Page:History of Greece Vol I.djvu/371

 LEGZZO) Of TE07. 33* At what time Ilium and Dardanus became ^iolized we have no information. We find th Mitylenzeans in possession of St- geium in the time of the poet Alka-.us. about 000 &. c. ; and the Athenians daring the reign of Peisistratus, having wrested it fixm; them and trying to maintain their possession, vindicate the pro- ceeding bj saving that they had a? much right to it as the Mity- lenajans, " for the latter had no more claim to it than any of th* other Greeks who had aided Menelaus in avenging the abdnctiofa of Helen." 1 This is a very remarkable incident, as attesting the celebrity of the legend of Troy, and the value of a mythical title in international disj' -iingly implying that the estab- lishment of the Mitylenseans on that spot must have been sum ciently recent- The country near the junction of the Hellespont and the Projxratis is represented as originaDy held 2 by Bebrykian Thracians, while Abydus was first occupied by Milesian colonists in the reign aJid by the permission of the Lydian king Gyges 3 to whom the whole Troad and the neighboring territory be- longed. and upon whom therefore the Teukrians of Ida must have been dependent. This must have been about 700 B. C-, a period came, is stated by Herakleides of I'onras, and there aeons BO reason for calling it in question. Klansen (JEneas und die Penaien, book ii. p. 205) bas wfcei oat o piously the circulation and legendary import of tie Sibylline propheoie*. 1 Herodot v. 94. Ziyctov ...... rd cl?.c IIctfftoTparof ai%fty irapu Htn> ?.tivaiw ...... 'A^iTvatot, mrvkaarimf ^iryu oiSb> fto&jov AltArim jtrrsi* TW T^uSof xupvc, * w u of 4 nin MfTc'/.fy ruf 'E'/JviK upirayuf- In ^scbylns (Emoenid, 4O2) dess Athene claims the land about the Skamander, as having ben p to the sons of Theseus by the general vote of the Grecian chief* : 'A/irc* 1,K.afiia'f>pav -pjv K. "Hv 6% r 1 'A^atwr iffroprf rr Ktu Ctf TO JTtP FfHif 9 In the days of FeiastrBtn, it seemi Athens was not bold enough or pc w- erf ul enough to advance thii vast preteasicin. Diony. Perit-gt-t 805. p. 747. 3 Sach at least is the statement of Strabo (xiL p. 590) ; fliongh such u ettott of Lydian rule at that time seems not ea?y to reconcile with the f*v- vefiags of the subsequent Lydian kings.
 * Charon of Lampsacms ap. SchoL Ajjollon. Ehod. ii. 2; Bernhardy 4