Geography

​A little above this is the Village of the Ilians, where the ancient Ilium is believed to have been situated in former times, thirty stadia distant from the present city. Ten stadia above the Village of the Ilians is Callicolone, a hill, by which the Simois flows at a distance of five stadia; it is therefore reasonable, first, that which is said concerning Ares: “But Ares on the other side arose like a dark whirlwind, urging on the Trojans with a sharp cry from the highest part of the city, and at other times running beside the Simois upon Callicolone.” For since the battle was being fought in the Scamandrian plain, Ares might plausibly have made his encouragement at one time from the acropolis, and at another time from the places near both the Simois and Callicolone, as far as which it is probable that the battle also extended. But if Callicolone is forty stadia distant from the present Ilium, what was the use of transferring the places so far, when the battle-line did not extend that far? Also, the passage: “And by Thymbra the Lycians obtained their lot” is more appropriate to the ancient foundation; for the plain of Thymbra is near, and the river Thymbrius which flows through it, emptying into the Scamander near the temple of Thymbraean Apollo, but it is as much as fifty stadia distant from the present Ilium. And the wild fig-tree (Erineos), a rough and fig-producing place, lies just below the ancient foundation, so that the words: “But station the army by the wild fig-tree, where most of all the city is easy to scale and the wall has become vulnerable” would be fittingly spoken by Andromache; but it is very far distant from the present city. And the oak-tree is also a little lower than the wild fig-tree, concerning which Achilles says: “And as long as I was fighting among the Achaeans, Hector was not willing to arouse the battle far from the wall, but would only come as far as the Scaean gates and the oak-tree. “ ​Moreover, the naval station which is still so called at the present day is so near the present city that one might naturally wonder at the madness of the one side, and, on the contrary, the cowardice of the other. Their madness, on the one hand, if they kept it unfortified for so long a time, when the city was so near and there was such a multitude both in it and of the allies; for he says that the wall was built only recently (or it was not even built at all, but the poet, having fabricated it, caused it to disappear, as Aristotle says); and their cowardice, on the other hand, if, when the wall was built, they fought at the wall and broke into the naval station itself and fought beside the ships, yet when they had it unfortified they did not have the courage to go and besiege it, though the distance was so small. For the naval station is near Sigeum, and the Scamander also empties nearby, being twenty stadia distant from Ilium. But if anyone should say that the place now called the Harbor of the Achaeans is the naval station, he will speak of a closer place, distant about twelve stadia from the city, adding the plain by the sea; because all this plain before the city by the sea is an alluvial deposit of the rivers, so that if the distance between them is now twelve stadia, at that time it was less by even a half. And the narrative constructed by Odysseus to Eumaeus also shows that the distance to the city from the naval station was great: “As when under Troy we led an ambush.” For he says further down: “For we came too far from the ships.” And spies are sent to find out whether they will remain by the ships far away, pulled far from their own wall, “or back to the city will they return.” And Polydamas says: “Consider well, my friends; for I indeed bid you go now to the city,” and he says: “for we are far from the wall.” Demetrius also adduces Hestiaea of Alexandria as a witness, who wrote about Homer’s Iliad, inquiring whether the war took place around the present city, and about the Trojan plain, which the poet describes as being between the city and the sea; for she says that the plain seen before the present city is an alluvial deposit of the rivers formed later.