Mecklenburg-Schwerin, on January 6, 1822, and died on December
27, 1890. During his early childhood an old scholar, who had
fallen upon evil days, delighted him with stories of the great
deeds of Homeric heroes. At the age of fourteen he was
apprenticed in a warehouse, but never lost his love for
antiquity, and unceasingly prayed to God that he might yet
have the happiness to learn Greek. An accident released him
from his low position, and he went to Holland and found a
situation in an office. He now began to study languages,
suffering extraordinary denials so as to be able to afford
money for his studies. In 1846 he was sent by his firm to
Russia, learning Swedish and Polish, and next acquired Greek.
Later, he travelled in Europe and the East, making a voyage
round the world. At last he realised the dream of his life.
Inaugurating a series of explorations in Greece and Asia
Minor, Dr. Schliemann gained fame by his discoveries at
Tiryus, Mycenæ, and Troy, largely solving the problems of
antiquity and archæology associated with these localities.
"Troy and Its Remains" is published here in order that, having
read in the classical histories, we may see how the ancient
world is reconstructed for modern readers, by the records of
one of the most famous of archæologists.
_I.--Searching for the Site of Troy_
_Hissarlik, Plain of Troy, October_ 18, 1871. In my work, "Ithaca, the
Peloponnesus, and Troy," published in 1869, I endeavored to prove, both
by my own excavations and by the statement of the Iliad, that the
Homeric Troy cannot possibly have been situated on the heights of
Bunarbashi, to which place most archæologists assign it. At the same
time I endeavoured to explain that the site of Troy must necessarily be
identical with the site of that town which, throughout all antiquity and
down to its Complete destruction at the end of the eighth or beginning
of the ninth century A.D., was called Ilium, and not until 1,000 years,
after its disappearance--that is, in 1788 A.D.--was christened Ilium
Novum by Lechevalier, who, as his work proves, can never have visited
his Ilium Novum.
The site of Ilium is on a plateau 80 feet above the plain. Its
north-western corner is formed by a hill about 26 feet higher still,
which is about 705 feet in breadth and about 984 feet in length, and
from its imposing situation and natural fortifications, this hill of
Hissarlik seems specially suited to the acropolis of the town. Ever
since my first visit I never doubted that I should find the Pergamus of
Priam in the depths of this hill.
On October 10, 1871, I started with my wife from the Dardanelles for the
Plain of Troy, a journey of eight hours, and next day commenced my
excavations where I had, a year previously, made some preliminary
explorations, and had found, among other things, at a depth of 16 feet,
walls about 6-1/2 feet thick, which belong to a bastion of the time of
Lysimachus.
Hissarlik, the Turkish name of this imposing hill at the north-western
end of the site of Ilium, means "fortress," or "acropolis," and seems to
prove that this is the Pergamus of Priam; that here Xerxes in 480 B.C.
offered up 1,000 oxen to the Ilian Athena; that here Alexander the Great
hung up his armour in the temple of the goddess, and took away in its
stead some of the weapons therein dedicated, belonging to the time of
the Trojan war.
I conjectured that this temple, the pride of the Ilians, must have stood
on the highest point of the hill, and I therefore decided to excavate
this locality down to the native soil, and I made an immense cutting on
the face of the steep northern slope, about 66 feet from my last year's
work. Notwithstanding the difficulties due to coming on immense blocks
of stone, the work advances rapidly. My dear wife, an Athenian lady, who
is an enthusiastic admirer of Homer, and knows almost the whole of the
Iliad by heart, is present at the excavations from morning to night. All
of my workmen are Greeks from the neighbouring village of Renkoi; only
on Sunday, a day on which the Greeks do not work, I employ Turks.
_Hissarlik, October_ 26, 1871. Since my report of the 18th I have
continued the excavations with the utmost energy, with, on the average,
80 workmen, and I have to-day reached an average depth of 13 feet. I
found an immense number of round articles of terra-cotta, red, yellow,
grey, and black, with two holes, without inscriptions, but frequently
with a kind of potter's stamp upon them. I cannot find any trace of
their having been used for domestic purposes, and therefore I presume
they have served as _ex votos_ for hanging up in the temples.
