οὐδὲν δʼ ἴχνος σώζεται τῆς ἀρχαίας πόλεως. εἰκότως· ἅτε γὰρ ἐκπεπορθημένων τῶν κύκλῳ πόλεων, οὐ τελέως δὲ κατεσπασμένων, ταύτης δʼ ἐκ βάθρων ἀνατετραμμένης, οἱ λίθοι πάντες εἰς τὴν ἐκείνων ἀνάληψιν μετηνέχθησαν. Ἀρχαιάνακτα γοῦν φασι τὸν Μιτυληναῖον ἐκ τῶν ἐκεῖθεν λίθων τὸ Σίγειον τειχίσαι. τοῦτο δὲ κατέσχον μὲν Ἀθηναῖοι Φρύνωνα τὸν ὀλυμπιονίκην πέμψαντες, Λεσβίων ἐπιδικαζομένων σχεδόν τι τῆς συμπάσης Τρῳάδος· ὧν δὴ καὶ κτίσματά εἰσιν αἱ πλεῖσται τῶν κατοικιῶν, αἱ μὲν συμμένουσαι καὶ νῦν αἱ δʼ ἠφανισμέναι. Πιττακὸς δʼ ὁ Μιτυληναῖος, εἷς τῶν ἑπτὰ σοφῶν λεγομένων, πλεύσας ἐπὶ τὸν Φρύνωνα στρατηγὸν διεπολέμει τέως διατιθεὶς καὶ πάσχων κακῶς, ὕστερον δʼ ἐκ μονομαχίας, προκαλεσαμένου τοῦ Φρύνωνος, ἁλιευτικὴν ἀναλαβὼν σκευὴν συνέδραμε, καὶ τῷ μὲν ἀμφιβλήστρῳ περιέβαλε τῇ τριαίνῃ δὲ καὶ τῷ ξιφιδίῳ ἔπειρε καὶ ἀνεῖλε. μένοντος δʼ ἔτι τοῦ πολέμου Περίανδρος διαιτητὴς αἱρεθεὶς ὑπὸ ἀμφοῖν ἔλυσε τὸν πόλεμον.
No trace of the ancient city remains. This might be expected, for the cities around were devastated, but not entirely destroyed, whereas when Troy was overthrown from its foundation all the stones were removed for the reparation of the other cities. Archaeanax of Mitylene is said to have fortified Sigeium with the stones brought from Troy. Sigeium was taken possession of by the Athenians, who sent Phryno, the victor in the Olympic games, at the time the Lesbians advanced a claim to nearly the whole Troad. They had indeed founded most of the settlements, some of which exist at present, and others have disappeared. Pittacus of Mitylene, one of the seven wise men, sailed to the Troad against Phryno, the Athenian general, and was defeated in a pitched battle. (It was at this time that the poet Alcaeus, as he himself says, when in danger in some battle, threw away his arms and fled. He charged a messenger with injunctions to inform those at home that Alcaeus was safe, but that he did not bring away his arms. These were dedicated by the Athenians as an offering in the temple of Minerva Glaucopis.) Upon Phryno’s proposal to meet in single combat, Pittacus advanced with his fishing gear, enclosed his adversary in a net, pierced him with his three-pronged spear, and despatched him with a short sword. The war however still continuing, Periander was chosen arbitrator by both parties, and put an end to it.
