Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 2.djvu/370

 362 STRABO. CASAUB. 597. sent Ilium and is united to it ; it extends as far as Cebrenia, and completes with the arms on each side the letter 0. 35. A little above this ridge of land is the village of the Ilienses, supposed to be the site of the ancient Ilium, at the distance of 30 stadia from the present city. Ten stadia above the village of the Ilienses is Callicolone, a hill beside which, at the distance of five stadia, runs the Simoeis. The description of the poet is probable. First what he says of Mars, " but on the other side Mars arose, like a black tempest, one while with a shrill voice calling upon the Trojans from the summit of the citadel, at another time running along Callicolone beside the Simoeis ; " ' for since the battle was fought on the Scamandrian plain, Mars might, according to probability, encourage the men, one while from the citadel, at another time from the neighbouring places, the Simoeis and the Callicolone, to which the battle might extend. But since Callicolone is distant from the present Ilium 40 stadia, where was the utility of changing places at so great a distance, where the array of the troops did not extend ? and the words " The Lycii obtained by lot the station near Thymbra," 2 which agree better with the ancient city, for the plain Thym- iir tv9tiag, by which we are to understand that the extremities of the arms and of the ridge are in the same straight line. Groskurd reads /nrai> before r. e. a., changes the construction of the sentence, and reads the letter i// instead of e. His translation is as fol- lows : " Both-mentioned plains are separated from each other by a long neck of land between the above-mentioned arms, which takes its com- mencement from the present Ilium and unites with it, extending itself in a straight line as far as Cebrenia, and forms with the arms on each side the letter 4/." The topography of the plain of Troy and its neighbourhood is not yet sufficiently known to be able to distinguish all the details given by Deme- trius. It appears only that he took the Tchiblak for the Simo'is, and placed the plain of Troy to the right of the present Mendere, which he called the Scamander. This opinion, lately renewed by Major Rennell, presents great and even insurmountable difficulties when we endeavour to explain on this basis the principal circumstances of the Iliad. It must be remembered that in the time of Demetrius the remembrance of the posi- tion of ancient Troy was entirely lost, and that this author constantly reasoned on the hypothesis, much contested in his time, that the town of the Ilienses corresponded with that of ancient Ilium. Observations on the Topography of the plain of Troy by James Rennell. Gossellin. 1 II. xx. 51. 8 II. x. 430.