5 ?R T not taken 



the common chronology, feventy-nine years elapfed between the 

 Argonautic expedition and the taking of Troy ; now fhe was 

 the twin-fifter of POLLUX, who was one of the Argonauts, and 

 who fought and beat a famous boxer in the pafTage to Colchis, 

 and therefore cannot be fuppofed, at that time, under eighteen 

 or twenty. BAYLE, in his dictionary, has taken notice of 

 HELEN'S great age ; and a witty author has compared her to 

 the famous NINON DE L'ENCLOS, who made an affignation on 

 the day {he entered her eightieth year. But this ridicule flrikes 

 only againft the common chronology ; for HOMER fays nothing 

 to afcertain the period of time that elapfed between the two ex- 

 peditions. From a circumftance, however, which he does men- 

 tion, and which will be taken notice of by and by, it appears, 

 that fhe could not be under forty when Troy was taken. 



AFTER what has been ftated, I may venture, I imagine, to 

 proceed with lefs timidity than I otherwife could have done, to 

 endeavour to fhew, that the account given by the Greeks of 

 their expedition againft Troy is incredible and inconfiftent with 

 itfelf ; and that (if ever there was at all a Trojan war) Troy was 

 not taken by them, but that they were obliged, by thofe who 

 defended it, to raife the liege, and retire with lofs and difgrace. 



SEVERAL of the arguments to be urged in the fequel upon 

 this fubjecT; are taken from a very curious diflertation by a 

 Greek author, Dio CHRYSOSTOMUS, who lived in the time of 

 TRAJAN, and acquired great reputation by his works, from the 

 purity of his ftyle, and the elegance and depth of his fentiments 

 and reflections. He has written two diflertations upon HOMER j 

 in one of them*, he makes his panegyric as a poet; but, in the 

 other f, takes him feverely to talk as an hiflorian. The firft 

 mentioned, which is in praife of the poet, is taken notice of by 

 almoft every commentator who has publifhed an edition of hie 

 works ; but not one of them makes the leaft mention of the 

 other. Hence it is not much known. 



THIS 



* Orat. Iv. -f- Orat. si,. 