Τίμαιον δὲ ψεύσασθαί φησιν ὁ Δημήτριος ἱστοροῦντα ἐκ τῶν λίθων τῶν ἐξ Ἰλίου Περίανδρον ἐπιτειχίσαι τὸ Ἀχίλλειον τοῖς Ἀθηναίοις, βοηθοῦντα τοῖς περὶ Πιττακόν· ἐπιτειχισθῆναι μὲν γὰρ ὑπὸ τῶν Μιτυληναίων τὸν τόπον τοῦτον τῷ Σιγείῳ, οὐ μὴν ἐκ λίθων τοιούτων οὐδʼ ὑπὸ τοῦ Περιάνδρου. πῶς γὰρ ἂν αἱρεθῆναι διαιτητὴν τὸν προσπολεμοῦντα; Ἀχίλλειον δʼ ἔστιν ὁ τόπος ἐν ᾧ τὸ Ἀχιλλέως μνῆμα, κατοικία μικρά. κατέσκαπται δὲ καὶ τὸ Σίγειον ὑπὸ τῶν Ἰλιέων ἀπειθοῦν· ὑπʼ ἐκείνοις γὰρ ἦν ὕστερον ἡ παραλία πᾶσα ἡ μέχρι Δαρδάνου, καὶ νῦν ὑπʼ ἐκείνοις ἐστί. τὸ δὲ παλαιὸν ὑπὸ τοῖς Αἰολεῦσιν ἦν τὰ πλεῖστα, ὥστε Ἔφορος οὐκ ὀκνεῖ πᾶσαν τὴν ἀπὸ Ἀβύδου μέχρι Κύμης καλεῖν Αἰολίδα. Θουκυδίδης δέ φησιν ἀφαιρεθῆναι τὴν Τροίαν ὑπὸ Ἀθηναίων τοὺς Μιτυληναίους ἐν τῷ Πελοποννησιακῷ πολέμῳ τῷ Παχητείῳ.
Demetrius accuses Timaeus of falsehood, for saying that Periander built a wall round the Achilleium out of the stones brought from Ilium as a protection against the attacks of the Athenians, and with a view to assist Pittacus; whereas this place was fortified by the Mitylenaeans against Sigeium, but not with stones from Ilium, nor by Periander. For how should they choose an enemy in arms to be arbitrator?
The Achilleium is a place which contains the monument of Achilles, and is a small settlement. It was destroyed, as also Sigeium, by the Ilienses on account of the refractory disposition of its inhabitants. For all the sea-coast as far as Dardanus was afterwards, and is at present, subject to them.
Anciently the greatest part of these places were subject to the Aeolians, and hence Ephorus does not hesitate to call all the country from Abydos to Cume by the name of Aeolis. But Thucydides says that the Mitylenaeans were deprived of the Troad in the Peloponnesian war by the Athenians under the command of Paches.
λέγουσι δʼ οἱ νῦν Ἰλιεῖς καὶ τοῦτο ὡς οὐδὲ τελέως ἠφανίσθαι συνέβαινεν τὴν πόλιν κατὰ τὴν ἅλωσιν ὑπὸ τῶν Ἀχαιῶν, οὐδʼ ἐξελείφθη οὐδέποτε. αἱ γοῦν Λοκρίδες παρθένοι μικρὸν ὕστερον ἀρξάμεναι ἐπέμποντο κατʼ ἔτος· καὶ ταῦτα δʼ οὐχ Ὁμηρικά· οὐδὲ γὰρ τῆς Κασάνδρας φθορὰν οἶδεν Ὅμηρος, ἀλλʼ ὅτι μὲν παρθένος ἦν ὑπʼ ἐκεῖνον τὸν χρόνον λέγει πέφνε γὰρ Ὀθρυονῆα, Καβησόθεν ἔνδον ἐόντα, / ὅς ῥα νέον πτολέμοιο μετὰ κλέος εἰληλούθει. / ᾔτεε δὲ Πριάμοιο θυγατρῶν εἶδος ἀρίστην, / Κασσάνδρην, ἀνάεδνον. / βίας δὲ οὐδὲ μέμνηται, οὐδʼ ὅτι ἡ φθορὰ τοῦ Αἴαντος ἐν τῇ ναυαγίᾳ κατὰ μῆνιν Ἀθηνᾶς συνέβη ἢ κατὰ τοιαύτην αἰτίαν, ἀλλʼ ἀπεχθανόμενον μὲν τῇ Ἀθηνᾷ κατὰ τὸ κοινὸν εἴρηκεν (ἁπάντων γὰρ εἰς τὸ ἱερὸν ἀσεβησάντων ἅπασιν ἐμήνιεν), ἀπολέσθαι δὲ ὑπὸ Ποσειδῶνος μεγαλορρημονήσαντα· τὰς δὲ Λοκρίδας πεμφθῆναι Περσῶν ἤδη κρατούντων συνέβη.
