Strabo, Geography, Hans Claude Hamilton (Translator), William Falconer (Translator), 13.1.7

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[7] Those who have paid particular attention to this subject conjecture, from the expressions of the poet, that all this coast was subject to the Trojans, when it was divided into nine dynasties, but that at the time of the war it was under the sway of Priam, and called Troja. This appears from the detail. Achilles and his army perceiving, at the beginning of the war, that the inhabitants of Ilium were defended by walls, carried on the war beyond them, made a circuit, and took the places about the country;

I sacked with my ships twelve cities, and eleven in the fruitful land of Troja.¹

By Troja he means the continent which he had ravaged. Among other places which had been plundered, was the country opposite Lesbos,—that about Thebe, Lyrnessus, and Pedasus belonging to the Leleges, and the territory also of Eurypylus, the son of Telephus;

as when he slew with his sword the hero Eurypylus, the son of Telephus;²

and Neoptolemus,

the hero Eurypylus.

The poet says these places were laid waste, and even Lesbos;

when he took the well-built Lesbos,³

Il. ix. 129. and,

he sacked Lyrnessus and Pedasus,⁴

Il. xx. 92. and,

laid waste Lyrnessus, and the walls of Thebe.⁵

Il. ii. 691. Briseïs was taken captive at Lyrnessus;

whom he carried away from Lyrnessus.⁶

Il. ii. 690. In the capture of this place the poet says, Mynes and Epistrophus were slain, as Briseïs mentions in her lament over Patroclus,

Thou didst not permit me, when the swift-footed Achilles slew my husband, and destroyed the city of the divine Mynes, to make any lamentation;⁷

for by calling Lyrnessus the city of the divine Mynes, the poet implies that it was governed by him who was killed fighting in its defence.

Chryseïs was carried away from Thebe;

we came to Thebe, the sacred city of Eetion,⁸

Il. i. 366. and Chryseïs is mentioned among the booty which was carried off from that place.

Andromache, daughter of the magnanimous Eetion, Eetion king of the Cilicians, who dwelt under the woody Placus at Thebe Hypoplacia.⁹

This is the second Trojan dynasty after that of Mynes, and in agreement with what has been observed are these words of Andromache;

Hector, wretch that I am; we were both born under the same destiny; thou at Troja in the palace of Priam, but I at Thebe.

The words are not to be understood in their direct sense, but by a transposition; both born in Troja, thou in the house of Priam, but I at Thebe.

The third dynasty is that of the Leleges, which is also a Trojan dynasty;

of Altes, the king of the war-loving Leleges,¹⁰

Il. xxi. 86. by whose daughter Priam had Lycaon and Polydorus. Even the people, who in the Catalogue are said to be commanded by Hector, are called Trojans;

Hector, the mighty, with the nodding crest, commanded the Trojans;¹¹

Il. iii. 816. then those under Aeneas,

the brave son of Anchises had the command of the Dardanii,¹²

Il. ii. 819. and these were Trojans, for the poet says,

Thou, Aeneas, that counsellest Trojans;¹³

Il. xx. 83. then the Lycians under the command of Pandarus he calls Trojans;

Aphneian Trojans, who inhabited Zeleia at the farthest extremity of Ida, who drink of the dark waters of Aesepus, these were led by Pandarus, the illustrious son of Lycaon.¹⁴

This is the sixth dynasty.

The people, also, who lived between the Aesepus and Abydos were Trojans, for the country about Abydos was governed by Asius;

those who dwelt about Percote and Practius, at Sestos, Abydos, and the noble Arisbe, were led by Asius, the son of Hyrtacus.¹⁵

Now it is manifest that a son of Priam, who had the care of his father’s brood mares, dwelt at Abydos;

he wounded the spurious son of Priam, Democoon, who came from Abydos from the pastures of the swift mares.¹⁶

At Percote,¹⁷ the son of Hicetaon was the herdsman of oxen, but not of those belonging to strangers;

first he addressed the brave son of Hicetaon, Melanippus, who was lately tending the oxen in their pastures at Percote.¹⁸

so that this country also was part of the Troad, and the subsequent tract as far as Adrasteia, for it was governed by

the two sons of Merops of Percote.¹⁹

Il. ii. 831.