I found at a depth of about five feet three marble slabs with
inscriptions. One of these must, I think, from the character of the
writing, be assigned to the third century, the two others to the first
century B.C. A king spoken of in the third century writing must have
been one of the kings of Pergamus.
The view from the hill of Hissarlik is magnificent. Before me lies the
glorious Plain of Troy, traversed from the south-east to the north-west
by the Scamander, which has changed its bed since ancient times.
_Hissarlik, November_ 18, 1871. I have now reached a depth of 33 feet.
During these operations I was for a time deceived by the enormous mass
of stone implements which were dug up, and by the absence of any trace
of metal, and supposed that I had come upon the Stone Age. But since the
sixth of this month there have appeared many nails, knives, lances, and
battle-axes of copper of such elegant workmanship that they can have
been made only by a civilised people. I cannot even admit that I have
reached the Bronze Period, for the implements and weapons which I find
are too well finished.
I must, however, observe that the deeper I dig the greater are the
indications of a higher civilisation. And as I thus find ever more and
more traces of civilisation the deeper I dig, I am now perfectly
convinced that I have not yet penetrated to the period of the Trojan
war, and hence I am more hopeful than ever of finding the site of Troy
by further excavations; for if ever there was a Troy--and my belief in
this is firm--it can only have been here, on the site of Ilium.
_II.--Trojan Life and Civilisation_
_Hissarlik, April 5, 1872._ On the first of this month I resumed the
excavations which were discontinued at the end of November.
In the ruins of houses I find, amongst other things, a great number of
small idols of very fine marble, with or without the symbols of the
owl's head and woman's girdle. Many Trojan articles found in the ruins
have stamped on them crosses of various descriptions, which are of the
highest importance to archæology. Such symbols were already regarded,
thousands of years before Christ, as religious tokens of the very
greatest importance. The figure of the cross represents two pieces of
wood which were laid crosswise upon one another before the sacrificial
altars in order to produce holy fire. The fire was produced by the
friction of one piece of wood against another.
At all depths we find a number of flat idols of very fine marble; upon
many of them is the owl's face, and a female girdle with dots. I am
firmly convinced that all of the helmeted owls' heads represent a
goddess, and the important question now presents itself, what goddess is
it who is here found so repeatedly, and is, moreover, the only one to be
found upon the idols, drinking-cups, and vases? The answer is, she must
necessarily be the tutelary goddess of Troy; she must be the Ilian
Athena, and this indeed perfectly agrees with the statement of Homer,
who continually calls her _thea glaukopis Athene,_ "the goddess with the
owl's face."
_Hissarlik, June 18, 1872._ I had scarcely begun to extend a third
cutting into the hill when I found a block of triglyphs of Parian
marble, containing a sculpture in high relief which represents Phoebus
Apollo, who, in a long woman's robe with a girdle, is riding on the four
immortal horses which pursue their career through the universe. Nothing
is to be seen of a chariot. Above the head of the god is seen about
two-thirds of the sun's disc with twenty rays. The face of the god is
very expressive, and the folds of his robe are exquisitely sculptured;
but my admiration is specially excited by the four horses, which,
snorting and looking wildly forward, career through the universe with
infinite power. Their anatomy is so masterly that I confess I have never
seen so masterly a work.
It is especially remarkable to find the sun-god here, for Homer knows
nothing of a temple to the sun in Troy, and later history says not a
word about the existence of such a temple. However, the image of Phoebus
Apollo does not prove that the sculpture must have belonged to a temple
of the sun; in my opinion it may just as well have served as an ornament
to any other temple.
I venture to express the opinion that the image of the sun, which I find
represented here thousands and thousands of times upon the whorls of
terra-cotta, must be regarded as the name or emblem of the town--that
is, Ilios. In like manner, this sun-god shone in the form of a woman
upon the propylæa of the temple of the Ilian Athena as a symbol of the
sun-city.
This head of the sun-god appears to me to have so much of the
Alexandrian style that I must adhere to history, and believe that this
work of art belongs to the time of Lysimachus, who, according to Strabo,
after the time of Alexander the Great, built here the new temple of the
Ilian Athena, which Alexander had promised to the town of Ilium after
the subjugation of the Persian Empire.
