§13.1.26τὴν δὲ τῶν Ἰλιέων πόλιν τῶν νῦν τέως μὲν κώμην εἶναί φασι τὸ ἱερὸν ἔχουσαν τῆς Ἀθηνᾶς μικρὸν καὶ εὐτελές, Ἀλέξανδρον δὲ ἀναβάντα μετὰ τὴν ἐπὶ Γρανίκῳ νίκην ἀναθήμασί τε κοσμῆσαι τὸ ἱερὸν καὶ προσαγορεῦσαι πόλιν καὶ οἰκοδομίαις ἀναλαβεῖν προστάξαι τοῖς ἐπιμεληταῖς ἐλευθέραν τε κρῖναι καὶ ἄφορον· ὕστερον δὲ μετὰ τὴν κατάλυσιν τῶν Περσῶν ἐπιστολὴν καταπέμψαι φιλάνθρωπον, ὑπισχνούμενον πόλιν τε ποιῆσαι μεγάλην καὶ ἱερὸν ἐπισημότατον καὶ ἀγῶνα ἀποδείξειν ἱερόν.
As for the city of the present Ilians, they say that for a time it was only a village, having a small and cheap temple of Athena, but that Alexander, going up after his victory at the Granicus, adorned the temple with votive offerings, called it a city, ordered the overseers to restore it with buildings, and judged it free and exempt from tribute; and later, after the overthrow of the Persians, he sent down a favorable letter, promising to make it a great city, to build a most famous temple, and to establish a sacred contest.
μετὰ δὲ τὴν ἐκείνου τελευτὴν Λυσίμαχος μάλιστα τῆς πόλεως ἐπεμελήθη καὶ νεὼν κατεσκεύασε καὶ τεῖχος περιεβάλετο ὅσον τετταράκοντα σταδίων, συνῴκισέ τε εἰς αὐτὴν τὰς κύκλῳ πόλεις ἀρχαίας ἤδη κεκακωμένας, ὅτε καὶ Ἀλεξανδρείας ἤδη ἐπεμελήθη, συνῳκισμένης μὲν ἤδη ὑπʼ Ἀντιγόνου καὶ προσηγορευμένης Ἀντιγονείας, μεταβαλούσης δὲ τοὔνομα· ἔδοξε γὰρ εὐσεβὲς εἶναι τοὺς Ἀλέξανδρον διαδεξαμένους ἐκείνου πρότερον κτίζειν ἐπωνύμους πόλεις, εἶθʼ ἑαυτῶν· καὶ δὴ καὶ συνέμεινε καὶ αὔξησιν ἔσχε, νῦν δὲ καὶ Ῥωμαίων ἀποικίαν δέδεκται καὶ ἔστι τῶν ἐλλογίμων πόλεων.
After his death, Lysimachus took the greatest care of the city, constructed a temple, surrounded it with a wall of about forty stadia, and settled into it the surrounding ancient cities which were already in a bad state, at which time he also took care of Alexandria, which had already been settled by Antigonus and called Antigoneia, but changed its name; for it seemed to be a pious thing for the successors of Alexander to found cities named after him first, and then after themselves; and indeed it survived and grew, and now it has also received a Roman colony and is one of the illustrious cities.
§13.1.27καὶ τὸ Ἴλιον δʼ ὃ νῦν ἔστι κωμόπολίς τις ἦν, ὅτε πρῶτον Ῥωμαῖοι τῆς Ἀσίας ἐπέβησαν καὶ ἐξέβαλον Ἀντίοχον τὸν μέγαν ἐκ τῆς ἐντὸς τοῦ Ταύρου.
And the Ilium which now exists was a kind of village-town when the Romans first set foot in Asia and expelled Antiochus the Great from the region within the Taurus.
