162 Remarks on the Site of Troy 
Homer, are frequently alluded to by him, as 
terminating the two extremes of the bay where 
the Grecian fleet was drawn up. 
Between these promontories the only river 
of any magnitude in the district of the Troad, 
discharges itself into the Hellespont; and in 
its modern name of Mender we recognize its 
ancient one of Scamander. The Greek in- 
scriptions found in many parts of this plain, 
and of which the following is a specimen, (6) 
“The Ilieans to their country’s God Aineas,”’ 
the evidence of history, and the Homeric 
names which are still attached to the Tumuli, 
attest the belief of the ancients that this was 
the plain of Troy. It was here that Xerxes 
sacrificed a thousand oxen to Lhean Minerva ; 
it was here that Alexander believed that he 
had found the tomb of Achilles, and it is hither 
only that modern travellers direct their steps 
in looking for the site of Troy. 
Homer describes the ‘Trojan plain as_tra- 
versed by two rivers, the Scamander or 
Xanthus, and the Simois, which, forming a 
junction at some distance from the shore, 
discharged their united waters into the Hel- 
lespont. Of the Simois so little is said, that 
we may conclude it was an_ insignificant 
stream; but the Scamander is described as 
(6) See Clarke’s Travels in Asia Minor 
i ee a es se ee 
