And on the Trojan Plaine 203 
from 'Troy, and of necessity, from their line 
of retreat, would then be in the middle plain. 
As the Greeks “step by step retired,” they 
would repass the Scamander without difficulty 
or confusion, and, consequently, no more oc- 
casion would arise for mentioning the passage 
of the river, when retreating, than when 
advancing; and on the advance of the Greeks 
to Troy it must have been crossed,: whatever 
the theory, and yet no allusion is made to it. 
Indeed the armies so often cross the Sca- 
mander without any notice being taken of it, 
that in the above instance the silence of the 
poet is not at all extraordinary, nor can any 
argument be founded upon it. If this ex- 
planation be deemed satisfactory, it may 
be added, that the supposition of Troy 
standing without the middle plain, en- 
counters no difficulty in any other part of 
the Iliad. 
The second and principal objection to 
Bournabashi as the site of Troy is founded 
on its great distance from the sea and Gre- 
cian camp. Thisis considered by many, and 
by Rennell in particular, as decisive against 
it, and they rest their proof on Homer’s des- 
cription of the battle, which, beginning with 
the eleventh book of the Iliad, concludes 
only in the middle of the eighteenth. Besides 