φησὶ γοῦν Δημήτριος ὁ Σκήψιος, μειράκιον ἐπιδημήσας εἰς τὴν πόλιν κατʼ ἐκείνους τοὺς καιρούς, οὕτως ὠλιγωρημένην ἰδεῖν τὴν κατοικίαν ὥστε μηδὲ κεραμωτὰς ἔχειν τὰς στέγας· Ἡγησιάναξ δὲ τοὺς Γαλάτας περαιωθέντας ἐκ τῆς Εὐρώπης ἀναβῆναι μὲν εἰς τὴν πόλιν δεομένους ἐρύματος, παρὰ χρῆμα δʼ ἐκλιπεῖν διὰ τὸ ἀτείχιστον· ὕστερον δʼ ἐπανόρθωσιν ἔσχε πολλήν.
At least Demetrius of Scepsis says, having visited the city as a young man at those times, that he saw the settlement so neglected that its roofs did not even have tiles; and Hegesianax says that the Galatians, having crossed over from Europe, went up to the city desiring a stronghold, but immediately abandoned it because it was unfortified; later, however, it received much restoration.
εἶτʼ ἐκάκωσαν αὐτὴν πάλιν οἱ μετὰ Φιμβρίου Ῥωμαῖοι λαβόντες ἐκ πολιορκίας ἐν τῷ Μιθριδατικῷ πολέμῳ.
Then the Romans under Fimbria damaged it again, taking it by siege in the Mithridatic War.
συνεπέμφθη δὲ ὁ Φιμβρίας ὑπάτῳ Ὀυαλερίῳ Φλάκκῳ ταμίας προχειρισθέντι ἐπὶ τὸν Μιθριδάτην· καταστασιάσας δὲ καὶ ἀνελὼν τὸν ὕπατον κατὰ Βιθυνίαν αὐτὸς κατεστάθη κύριος τῆς στρατιᾶς, καὶ προελθὼν εἰς Ἴλιον, οὐ δεχομένων αὐτὸν τῶν Ἰλιέων ὡς λῃστήν, βίαν τε προσφέρει καὶ δεκαταίους αἱρεῖ· καυχωμένου δʼ ὅτι ἣν Ἀγαμέμνων πόλιν δεκάτῳ ἔτει μόλις εἷλε τὸν χιλιόναυν στόλον ἔχων καὶ τὴν σύμπασαν Ἑλλάδα συστρατεύουσαν, ταύτην αὐτὸς δεκάτῃ ἡμέρᾳ χειρώσαιτο, εἶπέ τις τῶν Ἰλιέων
οὐ γὰρ ἦν Ἕκτωρ ὁ ὑπερμαχῶν τῆς πόλεως. τοῦτον μὲν οὖν ἐπελθὼν Σύλλας κατέλυσε, καὶ τὸν Μιθριδάτην κατὰ συμβάσεις εἰς τὴν οἰκείαν ἀπέπεμψε, τοὺς δʼ Ἰλιέας παρεμυθήσατο πολλοῖς ἐπανορθώμασι.
This Fimbria was sent along as a quaestor with the consul Valerius Flaccus, who had been appointed against Mithridates; but having raised a mutiny and slain the consul in Bithynia, he himself became master of the army, and having advanced to Ilium, since the Ilians would not receive him as a robber, he applied force and took it on the tenth day; and when he boasted that the city which Agamemnon with his thousand-ship fleet and all Greece fighting alongside had scarcely taken in the tenth year, he himself had subdued on the tenth day, one of the Ilians said, "For there was no Hector fighting for the city." Now Sulla, coming upon him, destroyed him, and sent Mithridates back to his own country under treaty, and comforted the Ilians with many restorations.
