Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 2.djvu/366

 358 STRABO. CASAITB. 595. statues to other cities. Antony took away the most beautiful offerings from the most celebrated temples to gratify the ^Egyptian queen, but Augustus Cassar restored them to the gods. 31. After Rhoeteium is Sigeium, 1 a city in ruins, and the naval station, the harbour of the Achseans, the Achaean camp, the Stomalimne, as it is called, and the mouths of the Seaman - der. The Scamander and the Simoeis, uniting in the plain, 2 bring down a great quantity of mud, bank up the sea-coast, and form a blind mouth, salt-water lakes, and marshes. Opposite the Sigeian promontory on the Cherronesus is the Protesilaeium, 3 and Eleussa, of which I have spoken in the description of Thrace. 32. The extent of this sea-coast as we sail in a direct line from Rhceteium 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, 4 distant from the present Ilium about 12 stadia, and thirty stadia more from 1 lenischer. 2 The Scamander no longer unites with the Simoi's, and for a consider- able length of time has discharged itself into the Archipelago. The an- cient mouth of these rivers preserve, however, the name Mendere, which is an evident alteration of Scamander, and the name Mendere has also become that of the ancient Simoi's. It is to be observed that Demetrius of Scepsis, whose opinions on what regards these rivers and the position of Troy are quoted by Strabo, constantly takes the Simoi's or Mendere for the Scamander of Homer. The researches of M. de Choiseul-Gouf- fier on the Troad appear to me clearly to demonstrate that Demetrius of Scepsis is mistaken. Gossellin. 3 The temple or tomb of Protesilaus, one of the Greek princes who went to the siege of Troy, and the first who was killed on disembarking. Artayctes, one of the generals of Xerxes, pillaged the temple and pro- faned it by his debauchery. According to Herodotus, (b. ix. 115,) who narrates the circumstance, the temple and the tomb of Protesilaus must have been in Eleussa (Paleo-Castro) itself, or at least very near this city. Chandler thought he had discovered this tomb near the village which surrounds the castle of Europe. 4 The port of the Achaeans, the spot, that is, where the Greeks disem- barked on the coast of the Troad, at the entrance of the Hellespont, ap- pears 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 Mendere, once formed a creek, the bottom of which, from examination on the spot, extended 1200 or 1500