Were it not for the splendid terra-cottas which I find exclusively on
the primary soil and as far as 6-1/2 feet above it, I could swear that
at a depth of from 26 to 33 feet, I am among the ruins of the Homeric
Troy. [The reader should bear in mind that Dr. Schliemann finally came
back to this opinion.] For at this depth I have found a thousand
wonderful objects; whereas I find little in the lowest stratum, the
removal of which gives immense trouble. We daily find some of the whorls
of very fine terra-cotta, and it is curious that those which have no
decorations at all are always of the ordinary shape, and of the size of
small tops, or like the craters of volcanoes, while almost all those
possessing decorations are flat, and in the form of a wheel.
Metals, at least gold, silver, and copper, were known to the Trojans,
for I found a copper knife highly gilded, a silver hairpin, and a number
of copper nails at a depth of forty-six feet. I found many small
instruments for use as pins; also a number of ivory needles, and some
curious pieces of ivory, one in the form of a paper-knife, the other in
the shape of an exceedingly neat dagger. We discovered one-edged or
double-edged knives of white silex in the form of saws in quantities,
each about two inches long; also many hand millstones of lava, and some
beautiful red vases, cups, vessels, jugs, and hand plates. In these
depths we likewise find many bones of animals; boars' tusks, small
shells, horns of the buffalo, ram, and stag, as well as the vertebræ of
the shark.
The houses and palaces in which the splendid terra-cottas were used were
large and spacious, for to them belong all the mighty heaps of stone,
hewn and unhewn, which cover them to the height of from 13 to 20 feet.
These buildings were easily destroyed, for the stones were only joined
with earth, and when the walls fell everything in the houses was crushed
to pieces by the immense blocks of stone. The primitive Trojan people
disappeared simultaneously with the destruction of their town. [Here, as
well as in what goes before, Dr. Schliemann writes on the supposition,
which he afterwards abandoned, that the remains in the lowest stratum
are those of the Trojans of the Iliad.]
Upon the site of the destroyed city new settlers, of a different
civilisation, manners, and customs, built a new town; but only the
foundation of their houses consisted of stones joined with clay; all the
house-walls were built of unburnt bricks. I must draw attention to the
fact that I have found twice on fragments of pottery the curious symbol
of the _suastika_, or crossed angles, which proves that the primitive
Trojans belonged to the Aryan race. This is further proved by the
symbols on the round terra-cottas. The existence of the nation which
preceded the Trojans was likewise of long duration, for all the layers
of _débris_ at the depth of from 33 to 23 feet belong to it. They also
were of Aryan descent, for they possessed innumerable Aryan religious
symbols. Several of the symbols belonged to the time when Germans,
Pelasgians, Hindoos, Persians, Celts, and Greeks still formed one
nation.
I found no trace of a double cup among this people, but instead of it
those curious cups which have a coronet below in place of a handle; then
those brilliant, fanciful goblets, in the form of immense champagne
glasses, and with two mighty handles on the sides; they are round below,
so that they can only stand on their mouths. Further, all those splendid
vessels of burnt earthenware, as, for instance, funeral, wine, or water
urns, five feet high; likewise, all of those vessels with a beak-shaped
mouth, bent back, and either short or long.
I have met with many very curious vases in the shape of animals with
three feet. The mouth of the vessel is in the tail, which is upright and
very thick, and is connected with the back by a handle. In these strata
we also meet with an immense number of those round terra-cottas--the
whorls--embellished with beautiful and ingenious symbolical signs,
amongst which the sun-god always occupies the most prominent position.
But the fire-machine of our primeval ancestors, the holy sacrificial
altar with blazing flames, the holy soma-tree, or tree of life, and the
_rosa mystica_, are also very frequently met with here.
This mystic rose, which occurs very often in the Byzantine sculptures,
and the name of which, as is well known, is employed to designate the
Holy Virgin in the Roman Catholic liturgies, is a very ancient Aryan
symbol, as yet, unfortunately, unexplained. It is very ancient, because
I find it at a depth of from 23 to 33 feet, in the strata of the
successors to the Trojans, which must belong to a period about 1,200
years before Christ.
At a depth of 30-1/2 feet, among the yellow ashes of a house destroyed
by fire, I found silver-ware ornaments and also a very pretty gold
ear-ring, which has three lows of stars on both sides; then two bunches
of earrings of various forms, most of which are of silver and terminate
in five leaves.
