mr. Maclaren, however, was mistaken in thinking that there were necessarily forty, as the Turkish name (Kirke-joss, 66 forty eyes") seems to indicate. Forty is used in the Eastern languages to express an indefinite number. Nor does Homer's expression imply that the two springs were the head fountains of the river. For he places the sources of the Scamander in Mount Ida, and the city in the plain (II. XII, 19. XX, 216); and since springs in the plain could not be the head fountains of the river in the mountain, they must have been merely sources, whose waters either flowed into the river as an adjunct stream, or were conceived to rise from it, as Strabo understood. Upon the whole it may be said, that there are few points in ancient geography more indisputable, than that the Mendere is the Seamander of Homer. Let us next inquire what river corresponds to the Simois. And in this branch of the argument, to save room, we shall assume without proof, what is not now denied, and could easily be established by Strabo's evidence, that the hill of Issarlik, I, is the site of New Ilium. Simois. Strabo tells us, that "two elbows or bent ridges proceed from the highest part of Mount Ida, the one towards Sigeum (A), the other towards Rheteum (C), forming together a semicir Thus, Chardin mentions a river near Erivan, named "Forty Springs ;" Savary or Tournefort mentions one of the same name in Crete; and Mr. Morier observes, that the modern name of Persepolis is "Forty Pillars," though this is by no means the number of columns standing. cular line, and inclosing between them the two plains of Simois and Scamander; and farther, that these two plains (of which the Scamandrian is the broader) are separated by a neck of high ground, or hilly ridge, which begins at New Ilium, and reaches (eastward, as appears from another passage) to Kebrenia, and joins the semicircular elbows" (L. XIII, 597). The features of this description will be recognised at once in the sketch. The elbows, or bent ridges, proceeding towards Sigeum and Rhoteum, are evidently VLU and V W, which together form the semicircle W VV LU. It is equally impossible to mistake the neck, or hilly tract, beginning at New Ilium, I, and proceeding eastward, till it joins the semicircle. It is clearly the ridge or hilly tract IXO. And it is no less indisputable, that the two plains of Simois and Scamander, inclosed by the semicircle, and separated by the neck IXO, are the plains of the Dombrik, M, and the Mendere, S, of which the latter is accurately described by Strabo as the broader. The Dombrik is therefore beyond a doubt the Simois of Strabo; and every other circumstance that writer has mentioned respecting this river confirms the conclusion. Thus he tells us, that the Scamander and Simois, approaching the one to Sigeum, and the other to Rhoteum, unite a little before New Ilium, and form a lake or marsh at their embouchure (L. XIII, 597). Now, no river approaches Rhoteum (C) but the Dombrik, nor Sigeum (A) but the Mendere; they do unite a little before Issarlik (I); the marsh alluded to still covers the space from B to C; and it is obvious, from inspection, that the Dombrik is the only river which can be conjoined with the Mendere as the cause of their existence. To all this may be added, that the inhabitants of New Ilium held their city to be the Troy of Homer (Strabo, L. XIII, 593-600), a pretension which they never would have advanced had New Ilium not stood between the rivers then known by the names of Simois and Scamander. That the Dombrik was the Simois of the later Greeks, may therefore be regarded as certain; and without strong reasons to the contrary, this may be held decisive as to its identity with the Simois of Homer. But the Dombrik corresponds better with the Simois of Homer than any other stream in the plain. The Dombrik is the largest stream in the plain, except the Mendere, as we would expect the Simois to be (Hobhouse, p. 749). Mr. Turner found its bed 60 feet wide. Dr. Clarke describes it as dry in summer, but as a powerful torrent, bearing all before it in winter (Trav. 111, 231). And this character corresponds to the terms Homer employs; for he nowhere calls it a large vortiginous river, as he calls the Scamander; and the violence and impetuosity he ascribes to it when The form of this dividing neck or ridge is copied from a map in Vol. II. Part 2. of Choiseul's Voyage Pittoresque, published in 1820. swelled, be elsewhere ascribes to a winter torrent (II. 11, 493. XXI, 308). Chevalier and Major Reunell hold the Simois to be the Thymbrius, but we have seen that it was not the Thymbrius of Strabo; and the following circumstance is almost a positive proof that it was not the Thymbrius of Homer. The Dombrik is evidently best adapted of all the torrents in the plain to act against an object placed at the mouth of the Scamander, where the Greek entrenchment stood. Now when the poet musters the eight rivers of Ida to demolish the ramparts, the Simois is in the number, but not the Thymbrius (I. XII, 19). Had the Dombrik been the Thymbrius, is it not plain that the Thymbrius would have been included among the agents of destruction, and the Simois omitted? Lastly, had the Simois not joined the Scamander close upon the sea, as the Dombrik does, but farther up, as at K, we may be certain that some bodies of so large an army would have passed the confluent stream below the junction, and approached Troy across the Simois. Yet we find not a single trace of such a movement. To all this we shall add, what Mr. Maclaren has overlooked, that the accurate D'Anville, though he was aware that Pococke held this river to be the Thymbrius, has put it down in his map as the Simois. The Greek Camp. The two rivers being ascertained will assist us in determining the position of the Greek camp. 1. The site of the camp must evidently be somewhere in the level beach between A and C, the rest of the shore being rocky for five or six miles on either side. 2. It must be on the west side of the embouchure-not the east, for the road from the camp to the city crossed the Scamander only, as already shown. 3. The spot was necessarily flat, for it admitted the ships to be drawn up to the inland barrier: it was covered with sands, as we are distinctly told (Il. xII, 31): it was small, for the troops were crowded (Il. XIV, 30): and it had two or more tumuli erected close by it (Il. vII, 334. xxIII, 162. et seq.). These circumstances put together leave no doubt that the tongue of flat sandy soil at Koum Kale (west of B) was at least a part of the Greek camp. 4. The northern extremity of this point of land, Mr. Maclaren thinks, is susceptible neither of increase nor diminution, because being formed of sands deposited by the current of the Hellespont, without an alteration either in the nature of the material, or the velocity of the current, (both of which are extremely improbable,) it must remain unchanged.* But for the following reasons, he thinks, that at an early period, the embouchure of the Mendere was farther from Sigeum, and that the sandy flat extended more to the eastward as shown in the sketch. First, it is natural that the Scamander, flowing through an alluvial This depends on the principle which gives stability to the matters constituting the beds of rivers. See Art. RIVER, by Professor Robinson, Encyc. Britt. |