All therefore were Trojans from Abydos to Adrasteia, divided, however, into two bodies, one governed by Asius, the other by the Meropidae, as the country of the Cilicians is divided into the Thebaic and the Lyrnessian Cilicia. To this district may have belonged the country under the sway of Eurypylus, for it follows next to the Lyrnessis, or territory of Lyrnessus.²⁰

That Priam²¹ was king of all these countries the words with which Achilles addresses him clearly show;

we have heard, old man, that your riches formerly consisted in what Lesbos, the city of Macar, contained, and Phrygia above it and the vast Hellespont.²²

Geography. Strabo. Hans Claude Hamilton (Translator), William Falconer (Translator). London. 1854-1857.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by Tufts University.

Current edition Perseus

Geography (English) (Strabo. The Geography of Strabo, Vols. 1-3. Hamilton, Hans Claude, translator; Falconer, William, translator. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1854-1857.)

Editions (1)

Γεωγραφικά Perseus (Strabo. Strabonis Geographica, Vols. 1-3. Meineke, August, editor. Leipzig: Teubner. 1877.) — 13.1.7 focus

[7] ἐκ δὴ τῶν ὑπὸ τοῦ ποιητοῦ λεγομένων εἰκάζουσιν οἱ φροντίσαντες περὶ τούτων πλέον τι, πᾶσαν τὴν παραλίαν ταύτην ὑπὸ τοῖς Τρωσὶ γεγονέναι, διῃρημένην μὲν εἰς δυναστείας ἐννέα, ὑπὸ δὲ τῷ Πριάμῳ τεταγμένην κατὰ τὸν Ἰλιακὸν πόλεμον καὶ λεγομένην Τροίαν· δῆλον δὲ ἐκ τῶν κατὰ μέρος. οἱ γὰρ περὶ τὸν Ἀχιλλέα τειχήρεις ὁρῶντες τοὺς Ἰλιέας κατʼ ἀρχάς, ἔξω ποιεῖσθαι τὸν πόλεμον ἐπεχείρησαν καὶ περιιόντες ἀφαιρεῖσθαι τὰ κύκλῳ

δώδεκα δὴ σὺν νηυσὶ πόλεις ἀλάπαξʼ ἀνθρώπων,

πεζὸς δʼ ἕνδεκά φημι κατὰ Τροίην ἐρίβωλον.

¹ Τροίαν γὰρ λέγει τὴν πεπορθημένην ἤπειρον· πεπόρθηται δὲ σὺν ἄλλοις τόποις καὶ τὰ ἀντικείμενα τῇ Λέσβῳ τὰ περὶ Θήβην καὶ Λυρνησσὸν καὶ Πήδασον τὴν τῶν Λελέγων καὶ ἔτι ἡ τοῦ Εὐρυπύλου τοῦ Τηλέφου παιδός

ἀλλʼ οἷον τὸν Τηλεφίδην κατενήρατο χαλκῷ

² ὁ Νεοπτόλεμος ἥρω Εὐρύπυλον. ταῦτα δὴ πεπορθῆσθαι λέγει καὶ αὐτὴν τὴν Λέσβον

ὅτε Λέσβον ἐυκτιμένην ἕλεν αὐτός.

³ καὶ

πέρσε δὲ Λυρνησσὸν καὶ Πήδασον

⁴ καὶ

Λυρνησσὸν διαπορθήσας καὶ τείχεα Θήβης.

⁵ ἐκ μὲν Λυρνησσοῦ ἡ Βρισηὶς ἑάλω

τὴν ἐκ Λυρνησσοῦ ἐξείλετο.

⁶ ἧς ἐν τῇ ἁλώσει τὸν Μύνητα⁷ πεσεῖν φησιν, ὡς ἡ Βρισηὶς θρηνοῦσα τὸν Πάτροκλον δηλοῖ

οὐδὲ μὲν οὐδέ μʼ ἔασκες, ὅτʼ ἄνδρʼ ἐμὸν ὠκὺς Ἀχιλλεὺς

ἔκτεινεν, πέρσεν δὲ πόλιν θείοιο Μύνητος,

κλαίειν.

⁸ ἐμφαίνει γὰρ τὴν Λυρνησσὸν λέγων πόλιν θείοιο Μύνητος, ὡς ἂν δυναστευομένην ὑπʼ αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐνταῦθα πεσεῖν αὐτὸν μαχόμενον. ἐκ δὲ τῆς Θήβης ἡ Χρυσηὶς ἐλήφθη

ᾠχόμεθʼ ἐς Θήβην ἱερὴν πόλιν Ἠετίωνος.

⁹ ἐκ δὲ τῶν ἀχθέντων ἐκεῖθεν φησὶν εἶναι τὴν Χρυσηίδα. ἐνθένδε δʼ ἦν καὶ ἡ Ἀνδρομάχη.

