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Rh Assus, it is less than a mile distant, it enters the Aegean about 10 m. north of Cape Lectum. Three alluvial plains are comprised in its course. The easternmost of these, into which the river issues from rugged mountains of considerable height, is long and narrow. The next is the broad plain round Assus, which was a fertile source of supply to that city. The third is the plain at the embouchure of the river on the west coast. This was anciently called the Halesian plain, partly from the maritime salt-works at Tragasae, near the town of Hamaxitus, partly also from the hot salt-springs which exist at some distance from the sea, on the north side of the river, where large formations of rock-salt are also found. Maritime salt-works are still in operation at the mouth of the river, and its modern name (Tuzla = salt) preserves the ancient association. A striking feature of the southern Troad is the high and narrow plateau which runs parallel with the Adramyttian Gulf from east to west, forming a southern barrier to the valley of the Tuzla. This plateau seems to have been formed by a volcanic upheaval which came late in the Tertiary period, and covered the limestone of the south coast with two successive flows of trachyte. The lofty crag of Assus is like a tower standing detached from this line of mountain-wall. The western coast is of a different character. North of the Tuzla extends an undulating plain, narrow at first, but gradually widening. Much of it is covered with the valonia oak (Quercus aegilops), one of the most valuable products of the Troad. Towards the middle of the west coast the adjacent ground becomes higher, with steep acclivities, which sometimes rise into peaks; and north of these, again, the seaboard subsides towards Cape Sigeum into rounded hills, mostly low.

Natural Products.—The timber of the Troad is supplied chiefly by the pine forests on Mt Ida. But nearly all the plains and hills are more or less well wooded. Besides the valonia oak, the elm, willow, cypress and tamarisk shrub abound. Lotus, galingale and reeds are still plentiful, as in Homeric days, about the streams in the Trojan lain. The vine, too, is cultivated, the Turks making from it a kind of syrup and a preserve. In summer and autumn water-melons are among the abundant fruits. Cotton, wheat and Indian corn are also grown. The Troad is, indeed, a country highly favoured by nature—with its fertile plains and valleys, abundantly and continually irrigated from Ida, its numerous streams, its fine west seaboard, and the beauty of its scenery. Under Turkish rule, the natural advantages of the land suffice to mitigate the poverty of the sparse population, but have scarcely any positive result.

Early History.—In the Homeric legend, with which the story of the Troad begins, the people called Troes are ruled by a king Priam, whose realm includes all that is bounded by “Lesbos, Phrygia, and the Hellespont” (Il. xxiv. 544), i.e. the whole “Troad,” with some extension of it, beyond Ida, on the north-west. According to Homer, the Achaeans under Agamemnon utterly and finally destroyed Troy, the capital of Priam, and overthrew his dynasty. But there is an Homeric prophecy that the rule over the Troes shall be continued by Aeneas and his descendants. From the “Homeric” hymn to Aphrodite, as well as from a passage in the 20th book of the Iliad (75-353)—a passage probably later than the bulk of the book—it is certain that in the 7th or 6th century a dynasty claiming descent from Aeneas reigned in the Troad, though the extent of their sway is unknown. The Homeric tale of Troy is a poetic creation, for which the poet is the sole witness. The geographical compactness of the Troad is itself an argument for the truth of the Homeric statement that it was once united under a strong king. How that kingdom was finally broken up is unknown. Thracian hordes, including the Treres, swept into Asia Minor from the north-west about the beginning of the 7th century, and it is probable that, like the Gauls and Goths of later days, these fierce invaders made havoc in the Troad. The Ionian poet Callinus has recorded the terror which they caused farther south.

Greek Settlements.—A new period in the history of the Troad begins with the foundation of the Greek settlements. The earliest and most important of these were Aeolic. Lesbos and Cyme in Aeolis seem to have been the chief points from which the Aeolic colonists worked their way into the Troad. Commanding positions on the coast, such as Assus and Sigeum, would naturally be those first occupied; and some of them have been in the hands of Aeolians as early as the 10th century It appears from Herodotus (v. 95) that about 620  Athenians occupied Sigeum, and were resisted by the Aeolic colonists from Mytilene in Lesbos, who had already established themselves in that neighbourhood. Struggles of this kind may help to account

for the fact noticed by Strabo, that the earlier colonies had often migrated from one site in the Troad to another. Such changes of seat have been, he observes, frequent causes of confusion in the topography.

