Page:History of Greece Vol I.djvu/358

 526 HISTORY OF GREECE Alexander made to the inhabitants of Ilium many munificent promises, which he probably would have executed, had he not been prevented by untimely death : for the Trojan war was amongst all the Grecian legends the most thoroughly Pan-Hel- lenic, and the young king of Macedon, besides his own sincere legendary faith, was anxious to merge the local patriotism of the separate Greek towns in one general Hellenic sentiment under himself as chief. One of his successors, Antigonus, 1 founded the city of Alexandreia in the Troad, between Sigeium and the more southerly promontory of Lektum ; compressing into it the inhab- itants of many of the neighboring ^Eolic towns in the region of Ida, Skepsis, Kebren, Hamaxitus, Kolonae, and Neandria, though the inhabitants of Skepsis were subsequently permitted by Lysimachus to resume their own city and autonomous gov- ernment. Ilium however remained without any special mark of favor until the arrival of the Romans in Asia and their triumph over Antiochus (about 190 B. c.). Though it retained its walls and its defensible position, Demetrius of Skepsis, who visited it shortly before that event, described it as being then in a state of neglect and poverty, many of the houses not even having tiled roofs. 2 In this dilapidated condition, however, it was still mythi- assistance to the inhabitants of Kyzikus, when they were besieged by Mithridates, commemorated by inscriptions set up in Ilium (Plutarch, Lucull. 10). 1 Strabo, xiii. p. 603-607. 2 Livy, xxxv. 43 ; xxxvii. 9. Polyb. v. 78-1 1 1 (passages which prove thai Ilium was fortified and defensible about B. c. 218). Strabo, xiii. p. 594. Ka2 rb "lAtov <5', 6 vvv kari. /cej/zoTro/Uf n f r]v, ore Trpurdv 'Pufialot rr)<; 'Aaiaf ine- $ioav Kal k&fiakov 'Avrioxov rbv peyav K 7% ivrbf TOV Tavpov. $ijai -yovv Art/Ltf/Tpiof 6 2/c^>f) fiEipuxiov iTTid7Jfj.j)aav etf TTJV TTO?IIV Kar' ixeivovf roiif Kaipoi)f, owruf ufayupqfievijv Ideiv rf/v naroiKiav, wore fujdl Kepapuruf e% elv raf arcyaf. 'Hy^o-tuvaf 6e, roiif FaAuraf irfpatudevrae IK rrjc EvpuTrr/f, uva- (ifjvai /J.EV elf T'fjv Ttohiv tieo/usvovf tpvparof, irapaxpi/pa, 6' ^/cAtTretv dia rd aTf'^icfTov ' fiarepov ff knavopduaiv sage KoTJ.fjv. EIr' knanuaav aitrf/v TTU- fav t)l fierti $ifi[)piov, etc. This is a very clear and precise statement, attested by an eye-witness. But it is thoroughly inconsistent with the statement made by Strabo in the previous chapter, a dozen lines before, as the text now stands ; for he there informs us that Lysimachus, after the death of Alexander, paid great atten- tion to Ilium, surrounded it with a wall of forty stadia in circumference, erected a temple, and aggregated to Ilium the ancient cities around, which