iOO CLARKEE TRAVELS'. 
Fvotti the scattered marbles, described by him as its remain^ 
ive obtained a small bas-relief, now in the collection at Cam¬ 
bridge, representing two persons, one of whom is in the military 
garb of the ancients; and the other in the civic habit, address¬ 
ing- a, figure of Minerva.* Over the head .of the goddess is 
the word a@hna„ The inscription preserved in the vestibule . 
of Trinity College library at Cambridge, commemorating & 
degree of the Sigeaus, two hundred and seventy-eight years' 
before the Christian mra, came also from this place. It was 
removed in the beginning of the last century, by Edward 
Wortiey Montague, then going ambassador to Constantinople. 
There is do mention in the poems of Homer, either of the 
promontory of Sigeum or of Rhoeteum; indeed, the latter can 
hardly be called a promontory. These names referred to 
cities, built after the time of Horner, rather than to land¬ 
marks. Hence the objection urged concerning the distance of 
these promontories from each other, does not prove any ab¬ 
surdity in the position of the Grecian fleet, in the bay to the 
east of the mouth of the river; on each side of which are two 
necks of land, whose distance may well admit the possibility 
of Agamemnon's voice, when he called from the centremost 
ship, being heard; to the two extremities.! When'ever the ac¬ 
count given by an ancient author is irreconcilable with our 
preconceived and imperfect notions of the geography of a 
country, we ,are too apt, either to doubt the truth of the de¬ 
scription, or to warp the text so as to accommodate an inter¬ 
pretation to the measure of our own ignorance. This has . 
given rise to almost all the scepticism concerning Homer, and 
lias also characterized the commentaries upon other authors. 
When 2&fchyius relates the instruction given to lo, for her 
inarch from Scythia;.the river he so happily designates by the 
title of Htjhrides,^ from its great rapidity, and which is evi¬ 
dently the Kuban,§ has puzzled his editors, who have endea¬ 
voured to prove it the Don, the Dnieper, or even the Danube; 
with as much reason as if they had supposed it to be the 
Rhine or the Thames. An actual survey of the district of 
Causacus, and of the course of the rivers, would have removed 
every difficulty, and evinced the peculiar accuracy with 
* gee b Greek Marbles ” No. XXIX. p. 51. t Iliad. ©. 222, 
y Alscbvhis in Prometb. Vjnct. 742. p. 56. Ed. C. J. Biomficld, Cantab. 1SHX 
*> 'XSpio'rriJ. Duhitatur num in hoc loco JEschylus Arnxc.w fiuviutn innuat , vel J strum,, 
yel 'Thiiaim, vcl Aldzma, vel Borystheyieni) quod sentit Butterus, vel deniqueJlvviuBi cut 
'tifiVtw Eyhrisiq , &e&c.” Ibid, in Glossal*. p 144. 
" 5 The' ' ffypanis of D’Anvilie/aad t r ardqiws of sonae autfeoi;,?. 