The chief Greek towns in the Troad were Ilium in the north, Assus in the south and Alexandria Troas in the west. The site of the Greek Ilium is marked by the low mound of Hissarlik (“place of fortresses”) in the Trojan plain, about 3 m. from the Hellespont. Exactly at what date it was founded on the top of earlier remains is uncertain (perhaps the 7th century); but it was not a place of any importance till the Hellenistic age. When Xerxes visited the Trojan plain, he “went up to the Pergamon of Priam,” and afterwards sacrificed to the Ilian Athena (Herod. vii. 42). Ilion is mentioned among the towns of the Troad which yielded to Dercyllidas (399 ), and as captured by Charidemus (359 ). It possessed walls, but was a petty place, of little strength. In 334 Alexander, on landing in the Troad, visited Ilium. In their temple of Athena the Ilians showed him arms which had served in the Trojan War, including the shield of Achilles. Either then, or after the battle of Granicus, Alexander directed that the town should be enlarged, and should have the rank of “city,” with political independence, and exemption from tribute. The battle of Ipsus (301 ) added north-western Asia Minor to the dominions of Lysimachus, who executed the intentions of Alexander. He gave Ilium a wall 5 m. in circumference, incorporating with it some decayed towns of the neighbourhood, and built a handsome temple of Athena. In the 3rd century Ilium was the head of a federal league of free Greek towns, which probably included the district from Lampsacus on the Hellespont to Gargara on the Adramyttian Gulf. Twice in that century Ilium was visited by Gauls. On the first occasion (278 ) the Gauls, under Lutarius, sought to establish a stronghold at Ilium, but speedily abandoned it as being too weak. Forty years later (218 ) Gauls were brought over by Attalus I. to help him in his war against Achaeus. After deserting his standard they proceeded to pillage the towns on the Hellespont, and finally besieged Ilium, from which, however, they were driven off by the troops of Alexandria Troas. At the beginning of the 2nd century Ilium was in a state of decay. As Demetrius of Scepsis tells us, the houses “had not even roofs of tiles,” but merely of thatch. Such a loss of prosperity is sufficiently explained by the incursions of the Gauls and the insecure state of the Troad during the latter part of the 3rd century. The temple of the Ilian Athena, however, retained its prestige. In 192 Antiochus the Great visited it before sailing to the aid of the Aetolians. In 190, shortly before the battle of Magnesia, the Romans came into the Troad. At the moment when a Roman army was entering Asia, it was politic to recall the legend of Roman descent from Aeneas. Lucius Scipio and the Ilians were alike eager to do so. He offered sacrifice to the Ilian Athena; and after the Peace with Antiochus (189 ) the Romans annexed Rhoeteum and Gergis to Ilium, “not so much in reward of recent services, as in memory of the source from which their nation sprang.” The later history of Ilium is little more than that of Roman benefits. A disaster befell the place in 85, when Fimbria took it, and left it in ruins; but Sulla presently caused it to be rebuilt. Augustus, while confirming its ancient privileges, gave it new territory. Caracalla ( 211-217) visited Ilium, and, like Alexander, paid honours to the tomb of Achilles. In the 4th century, as some rhetorical “Letters” of that age show, the Ilians did a profitable trade in attracting tourists by their pseudo-Trojan memorials. After the 4th century the place is lost to view. But we find from Constantine Porphyrogenitus (911-959) that in his day it was one of the places in the Troad which gave names to bishoprics.

Other Ancient Sites.—Many classical sites in the Troad have been identified with more or less certainty. (For and, see separate articles. Neandria seems to be rightly fixed by F. Calvert at Mount Chigri, a hill not far from Alexandria Troas, remarkable for the fine view of the whole Troad which it commands. Cebrene has been conjecturally placed in the eastern part of the plain of Bairamich. Palaeoscepsis was farther east