Ἀνδρομάχη θυγάτηρ μεγαλήτορος Ἠετίωνος,

Ἠετίων, ὃς ἔναιεν ὑπὸ Πλάκῳ ὑληέσσῃ,

Θήβῃ ὑποπλακίῃ, Κιλίκεσσʼ ἄνδρεσσιν ἀνάσσων.

¹⁰ δευτέρα οὖν αὕτη δυναστεία Τρωικὴ μετὰ τὴν ὑπὸ Μύνητι. οἰκείως δὲ τούτοις καὶ τὸ ὑπὸ τῆς Ἀνδρομάχης λεχθὲν οὕτως

Ἕκτορ, ἐγὼ δύστηνος· ἰῇ ἄρα γεινόμεθʼ αἴσῃ

ἀμφότεροι, σὺ μὲν ἐν Τροίῃ Πριάμου ἐνὶ οἴκῳ,

αὐτὰρ ἐγὼ Θήβῃσιν,

¹¹ οὐκ οἴονται δεῖν ἐξ εὐθείας ἀκούειν¹², ἀλλὰ καθʼ ὑπερβατόν ἀμφότεροι ἐν Τροίῃ, σὺ μὲν Πριάμου ἐνὶ οἴκῳ, αὐτὰρ ἐγὼ Θήβῃσι. τρίτη δʼ ἐστὶν ἡ τῶν Λελέγων, καὶ αὕτη Τρωική,

Ἄλτεω, ὃς Λελέγεσσι φιλοπτολέμοισιν ἀνάσσει.

¹³ οὗ τῇ θυγατρὶ συνελθὼν Πρίαμος γεννᾷ τὸν Λυκάονα καὶ Πολύδωρον. καὶ μὴν οἵ γε ὑπὸ τῷ Ἕκτορι ἐν τῷ καταλόγῳ ταττόμενοι λέγονται Τρῶες

Τρωσὶ μὲν ἡγεμόνευε μέγας κορυθαίολος Ἕκτωρ.

¹⁴ εἶθʼ οἱ ὑπὸ τῷ Αἰνείᾳ

Δαρδανίων αὖτʼ ἦρχεν ἐὺς πάις Ἀγχίσαο

¹⁵ καὶ οὗτοι Τρῶες· φησὶ γοῦν

Αἰνεία, Τρώων βουληφόρε.

¹⁶ εἶθʼ οἱ ὑπὸ Πανδάρῳ Λύκιοι, οὓς καὶ αὐτοὺς καλεῖ Τρῶας·

οἳ δὲ Ζέλειαν ἔναιον ὑπαὶ πόδα νείατον Ἴδης,

ἀφνειοί, πίνοντες ὕδωρ μέλαν Αἰσήποιο,

Τρῶες· τῶν αὖτʼ ἦρχε Λυκάονος ἀγλαὸς υἱός,

Πάνδαρος.

¹⁷ ἕκτη δʼ αὕτη δυναστεία. καὶ μὴν οἵ γε μεταξὺ τοῦ Αἰσήπου καὶ Ἀβύδου Τρῶες· ὑπὸ μὲν γὰρ τῷ Ἀσίῳ ἐστὶ τὰ περὶ Ἄβυδον

οἳ δʼ ἄρα Περκώτην καὶ Πράκτιον ἀμφενέμοντο,

καὶ Σηστὸν καὶ Ἄβυδον ἔχον καὶ δῖαν Ἀρίσβην,

τῶν αὖθʼ Ὑρτακίδης ἦρχʼ Ἄσιος.

¹⁸ ἀλλʼ ἐν Ἀβύδῳ μὲν υἱὸς τοῦ Πριάμου διέτριβεν, ἵππους νέμων, πατρῴας δηλονότι

ἀλλʼ υἱὸν Πριάμοιο νόθον βάλε Δημοκόωντα,

ὅς οἱ Ἀβυδόθεν ἦλθε παρʼ ἵππων ὠκειάων.

¹⁹ ἐν δὲ Περκώτῃ υἱὸς Ἱκετάονος ἐβουνόμει οὐκ ἀλλοτρίας οὐδʼ οὗτος βοῦς

πρῶτον δʼ Ἱκεταονίδην ἐνένιπεν,

ἴφθιμον Μελάνιππον· ὁ δʼ ὄφρα μὲν εἰλίποδας βοῦς

βόσκʼ ἐν Περκώτῃ.

²⁰ ὥστε καὶ αὕτη ἂν εἴη Τρῳὰς καὶ ἡ ἐφεξῆς ἕως Ἀδραστείας· ἦρχον γὰρ αὐτῆς

υἷε δύω Μέροπος Περκωσίου.

