Book 13
1.32
The extent of this sea-coast as we sail in a direct line from Rhoeteium to Sigeium, and the monument of Achilles, is 60 stadia. The whole of the coast lies below the present Ilium; the part near the port of the Achaeans,The port of the Achaeans, 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 for desolation implies a deficiency of inhabitants, but not a complete destruction of the place; but those persons destroyed it entirely, whom they think worthy of sacred rites, and worship as gods; unless, perhaps, they should plead that these persons engaged in a just, and Hercules in an unjust, war, on account of the horses of Laomedon. To this is opposed a fabulous tale, that it was not on account of the horses but of the reward for the delivery of Hesione from the sea-monster. 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 Achaeans 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. distant from the present Ilium about 12 stadia, and thirty stadia more from the ancient Ilium,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). which is higher up in the part towards Ida.
