Troy

Troy (Troia), otherwise known as Ilium, an ancient city famous in legend; its siege by the Greeks is the subject of Homer's Iliad (see TROJAN WAR and TROJAN HORSE above). Its site in north-west Asia Minor some 6 km. (4 miles) from the Aegean Sea, a little south of the Hellespont, was identified at the modern Hissarlik by the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, who between 1870 and 1890 excavated the occupation mound, composed of the accumulated debris of centuries. He and later archaeologists have established nine principal strata, representing nine successive periods of occupation (called Troy I, Troy II, and so on), dating from the Bronze Age to Roman times.

By 1300 Troy had enjoyed settled prosperity for six centuries. The source of its wealth has been much disputed. It is clear that by its position it could control a large part of east–west trade, and was itself the possessor of rich agricultural lands; it was famous for its horses, according to Homer, and, to judge from the large number of spinning whorls discovered there, was a flourishing producer of textiles. The city was destroyed by a massive earthquake c.1300; the population seems to have survived and to have set about the rebuilding at once (Troy VIIa). This phase of Troy's life lasted not much more than a generation. The archaeological evidence shows that by 1250 BC Troy VIIa was once more destroyed, this time by human agency; it was consumed by fire, and traces of human bones in houses and streets suggest violence. If there is any fact at all behind the story of the Trojan War, 1250 or thereabout seems to be the latest reasonable date for mainland Greece to be making a concerted attack on the city, since after that time Greece herself was involved in the general upheavals of the Mediterranean world which began in the middle of the century. Greek authors gave different dates for the Trojan War, from c.1280 to 1184 and even later. The second date was that arrived at by Eratosthenes, and subsequently favoured. He worked backwards from the established date of the first Olympic games, 776 BC, using the genealogies of the Spartan kings, which gave him 1104 for the Dorian Invasion. According to tradition this happened two generations, i.e. 80 years, after the Trojan War.

The legendary family tree of the kings of Troy is as follows. Dardanus son of Zeus ‘established Dardania’ (as Homer says), a district north-east of Troy, and married the daughter of the local king Teucer (Teukros). He had as descendants Trōs (from whom the Troad and the Trojans were named) and Ilus, who founded the city of Troy, sometimes called after him Ilium (Ilion). Ilus had two sons, Laomedon father of Priam, and Tithonus, and a daughter Hesionē, mother by Telamon of another Teucer, half-brother of Ajax.