Historical Troy: Archaeology, Sites, Trojan Wars | Early European History And Religion

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TROY

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model of the walls of Troy
Troy is an ancient city and archaeological site in modern-day northwest Turkey. Homer's “Iliad” takes place mostly in Troy. Odysseus begins his journey home from there in Homer's "Odyssey." Troy (Ilium) was a royal city in the river valley of the Skamander River, about five kilometers from the Hellespont — the Dardanelles near the modern town of Hissarlik — a strait where Europe and Asia are separated by only 1.2 kilometers of water. Hellespont literally means “Sea of Helen.” Helen was a main character in the Iliad. The archaeological site of Ilium was excavated by Heinrich Schliemann in the 1870s. [Source: John Adams, California State University, Northridge (CSUN), “Classics 315: Greek and Roman Mythology class ++]

As a ruin today Troy consists of walls marking off an area 200 meters across and a few foundations of buildings. It is far cry from the city that Homer described as having “lofty gates” and “fine towers” and a palace used by Priam with a grand throne room and 50 marble chambers. Some archaeologists and historians have argued the site’s small size means that it is unlikely it was the site of conflict the magnitude of the Trojan Wars. Frank Kolb, from the University of Tubingen in Germany, has described it as “a miserable little settlement.”

But, according to UNESCO: “Troy is of immense significance in the understanding of the development of European civilization at a critical stage in its early development. It documents an uninterrupted settlement sequence over more than 3,000 years and bears witness to the succession of civilisations. The role of Troy is of particular importance in documenting the relations between Anatolia, the Aegean, and the Balkans, given its location at a point where the three cultures met. [Source: UNESCO World Heritage Site website =]

“The Archaeological Site of Troy is of exceptional cultural importance because of the profound influence it had on significant literary works such as Homer’s Illiad and Virgil’s Aeneid, and on the arts in general, over more than two millennia. It bears witness to various civilizations that occupied the area for over 4,000 years. Troy II and Troy VI provide characteristic examples of an ancient oriental city in an Aegean context, with a majestic fortified citadel enclosing palaces and administrative buildings, surrounded by an extensive fortified lower town. Several other monuments and remains reflect the characteristics of Roman and Greek settlements, and other distinct attributes bear witness to the Ottoman settlements. =

A new museum was opened at Troy in 2018. Its displays include a collection of gold jewelry that was repatriated to Turkey from the Penn Museum. The jewelry was returned after research revealed that it was taken from Troy sometime in the early-mid 20th century. [Source Owen Jarus, Live Science, February 29, 2024]

Archaeological Site of Troy

The Archaeological Site of Troy was named UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998. According to UNESCO: “The site has 4,000 years of history. Its extensive remains are the most significant and substantial evidence of the first contact between the civilizations of Anatolia and the burgeoning Mediterranean world. Excavations started more than a century ago have established a chronology that is fundamental to the understanding of this seminal period of the Old World and its cultural development. Moreover, the siege of Troy by Mycenaean warriors from Greece in the 13th century B.C., immortalized by Homer in The Iliad, has inspired great artists throughout the world ever since. [Source: UNESCO World Heritage Site website =]

Homeric Greece
“Troy is located on the mound of Hisarlık, which overlooks the plain along the Turkish Aegean coast, 4.8 km from the southern entrance to the Dardanelles. The famous archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann undertook the first excavations at the site in 1870, and those excavations could be considered the starting point of modern archaeology and its public recognition. Research and excavations conducted in the Troia and Troas region reveal that the region has been inhabited for 8,000 years. Throughout the centuries, Troy has acted as a cultural bridge between the Troas region and the Balkans, Anatolia, the Aegean and Black Sea regions through migration, occupation, trade and the transmission of knowledge. =

“Twenty-four excavation campaigns, spread over the past 140 years, have revealed many features from all the periods of occupation in the citadel and the lower town. These include 23 sections of the defensive walls around the citadel, eleven gates, a paved stone ramp, and the lower portions of five defensive bastions. Those archaeological remains date for the most part from Troy II and VI; however, a section of the earliest wall (Troy I) survives near the south gate of the first defences. In the last 15 years, it has become clear that a Lower City existed south of the mound in all prehistoric periods and extended to about 30 ha in the Late Bronze Age. Several monuments, including the temple of Athena and the recently excavated sanctuary, are part of the Greek and Roman city of Ilion, at the site of Troy. The Roman urban organization is reflected by two major public buildings on the edge of the agora (central market place), the odeion (concert hall) and the nearby bouleuterion (council house). =

“The surrounding landscape contains many important archaeological and historical sites, including prehistoric settlements and cemeteries, Hellenistic burial mounds, monumental tumuli, Greek and Roman settlements, Roman and Ottoman bridges and numerous monuments of the Battle of Gallipoli. =

Discovery of Troy

Troy was rediscovered under layers of sediment, 20 miles west Çanakkale in northwest Turkey, by German amateur historian Heinrich Schliemann in 1871. To find the city Schliemann matched descriptions in the Iliad with real geographical places, and in the process helped develop that approach to archaeology.