The present Ilienses affirm that the city was not entirely demolished when it was taken by the Achaeans, nor at any time deserted. The Locrian virgins began to be sent there, as was the custom every year, a short time afterwards. This however is not told by Homer. Nor was Homer acquainted with the violation of Cassandra, but says that she was a virgin about that time: He slew Othryoneus, who had lately come to the war from Cabesus, induced by the glory of the contest, and who sought in marriage the most beautiful of the daughters of Priam, Cassandra, without a dower. He does not mention any force having been used, nor does he attribute the death of Ajax by shipwreck to the wrath of Minerva, nor to any similar cause, but says, in general terms, that he was an object of hatred to Minerva, (for she was incensed against all who had profaned her temple,) and that Ajax died by the agency of Neptune for his boasting speeches.
The Locrian virgins were sent there when the Persians were masters of the country.
οὕτω μὲν δὴ λέγουσιν οἱ Ἰλιεῖς, Ὅμηρος δὲ ῥητῶς τὸν ἀφανισμὸν τῆς πόλεως εἴρηκεν ἔσσεται ἦμαρ ὅταν ποτʼ ὀλώλῃ Ἴλιος ἱρή. / ἦ γὰρ καὶ Πριάμοιο πόλιν διεπέρσαμεν αἰπήν. / βουλῇ καὶ μύθοισι. / πέρθετο δὲ Πριάμοιο πόλις δεκάτῳ ἐνιαυτῷ / καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα δὲ τοῦ αὐτοῦ τίθενται τεκμήρια, οἷον ὅτι τῆς Ἀθηνᾶς τὸ ξόανον νῦν μὲν ἑστηκὸς ὁρᾶται, Ὅμηρος δὲ καθήμενον ἐμφαίνει· πέπλον γὰρ κελεύει θεῖναι Ἀθηναίης ἐπὶ γούνασιν., ὡς καί, μή ποτε γούνασιν οἷσιν ἐφέζεσθαι φίλον υἱόν. / βέλτιον γὰρ οὕτως ἢ ὡς τινὲς δέχονται ἀντὶ τοῦ παρὰ τοῖς γόνασι θεῖναι παρατιθέντες τὸ ἡ δʼ ἧσται ἐπʼ ἐσχάρῃ ἐν πυρὸς αὐγῇ / ἀντὶ τοῦ παρʼ ἐσχάρῃ. τίς γὰρ ἂν νοηθείη πέπλου ἀνάθεσις παρὰ τοῖς γόνασι; καὶ οἱ τὴν προσῳδίαν δὲ διαστρέφοντες, γουνάσιν ὡς θυιάσιν, ὁποτέρως ἂν δέξωνται, ἀπεραντολογοῦσιν, εἴθʼ ἱκετεύοντες τε φρένας. πολλὰ δὲ τῶν ἀρχαίων τῆς Ἀθηνᾶς ξοάνων καθήμενα δείκνυται, καθάπερ ἐν Φωκαίᾳ Μασσαλίᾳ Ῥώμῃ Χίῳ ἄλλαις πλείοσιν. ὁμολογοῦσι δὲ καὶ οἱ νεώτεροι τὸν ἀφανισμὸν τῆς πόλεως, ὧν ἔστι καὶ Λυκοῦργος ὁ ῥήτωρ· μνησθεὶς γὰρ τῆς Ἰλιέων πόλεως φησί τίς οὐκ ἀκήκοεν, ὡς ἅπαξ ὑπὸ τῶν Ἑλλήνων κατεσκάφθη, ἀοίκητον οὖσαν;
Such is the account of the Ilienses. But Homer speaks expressly of the demolition of the city: The day will come when at length sacred Ilium shall perish, / After we have destroyed the lofty city of Priam, / By counsel, by wisdom, and by artifice, / The city of Priam was destroyed in the tenth year. /
Of this they produce evidence of the following kind; the statue of Minerva, which Homer represents as in a sitting posture, is seen at present to be a standing figure, for he orders them to place the robe on the knees of Athene, / in the same sense as this verse, no son of mine should sit upon her knees, / and it is better to understand it thus, than as some explain it, by placing the robe at the knees, and adduce this line, she sat upon the hearth in the light of the fire, / for near the hearth. For what would the laying the robe at the knees mean? And they who alter the accent, and for γούνασιν like θυιάσιν, or in whatever way they understand it, come to no conclusion. Many of the ancient statues of Minerva are found in a sitting posture, as those at Phocaea, Massalia, Rome, Chios, and many other cities. But modern writers, among whom is Lycurgus the rhetorician, agree that the city was destroyed, for in mentioning the city of the Ilienses he says, who has not heard, when it was once razed by the Greeks, that it was uninhabited?
