Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 2.djvu/369

 I B. xin. c. i. 34. THE TROAD. 361 Scepsia. There was continual enmity and war between the Scepsians and Cebrenians, till Antigonus settled them both together in the city, then called Antigonia, but at present Alexandria. The Cebrenians remained there with the other inhabitants, but the Scepsians, by the permission of Lysi- machus, returned to their own country. 34. From the mountainous tract of Ida near these places, two arms, he says, extend to the sea, one in the direction of RhcEteium, the other of Sigeium, farming a semicircle, and terminate in the plain at the same distance from the sea as the present Ilium, which is situated between the extremities of the above-mentioned arms, whereas the ancient Ilium was situated at their commencement. This space comprises the Simoisian plain through which the Simoeis runs, and the Scamandrian plain, watered by the Scamander. This latter plain is properly the plain of Troy, and Homer makes it the scene of the greatest part of his battles, for it is the widest of the two ; and there we see the places named by him, the Eri- neos, the tomb of JEsyetes, 1 Batieia, and the tomb of Ilus. With respect to the Scamander and the Simoeis, the former, after approaching Sigeium, and the latter Rhoeteium, unite their streams a little in front of the present Ilium, 2 and then empty themselves near Sigeium, and form as it is called the Stomalimne. Each of the above-mentioned plains is separ- ated from the other by a long ridge 3 which is in a straight line with the above-mentioned arms ; 4 the ridge begins at the pre- 1 The position of the tomb of ^Isyetes is said to be near a village called by the Turks Udjek, who also give the name Udjek-tepe to the tomb it- self. The tomb of Ilus, it is presumed, must be in the neighbourhood of the ancient bed of Scamander, and Batieia below the village Bounar- bachi. 2 This and the following paragraph more especially are at variance with the conjecture of those who place New Ilium at the village Tchib- lak, situated beyond and to the north of the Simoi's. 3 As there are no mountains on the left bank of the Mendere, at the distance at which Demetrius places the town of the Ilienses, the long ridge or height of which Strabo speaks can only be referred to the hill of Tchiblak. In that case the Simoi's of Demetrius must be the stream Tchiblak, which modern maps represent as very small, but which Major Rennell, on authority as yet uncertain, extends considerably, giving it the name Shimar, which according to him recalls that of Simoi's. Gos- selhn. 4 Kramer proposes the insertion of oj/ before T&V li