The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1872-12-21
Ruins OF Ancient Troy.

/ Ruins OF Ancient Troy.
The ancient city of Priam, the Ilium of
. Homer, lay about seven miles to the north
east Of Alexandra Troas, two mil les from
the coast, on one of the foothills of Mount
Ida. On its site was subsequently built a
new llium, which, on account of the poetic
! celebrity of the place, was such favorite
with the Romans that it was exempted
| from taxation and endowed with other ex-
/ ceptional privileges. Heretofore eXcava-
! tons at this locality have only brought to
! light the vestiges of New Ilium, as it was
called. Mr.. Schlieman, who has made the
! position and history OF Troy the study of
his life, determined to penetrate beneath
the foundation of New Hum After an
/ immense amount Of labor and heavy ex-
/ penditure Of money, he some time since
| struck the ruins Of ancient Ilium, at His
! arik, where stood the Acropolis, from the
walls of which Priam overlooked the en-
battled plain ofTroy. Eighty feet beneath
the surface of the earth, few months
since, he opened the interior of house,
whose walls were blackened by fire, and
within which were found human bones and
! the perfect skeleton of 4 woman wearing
gold ornaments of various kinds. The
| lower lines Of the city walls, huge Pelasgi
! an blocks OF stone, like those of Tiryns, on
the plain Of Argos, have been reached, and
, here, in these subterranean depths, he has
also found vast number of household YES
sells, cinerary urns, vases, and other objects
in terra Gotta, ornamented with emblemat-
I ic figures illustrative of prehistoric peri
DDS. These researches grow more inter
cstinS as they proceed and promise to
throw new light on the remote past, and to
illuminate that period of history of which
Homer is now the only annalist and COM
mentator. The Trojan plain presents
a BEAUTIFUL LANDSCAPE
to the eye of the traveller, as he passes be-
tween Tenedos and the main. 1t is rem
dered conspicuously by the mounds near
| the Sigeum promentory, which covered the
remains OF Achilles Patrocies, and Ajax,
and by the range Of Mount Ida, sweeping
in crescent shape around the site of ancient
Troy. Rising over its wide expanse are
seen shapeless heaps of ruins and broken
arches of aqueducts, vestiges of the glory
and Splendor of ages, of which the poets
are the chroniclers. Profane history seems,
| as it were, to have begun on this plain
Homer shed such a lustre over it that it
was consecrated grounds to the Greeks
and Romans, as it will be for all time to
come. The Romans loved to visit it, be-
cause it was the country of their primatve
ancestor, 1Eneas; and the Greeks honored
it as the fed'where Agamemnon and Achil-
les won the fame which immortalized Hell
lenic valor. How touching is Lucau's
description of Caesars visit to this memoir
able spot, how sad his reflections on the
neglect and almost obiterated site of the
capital of priam, and with what reveren-
tial respect he describes the Dictator as
treading this holy ground, where he says:
''--nullum est sine nomine saXum."
When last l visited Troy l remained for
hours seated on the mound of Achilles,
gazing on this theatre Of ancient renown.
1t was soft autumnal day. A gentle
south wind, that hardly rippled the surface
of the blue .Egean with its soothing tenn
peraiure, disposed the mind to revery and
the body to repose. Before me lay Tene-
dos, between which and the shore was
moored the Geek fleet during the siege of
| Troy. Looming mp in the distance was
Lemnos, where Vulcan fell when he was
thrown out of Heaven by Jupiter; to the
northwest the high peak of Imbros, and
near at hand the Hellespont, the gateway
! to the fabulous regions of the ancient
world. And there, too, was Mount Ida,
/ where Paris awarded the palm of beauty
! to Venus over her jealous rivals. Not 4
! human being was to be seen on this exten-
! siye plain; solitude and desolation reisned
supreme over it. l opened Homer, read of
! the exploits performed on this very spot,
and for Il few hours was wrapped in such
/ a STATE of poetic abstraction that l seemed
! to be living with the mighty spirits of the
heroic ages. The frightening shadows
and the sun sinking in an "unclouded
blaze of living light " behind the dimly-
outlined mountains of Greece at last re-
minded me to mount and away, or should
| be prey to the iackalS, whose faint cry
was beginning to be heard with the coming
/ on of night.
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