TROY, or Troja, the capital city of Troas, or, according to others, a country of which Ilium was the capital. It was built on a small eminence near Mount Ida, and the promontory of Sigaeum, at the distance of about four miles from the sea-shore. Dardanus, the first king of the country, built it, and called it Dardania; and from Tros, one of his successors, it was called Troja; and from Ilus, Ilion. This city has been celebrated by Homer and Virgil.
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A description of the plain of Troy by Chevalier has been published in the third volume of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.^[1. Chevalier’s work, written in French, was translated into English, and illustrated with notes, by Professor Dalzel. Edinb. 1791, 4to. It soon afterwards appeared in a German translation, to which Heyne contributed a preface, and other additions: “Beschreibung der Ebene von Troja,” u. s. w. Leipzig, 1792, 8vo. This was followed by “Die Ebene von Troja, noch dem Grafen Choiseul Gouffier, und andern neuern Reisenden; nebat einer Abhandlung des Ilern. Major Müller in Göttingen, und Erlauterungen über den Scliauplats der Ilias, und die darauf vorgefallnen Begebenheiten, von Carl Gotthold Lenz.” Neu-Strelitz, 1798, 8vo. Nor must we here overlook a short but learned dissertation of Spohn, “De Agro Trojano in Carminibus Homericis discripto” Lipsiae, 1814, 8vo. A more recent work on the subject was published by Mr Maclaren: "A Dissertation on the Topography of the Plain of Troy, including an Examination of the Opinions of Demetrius, Chevalier, Dr Clarke, and Major Rennell." Edinb. 1822, 8vo. ] The city of Troy, according to him, stood on the present site of the modern village of Bournabashi, which is situated four leagues from the sea, on the side of an eminence, at the termination of a spacious plain, the soil of which is rich and of a blackish colour. Close to the village is to be seen a marsh covered with tall reeds: and the situation is impregnable on all sides except at Erin (Homer’s ὲgivεὁς), the hill of wild fig-trees, which extended between the Scaean gate and the sources of the Scamander. In the plain there are several conical mounds or barrows, some of them a hundred feet in diameter at the base; and these the author maintains to be the identical tombs raised over the ashes of the heroes of the Trojan war. Since Chevalier’s dissertation appeared, this plain has been investigated by Mr Morritt, Sir William Gell, Dr Clarke, Mr Hobhouse, Mr Acland, and several other travellers and writers. Dr Clarke traversed the ground in different directions seventeen times. He rejects the hypothesis of Chevalier, and, reasoning from the authority of Strabo, and from the site of New Ilium, which he ascertained by inscriptions found among ruins, he fixes the situation of Troy four or five miles to the northward of Bournabashi, near a sluggish rivulet, called Califat Osmack, which he considers to be the Simois. The name of the Scamander is still preserved in the Mender, the most considerable stream in the district, rising in Mount Ida, as described by Homer; and the Thymbrius is still preserved in the Thymbrek. Dr Clarke also finds objects corresponding to the Callicolone, the tomb of Ilus, and the Throsmos or mound of the plain. But very strong objections have been stated to his opinions by Mr Hobhouse and others; and, upon the whole, the more this subject is investigated, the more insuperable difficulties seem to present themselves to any attempt to identify the places and objects alluded to by the poet.

Troy Weight, one of the most ancient of the different kinds used in Britain. The ounce of this weight was brought from Grand Cairo in Egypt, about the time of the crusades, into Europe, and first adopted in Troyes, a city of Champagne; whence the name.

The pound English Troy contains twelve ounces, or 5760 grains. It was formerly used for every purpose, and is still retained for weighing gold, silver, and jewels; for compounding medicines; for experiments in natural philosophy; and for comparing different weights with each other.

Scotish Troy- Weight was established in the year 1618, by James VI., who enacted that only one weight should be used in Scotland, viz. the French Troy stone of 16 pounds, and 16 ounces in the pound. The pound contains 7600 grains, and is equal to 17 oz. 6 dr. avoirdupois. The cwt. or 112 lb. avoirdupois contains only 103 lb. 2½ oz. of this weight, though generally reckoned equal to 104 lb. This weight is nearly, if not exactly, the same as that of Paris and Amsterdam; and is generally known by the name of Dutch weight. Though prohibited by the articles of union, it continued to be used in weighing iron, hemp, flax, most Dutch and Baltic goods, meal, butcher-meat, pewter and lead, and some other articles. See Weights and Measures.