I now come to the strata of _débris_ at a depth of from 23 to 13 feet,
which are evidently also the remains of a people of the Aryan race, who
took possession of the town built on the ruins of Troy, and who
destroyed it and extirpated the inhabitants; for in these strata of ten
feet thick I find no trace of metal, and the structure of the houses is
entirely different. All the house-walls consist of small stones joined
with clay. In these strata--at a depth of from 23 to 13 feet--not only
are all the stone implements much rougher, but all the terra-cottas are
of a coarser quality. Still, they possess a certain elegance.
A new epoch in the history of Ilium commenced when the accumulation of
_débris_ on this hill had reached a height of 13 feet below its present
surface; for the town was again destroyed, and the inhabitants killed or
driven out by a wretched tribe, which certainly must likewise have
belonged to the Aryan race, for upon the round terra-cottas I still very
frequently find the tree of life, and the simple cross and double cross
with the four nails. In these depths, however, the forms of the whorls
degenerate. Of pottery, however, much less is found, and all of it is
considerably less artistic than that which I have found in the preceding
strata. With the people to whom these strata belonged--from 13 to 6-1/2
feet below the surface--the pre-Hellenic ages end, for henceforth we see
many ruined walls of Greek buildings, of beautifully hewn stones laid
together without cement, and the painted and unpainted terra-cottas
leave no doubt that a Greek colony took possession of Ilium when the
surface of this hill was much lower than it is now.
It is impossible to determine when this new colonisation took place, but
it must have been much earlier than the visit of Xerxes reported by
Herodotus, which took place 480 years before Christ. The event may have
taken place 700 B.C.
_III.--Homeric Legends Verified_
_Pergamus of Troy, August_ 4, 1872. On the south side of the hill where
I made my great trench I discovered a great tower, 40 feet thick, which
obstructs my path and appears to extend to a great length. I have
uncovered it on the north and south sides along the whole breadth of my
trench, and have convinced myself that it is built on the rock at a
depth of 46-1/2 feet.
This tower is now only 20 feet high, but must have been much higher. For
its preservation we have to thank the ruins of Troy, which entirely
covered it as it now stands. Its situation would be most interesting and
imposing, for its top would command not only a view of the whole plain
of Troy, but of the sea, with the islands of Tenedos, Imbros, and
Samothrace. There is not a more sublime situation in the whole area of
the plain of Troy than this.
In the ashes of a house at the depth of 42-1/2 feet I found a tolerably
well preserved skeleton of a woman. The colour of the bones shows that
the lady, whose gold ornaments were near by, was overtaken by fire and
burnt alive. With the exception of the skeleton of an infant found in a
vase, this is the only skeleton of a human being I have ever met with in
the pre-Hellenic remains on this hill. As we know from Homer, all
corpses were burnt and the ashes placed in urns, of which I have found
great numbers. The bones were always burnt to ashes.
_Pergamus of Troy, August 14, 1872._ In stopping the excavations for
this year, and in looking back on the dangers to which we have been
exposed between the gigantic layers of ruins, I cannot but fervently
thank God for his great mercy, not only that no life has been lost, but
that none of us has been seriously hurt.
As regards the result of my excavations, everyone must admit that I have
solved a great historical problem, and that I have solved it by the
discovery of a high civilisation and immense buildings upon the primary
soil, in the depths of an ancient town, which throughout antiquity was
called Ilium and declared itself to be the successor of Troy, the site
of which was regarded as identical with the site of the Homeric Ilium by
the whole world of that time. The situation of this town not only
corresponds perfectly with all the statements of the Iliad, but also
with all the traditions handed down to us by later authorities.
_Pergamus of Troy, March 22, 1873. _During this last week, with splendid
weather, and with 150 men on the average, I have got through a good
piece of work. On the north side of the excavation on the site of the
Temple of Athena I have already reached a depth of 26 feet, and have
laid bare the tower in several places.
The most remarkable of the objects found this week is a large knob of
the purest and finest crystal, belonging to a stick, in the form of a
beautifully wrought lion's head. It seems probable that in remote
antiquity lions existed in this region. Homer could not so excellently
have described them had he not had the opportunities of watching them.