²¹ πάντες μὲν δὴ Τρῶες οἱ ἀπὸ Ἀβύδου μέχρι Ἀδραστείας, δίχα μέντοι διῃρημένοι, οἱ μὲν ὑπὸ τῷ Ἀσίῳ οἱ δʼ ὑπὸ τοῖς Μεροπίδαις· καθάπερ καὶ ἡ τῶν Κιλίκων διττή, ἡ μὲν Θηβαϊκὴ ἡ δὲ Λυρνησσίς· ἐν αὐτῇ δʼ ἂν λεχθείη ἡ ὑπὸ Εὐρυπύλῳ ἐφεξῆς οὖσα τῇ Λυρνησσίδι. ὅτι δὲ τούτων ἁπάντων ἦρχεν ὁ Πρίαμος οἱ τοῦ Ἀχιλλέως λόγοι πρὸς τὸν Πρίαμον σαφῶς ἐμφανίζουσι

καί σε, γέρον, τὸ πρὶν μὲν ἀκούομεν ὄλβιον εἶναι,

ὅσσον Λέσβος ἄνω Μάκαρος πόλις ἐντὸς ἐέργει,

καὶ Φρυγίη καθύπερθε καὶ Ἑλλήσποντος ἀπείρων.

²²

Translations (1)

Geography (Books 6-14) Perseus (Strabo. The Geography of Strabo, Vols. 3-6. Jones, Horace Leonard, translator. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd., 1924-1929 (printing).) — 13.1.7 focus

[7] Now as for Homer’s statements, those who have studied the subject more carefully¹ conjecture from them that the whole of this coast became subject to the Trojans, and, though divided into nine dynasties, was under the sway of Priam at the time of the Trojan War and was called Troy. And this is clear from his detailed statements. For instance, Achilles and his army, seeing at the outset that the inhabitants of Ilium were enclosed by walls, tried to carry on the war outside and, by making raids all round, to take away from them all the surrounding places:

Twelve cities of men I have laid waste with my ships, and eleven, I declare, by land throughout the fertile land of Troy.

²For by “Troy” he means the part of the mainland that was sacked by him; and, along with other places, Achilles also sacked the country opposite Lesbos in the neighborhood of Thebe and Lyrnessus and Pedasus,³ which last belonged to the Leleges, and also the country of Eurypylus the son of Telephus.

But what a man was that son of Telephus who was slain by him with the bronze,

⁴that is, the hero Eurypylus, slain by Neoptolemus. Now the poet says that these places were sacked, including Lesbos itself:

when he himself took well-built Lesbos;

⁵and

he sacked Lyrnessus and Pedasus;

⁶and

when he laid waste Lyrnessus and the walls of Thebe.

⁷It was at Lyrnessus that Briseïs was taken captive,

whom he carried away from Lyrnessus;

⁸and it was at her capture, according to the poet, that Mynes and Epistrophus fell, as is shown by the lament of Briseïs over Patroclus:

thou wouldst not even, not even, let me weep when swift Achilles slew my husband and sacked the city of divine Mynes;

⁹for in calling Lyrnessus “the city of divine Mynes” the poet indicates that Mynes was dynast over it and that he fell in battle there. But it was at Thebe that Chryseïs was taken captive:

We went into Thebe, the sacred city of Eëtion;

¹⁰and the poet says that Chryseïs was part of the spoil brought from that place.¹¹ Thence, too, came Andromache:

Andromache, daughter of great hearted Eëtion; Eëtion who dwelt ’neath wooded Placus in Thebe Hypoplacia,¹² and was lord over the men of Cilicia.

¹³This is the second Trojan dynasty after that of Mynes. And consistently with these facts writers think that the following statement of Andromache,

Hector, woe is me! surely to one doom we were born, both of us—thou in Troy in the house of Priam, but I at Thebae,

¹⁴should not be interpreted strictly, I mean the words “thou in Troy, but I at Thebae” (or Thebe), but as a case of hyperbaton, meaning “both of us in Troy—thou in the house of Priam, but I at Thebae.” The third dynasty was that of the Leleges, which was also Trojan:

Of Altes, who is lord over the war-loving Leleges,

¹⁵by whose daughter Priam begot Lycaon and Polydorus. And indeed those who are placed under Hector in the Catalogue are called Trojans:

The Trojans were led by great Hector of the flashing helmet.

