PLAIN OF TROY. 103 
remarkable features, not likely to be affected 
by any lapse of time. Of this nature was the 
Hellespont; the Island of Tenedos ; the Plain 
itself; the River by whose inundations it was 
occasionally overflowed ; and the Mountain 
whence that river issued. If any one of these 
be found retaining its original appellation, and 
all other circumstances of association charac- 
terize its vicinity, our knowledge of the country 
is placed beyond dispute. But the Island of 
Tenedos, corresponding in all respects with the 
position assigned to it by Homer, still retains its 
antient name unaltered ; and the Inscriptions, 
found upon the Dardanelles, prove those straits 
to have been the Hellespont. The discovery of 
Ruins, which seem to have been those of the 
Ilium of Straho, may serve not only to guide 
us in our search after objects necessary to iden- 
tify the locality alluded to by Homer, but perhaps 
to illustrate, in a certain degree, even the 
position of Troy itself; concerning whose 
situation, no satisfactory evidence has yet 
resulted from any modern investis^ation. That ^ 
it was not altogether unknown in the time of tanccofthe 
• • n a Text of 
Augustus, is proved by the writings of Straho, sirau>. 
who, more than once, expressly assigns to the 
antient city the place then occupied by the 
Fillage of the Iliensians. The text of this author 
may now be considered as affording a safer clue 