εἰκάζουσι δὲ τοὺς ὕστερον ἀνακτίσαι διανοουμένους οἰωνίσασθαι τὸν τόπον ἐκεῖνον, εἴτε διὰ τὰς συμφορὰς εἴτε καὶ καταρασαμένου τοῦ Ἀγαμέμνονος κατὰ παλαιὸν ἔθος, καθάπερ καὶ ὁ Κροῖσος ἐξελὼν τὴν Σιδήνην, εἰς ἣν ὁ τύραννος κατέφυγε Γλαυκίας, ἀρὰς ἔθετο κατὰ τῶν τειχιούντων πάλιν τὸν τόπον. ἐκείνου μὲν οὖν ἀποστῆναι τοῦ χωρίου, ἕτερον δὲ τειχίσαι. πρῶτοι μὲν οὖν Ἀστυπαλαιεῖς οἱ τὸ Ῥοίτειον κατασχόντες συνῴκισαν πρὸς τῷ Σιμόεντι Πόλιον, ὃ νῦν καλεῖται Πόλισμα, οὐκ ἐν εὐερκεῖ τόπῳ· διὸ κατεσπάσθη ταχέως. ἐπὶ δὲ τῶν Λυδῶν ἡ νῦν ἐκτίσθη κατοικία καὶ τὸ ἱερόν· οὐ μὴν πόλις γε ἦν, ἀλλὰ πολλοῖς χρόνοις ὕστερον καὶ κατʼ ὀλίγον, ὡς εἴρηται, τὴν αὔξησιν ἔσχεν. Ἑλλάνικος δὲ χαριζόμενος τοῖς Ἰλιεῦσιν, οἷος ἐκείνου θυμός, συνηγορεῖ τὸ τὴν αὐτὴν εἶναι πόλιν τὴν νῦν τῇ τότε. τὴν δὲ χώραν ἀφανισθείσης τῆς πόλεως οἱ τὸ Σίγειον καὶ τὸ Ῥοίτειον ἔχοντες διενείμαντο καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ὡς ἕκαστοι τῶν πλησιοχώρων, ἀπέδοσαν δʼ ἀνοικισθείσης.
It is conjectured that those who afterwards proposed to rebuild it avoided the spot as inauspicious, either on account of its calamities, of which it had been the scene, or whether Agamemnon, according to an ancient custom, had devoted it to destruction with a curse, as Crcesus, when he destroyed Sidene, in which the tyrant Glaucias had taken refuge, uttered a curse against those who should rebuild its walls. They therefore abandoned that spot and built a city elsewhere.
The Astypalaeans, who were in possession of Rhoeteium, were the first persons that founded Polium near the Simoïs, now called Polisma, but not in a secure spot, and hence it was soon in ruins.
The present settlement, and the temple, were built in the time of the Lydian kings; but it was not then a city; a long time afterwards, however, and by degrees, it became, as we have said, a considerable place.
Hellanicus, in order to gratify the Ilienses, as is his custom, maintains that the present and the ancient city are the same. But the district on the extinction of the city was divided by the possessors of Rhoeteium and Sigeium, and the other neighbouring people among themselves. Upon the rebuilding of the city, however, they restored it.
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