¹⁶And then come those under Aeneias:

The Dardanians in turn were commanded by the valiant son of Anchises

¹⁷and these, too, were Trojans; at any rate, the poet says,

Aeneias, counsellor of the Trojans.

¹⁸And then come the Lycians under Pandarus, and these also he calls Trojans:

And those who dwelt in Zeleia beneath the nethermost foot of Ida, Aphneiï,¹⁹ who drink the dark water of the Aesepus, Trojans; these in turn were commanded by Pandarus, the glorious son of Lycaon.

²⁰And this was the sixth dynasty. And indeed those who lived between the Aesepus River and Abydus were Trojans; for not only were the parts round Abydus subject to Asius,

and they who dwelt about Percote and Practius²¹ and held Sestus and Abydus and goodly Arisbe²²—these in turn were commanded by Asius the son of Hyrtacus,

²³but a son of Priam lived at Abydus, pasturing mares, clearly his father’s:

But he smote Democoön, the bastard son of Priam, who had come at Priam’s bidding from his swift mares;

²⁴while in Percote a son of Hicetaon was pasturing kine, he likewise pasturing kine that belonged to no other:²⁵

And first he rebuked mighty Melanippus the son of Hicetaon, who until this time had been wont to feed the kine of shambling gait in Percote;

²⁶so that this country would be a part of the Troad, as also the next country after it as far as Adrasteia, for the leaders of the latter were

the two sons of Merops of Percote.

²⁷Accordingly, the people from Abydus to Adrasteia were all Trojans, although they were divided into two groups, one under Asius and the other under the sons of Merops, just as Cilicia²⁸ also was divided into two parts, the Theban Cilicia and the Lyrnessian;²⁹ but one might include in the Lyrnessian Cilicia the territory subject to Eurypylus, which lay next to the Lyrnessian Cilicia.³⁰ But that Priam was ruler of these countries, one and all, is clearly indicated by Achilles’ words to Priam:

And of thee, old sire, we hear that formerly thou wast blest; how of all that is enclosed by Lesbos, out at sea, city of Macar, and by Phrygia in the upland, and by the boundless Hellespont.

³¹

Notes on the current edition

Geography

1. Il. ix. 328.

2. Od. xviii. 518.

3. Il. ix. 129.

4. Il. xx. 92.

5. Il. ii. 691.

6. Il. ii. 690.

7. Il. xix. 295.

8. Il. i. 366.

9. Il. vi. 395.

10. Il. xxi. 86.

11. Il. iii. 816.

12. Il. ii. 819.

13. Il. xx. 83.

14. Il. ii. 824.

15. Il. i. 835.

16. Il. iv. 499.

17. Bergas.

18. Il. xv. 546.

19. Il. ii. 831.

20. So that Cilicia was divided into three principalities, as Strabo observes below, c. i. § 70. But perhaps this division was only invented for the purpose of completing the number of the nine principalities, for Strabo above, c. i. § 2, speaks in a manner to let us suppose that other authors reckoned eight only. However this may be, the following is the number of the dynasties or principalities established by our author. 1. That of Mynes; 2. that of Eetion, both in Cilicia; 3. that of Altes; 4. that of Hector; 5. that of Aeneas; 6. that of Pandarus; 7. that of Asius; 8. that of the son of Merops; 9. that of Eurypylus, also in Cilicia. Coraÿ.

21. Granting to Priam the sovereignty of the districts just mentioned by Strabo, his dominion extended over a country about twenty maritime leagues in length and the same in breadth. It would be impossible to determine the exact limits of these different districts, but it is seen that

The Trojans, properly so called, occupied the basin of the Scamander (Menderes-Tschai).

The Cilicians, commanded by Eetion, occupied the territory which surrounds the present Gulf of Adramytti.

The Cilicians of Mynes were to the south of the above.

The Leleges extended along a part of the northern coast of the Gulf of Adramytti, from Cape Baba.

The Dardanians were above the Trojans, and the chain of Ida. On the north, extending on both sides of the Hellespont, were the people of Arisbe, Sestos, and Abydos.

The people of Adrasteia occupied the Propontis, as far as the Granicus.

The Lycians, the country beyond, as far as the Aesepus and Zeleia.

Strabo mentioned a ninth (c. i. § 2) principality subject to Priam; he does not mention it by name, or rather it is wanting in the text. M. de Choiseul-Gouffier, (Voyage Pittoresque de la Gréce, vol. ii.,) with much probability, thinks that this principality was that of the island of Lesbos. Gossellin.

22. Il. xxiv. 543.

Strabo Geography 13.1.7

Hans Claude Hamilton (Translator), William Falconer (Translator)

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