II. ^DISSERTATION to prove that TROY was not taken by 

 /&? GREEKS. By JOHN MACLAURIN, Efq; Advocate, and 

 F. R. S. EDIN. 



\Read by the Author, Feb. 16. 1784.] 



Non anni domuere decem, non mills carinee. VIR.G. 



T T cannot well be difputed, that, till the Greeks were poflef- 

 -- fed of the art of writing, they could have nothing that de- 

 ferved the name of hiftory. When that art was introduced 

 among them is uncertain ; but there is reafon to believe, it was 

 not known to them at the time of the Trojan war, as there is 

 no mention of any writing in all the works of HOMER; for 

 the tablets, of which he fpeaks in one paffage, did not contain 

 any writing, but only marks or figns *. At any rate, it cannot 

 be fuppofed, that writing was much known or practifed, at that 

 time, or indeed for long after. It appears from many charters, 

 and other deeds, in this country, that men of the firft families 

 and fortunes in it could not, a few centuries ago, write their 



f 2 names j 



* Iliad, vi. 168. So ECSTATHIUS fays exprefsly ; and the reafon he afligns, is, that let- 

 ters were the invention of later times. He might have added, that it appears from 

 feveral other paflages in HOMER, that with him yjaip does not fignify to write, but to 

 trace or mark ; nor <rriu.it a letter, but a mart, orjign, or credential. Diad vii. 175. 187. 

 1 8 8. 189. ; andOdy(T. xxiv. 328. And a-n/jixhas unqueftionably this fignification in xxiii. 206. 

 In this paflage refpe&ing Betteropt>on,had Madam DACIER and Mr POPE adverted to this, 

 they would not have tranflated this paflage as they have done. Hopi 2e ' r>yxa1* Auyga, 

 clearly means, that he gave him a token or credential that was meant to be deftruftive 

 to him ; and ypi]/a S^fttf^fm crAXa, that he traced in thefe folded tables many marks 

 or figns, that gave to underftand he was defirous of his death. There is, likewife, no 

 mention of writing in the ^Eneidj which mews, that VIRGIL thought it the invention of 

 later time*. 