_Pergamus of Troy, May 10, 1873._ Although the Pergamus, whose depths I
have been ransacking, borders directly on the marshes formed by the
Simois, in which there are always hundreds of storks, yet none of them
ever settle down here. Though there are sometimes a dozen storks' nests
on one roof in the neighbouring Turkish villages, yet no one will settle
on mine, even though I have two comfortable nests made for them. It is
probably too cold and stormy for the little storks on _Ilios anemoessa_.
My most recent excavations have far surpassed my expectations, for I
have unearthed two large gates, standing 20 feet apart, in a splendid
street which proceeds from the chief building in the Pergamus. I venture
to assert that this great double gate must be the Homeric Scæan Gate. It
is in an excellent state of preservation.
Here, therefore, by the side of the double gate, at Ilium's Great Tower,
sat Priam, the seven elders of the city, and Helen. From this spot the
company surveyed the whole plain, and saw at the foot of the Pergamus
the Trojan and Achæan armies face to face about to settle their
agreement to let the war be decided by a single combat between Paris and
Menelaus.
I now positively retract my former opinion that Ilium was inhabited up
to the ninth century after Christ, and I must distinctly maintain that
its site has been desolate and uninhabited since the end of the fourth
century. But Troy was not large. I am extremely disappointed at being
obliged to give so small a plan of the city; nay, I had wished to be
able to make it a thousand times larger, but I value truth above
everything, and I rejoice that my three years' excavations have laid
open the Homeric Troy, even though on a diminished scale, and that I
have proved the Iliad based upon real facts.
Homer is an epic poet, and not an historian; so it is quite natural that
he should have exaggerated everything with poetic licence. Moreover, the
events he describes are so marvellous that many scholars have long
doubted the very existence of Troy, and have considered the city to be a
mere invention of the poet's fancy. I venture to hope that the civilised
world will not only not be disappointed that the city of Priam has shown
itself to be scarcely a twentieth part as large as was to be expected
from the statements of the Iliad, but that, on the contrary, it will
accept with delight and enthusiasm the certainty that Ilium did really
exist, that a large portion of it has now been brought to light, and
that Homer, even though he exaggerates, nevertheless sings of events
that actually happened.
Homer can never have seen Ilium's Great Tower, the surrounding wall of
Poseidon and Apollo, the Scæan Gate of the palace of King Priam, for all
these monuments lay buried deep in heaps of rubbish, and he could have
made no excavations to bring them to light. He knew of these monuments
only from hearsay and tradition, for the tragic fate of ancient Troy was
then still in fresh remembrance, and had already been for centuries in
the mouth of all minstrels.
* * * * *
JULIUS CÆSAR
Commentaries on the Gallic War
Caius Julius Cæsar was born on July 12, 100 B.C., of a noble
Roman family. His career was decided when he threw in his lot
with the democratic section against the republican oligarchy.
Marrying Cornelia, daughter of Lucius Cinna, the chief
opponent of the tyrant dictator Sulla, he incurred the
implacable hatred of the latter, and was obliged to quit Rome.
For a season he studied rhetoric at Rhodes. Settling in Rome
after Sulla's death, Cæsar attached himself to the illustrious
Pompey, whose policy was then democratic. In B.C. 68 he
obtained a quæstorship in Spain, and on returning next year
reconciled the two most powerful men in Rome, Pompey and
Crassus. With them he formed what became known as the First
Triumvirate. Being appointed to govern Gaul for five years,
Cæsar there developed his genius for war; but his brilliant
success excited the fears of the senate and the envy even of
Pompey. Civil war broke out. The conflict ended in the fall of
Pompey, who was defeated in the fateful battle of Pharsalia,
and was afterwards murdered in Egypt. Julius Cæsar now
possessed supreme power. He lavished vast sums on games and
public buildings, won splendid victories in Gaul, Egypt,
Pontus, and Africa, and was the idol of the common people. But
the jealousy of many of the aristocrats led to the formation
of a plot, and on March 15, 44 B.C., Cæsar was assassinated in
the Senate House. This summary relates to the commentaries
known to be by Cæsar himself, certain other books having been
added by other Latin writers. It will be noticed that he
writes in the third person. This epitome is prepared from the
Latin text.
_I.--Subduing Celtic Gaul_