PLAIN OF TROY. 97 
and Natural Mound — Opinion concerning Simois — 
Prevalent Errors with regard to Scamander — Ruins hy 
the Callifat Osmack — Inscriptions — Village of 
Callifat — Medals — Remains of New Ilium. 
A. PECULIAR circumstance characterized the chap. 
1 V , 
topography of the cities of Antient Greece; and ' ^ ' 
this perhaps has not been considered so general phy of 
as it really was. Every metropolis possessed citiS!" 
its CITADEL and its plain; the Citadel as a 
place of refuge during war; the Plain as a 
source of agriculture in peace. To this there 
existed some exceptions ; as in the instance of 
. Delphi, whose celebrity originated in secondary 
causes ; but the exceptions were few, and may 
therefore be omitted. In the provinces of 
Greece, the appearance caused by a plain, flat 
as the surface of the ocean, and surrounded by 
mountains, or having lofty rocks in its centre or 
sides, is at this day the general indication of 
Ruins which denote the locality of some antient 
capital. Many of those plains border the sea, 
and seem to have been formed by the retiring 
of its waters. Cities so situate were the 
most antient : Argos, Sicyon, and Corinth, are 
of the number. The vicinity of fertile plains to 
the coast offered settlements to the earliest 
colonies, before the interior of the country 
became known. As population increased, or 