καθʼ ἡμᾶς μέντοι Καῖσαρ ὁ θεὸς πολὺ πλέον αὐτῶν προὐνόησε ζηλώσας ἅμα καὶ Ἀλέξανδρον· ἐκεῖνος γὰρ κατὰ συγγενείας ἀνανέωσιν ὥρμησε προνοεῖν αὐτῶν, ἅμα καὶ φιλόμηρος ὤν· φέρεται γοῦν τις διόρθωσις τῆς Ὁμήρου ποιήσεως, ἡ ἐκ τοῦ νάρθηκος λεγομένη, τοῦ Ἀλεξάνδρου μετὰ τῶν περὶ Καλλισθένη καὶ Ἀνάξαρχον ἐπελθόντος καὶ σημειωσαμένου τινά, ἔπειτα καταθέντος εἰς νάρθηκα ὃν ηὗρεν ἐν τῇ Περσικῇ γάζῃ πολυτελῶς κατεσκευασμένον.
In our time, however, the deified Caesar took much greater forethought for them, emulating Alexander at the same time; for the latter had started to take care of them in renewal of their kinship, and at the same time being a lover of Homer; indeed, a certain revision of Homer's poetry is in circulation, called "the one from the casket," Alexander having gone over it with Callisthenes and Anaxarchus and marked certain parts, and then deposited it in a casket which he find in the Persian treasure, luxuriously constructed.
κατά τε δὴ τὸν τοῦ ποιητοῦ ζῆλον καὶ κατὰ τὴν συγγένειαν τὴν ἀπὸ τῶν Αἰακιδῶν τῶν ἐν Μολοττοῖς βασιλευσάντων, παρʼ οἷς καὶ τὴν Ἀνδρομάχην ἱστοροῦσι βασιλεῦσαι τὴν Ἕκτορος γενομένην γυναῖκα, ἐφιλοφρονεῖτο πρὸς τοὺς Ἰλιέας ὁ Ἀλέξανδρος· ὁ δὲ Καῖσαρ καὶ φιλαλέξανδρος ὢν καὶ τῆς πρὸς τοὺς Ἰλιέας συγγενείας γνωριμώτερα ἔχων τεκμήρια, ἐπερρώσθη πρὸς τὴν εὐεργεσίαν νεανικῶς· γνωριμώτερα δέ, πρῶτον μὲν ὅτι Ῥωμαῖος, οἱ δὲ Ῥωμαῖοι τὸν Αἰνείαν ἀρχηγέτην ἡγοῦνται, ἔπειτα ὅτι Ἰούλιος ἀπὸ Ἰούλου τινὸς τῶν προγόνων· ἐκεῖνος δʼ ἀπὸ Ἰούλου τὴν προσωνυμίαν ἔσχε ταύτην, τῶν ἀπογόνων εἷς ὢν τῶν ἀπὸ Αἰνείου.
So both because of his emulation of the poet and because of the kinship derived from the Aeacidae who ruled among the Molossians, among whom they report that Andromache, who had been the wife of Hector, ruled as queen, Alexander treated the Ilians with favor; but Caesar, being both a lover of Alexander and having clearer proofs of kinship with the Ilians, was encouraged to beneficence with youthful vigor; and clearer proofs, first because he was a Roman, and the Romans regard Aeneas as their founder, and secondly because he was a Julian from a certain ancestor Iulus; and that ancestor got this name from Iulus, being one of the descendants of Aeneas.
χώραν τε δὴ προσένειμεν αὐτοῖς καὶ τὴν ἐλευθερίαν καὶ τὴν ἀλειτουργησίαν αὐτοῖς συνεφύλαξε καὶ μέχρι νῦν συμμένουσιν ἐν τούτοις.
So he allotted land to them and preserved their freedom and immunity from public services, and they remain in these privileges until now.
ὅτι δʼ οὐκ ἐνταῦθα ἵδρυται τὸ παλαιὸν Ἴλιον καθʼ Ὅμηρον σκοποῦσιν, ἐκ τῶν τοιῶνδε τεκμαίρονται.
But that the ancient Ilium was not established here, as those who investigate according to Homer infer, is proven by such arguments as follow.
πρότερον δὲ ὑπογραπτέον τοὺς τόπους ἀπὸ τῆς παραλίας ἀρξαμένους ἀφʼ ἧσπερ ἐλίπομεν.
But first we must sketch the places, beginning from the coast which we left.