Until Schliemann discovered the site many scholars argued that Troy was a mythical place along the lines of Atlantis. Schlielmann became convinced on a tour of Asia Minor in 1868 led by Frank Calvert, a British counsel to Turkey, that Hissarlik, a small Turkish village in northwestern Turkey, might the site of Troy. Five years later unearthed a treasure of gold cups, vases and jewelry which he proclaimed as the "Treasure of Troy."

Schliemann was firm in his belief that Troy was located at Hissarlik, which is located about four miles south of the mouth of the Dardanelles, even though most scholars in his time placed Troy seven miles further south in Bunarbashi.

Historical Troy

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Trojan Horse for tourists
Troy was also known as or Ilios or Illium, source of the name Iliad. Archeologists say, in all, nine cities were built on the site of Troy. The oldest strata is from a 5500-year-old Bronze Age settlement. The most recent is from a Byzantine city abandoned in A.D. 1350. Historical Troy is thought to be Troy 6 (sixth from the bottom layer) or Troy 7A. Troy in Homer’s time, around 850 B.C., was largely a ruin.

Historical Troy has been dated between 1,700 to 1,250 B.C., a period of history when Egyptian civilization was at its height and Moses led the Jews to the Promised Land and the Mediterranean world was breaking up into a mosaic of regional states. Artifacts unearthed from the different layers showed that Troy was a major Hittite trading center and later became popular with ancient Greek and Roman tourists.

Ancient Troy was known as a "pirate fortress" and it was strategically located at the mouth of the Dardanelles, a critical link between the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea. Trojan rulers demanded a toll from ships passing from the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea. It is believed that Trojan wars took place, on average, once every twenty years for possession of the strategic citadel and the tax revenues that went along with it.

According to legend, Poseidon sent a sea monster to destroy Homer’s Troy. More likely the city was brought down by earthquakes. Some even think that the Trojan horse story may have it roots in an earthquake story. Perhaps an earthquakes brought down the walls, letting the Greeks in and they in turn erected a horse to thank Poseidon, the god of earthquakes, whose symbol is a horse.

Alexander the Great stopped in Troy and traded for Agamemnon's shield before he attacked Persia. Ottoman sultan Mehmet II arrived here in 1453 to "avenge the sacking of the city by the Greeks," as if he was somehow a distant relative of the Trojans. The reaction of most tourists who show up today is disappointment.

Due to the effects of tides and terrestrial changes, the ruins of Troy lie three miles inland from the sea across a marsh and alluvial plain. As of 2004, more than 350 scholars, scientists and archaeologists were working at Troy as part of the Troy project. The project leader, Manfred Korfman, said that the purpose of the project was not to get a better understanding about the Troy Homer’s “ Iliad” but to get to know more about the myth and make more findings with that knowledge.

Oldest Settlements at Troy

Owen Jarus wrote in Live Science: The site of Hisarlık, in northwest Turkey, has been identified as the site of the legendary Troy since ancient times. Archaeological research shows that it was inhabited for almost 4,000 years, starting around 3500 B.C. The city was constantly changing, and the settlement was destroyed and rebuilt repeatedly: After one city was destroyed, a new city would be built on top of it, creating a human-made mound called a "tell." "There is no one single Troy; there are at least 10, lying in layers on top of each other," Gert Jan van Wijngaarden, a researcher at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, wrote in a chapter of the book "Troy: City, Homer and Turkey" (2013). [Source Owen Jarus, Live Science, February 29, 2024]

Van Wijngaarden noted that archaeologists have had to dig deep to find remains of the first settlement, and from what they can tell it was a "small city surrounded by a defensive wall of unworked stone." Outside the largest gate was a stone with an image of a face — perhaps a deity welcoming visitors to the city.

Troy took off in the period after 2550 B.C. The city "was considerably enlarged and furnished with a massive defensive wall made of cut blocks of stone and rectangular clay bricks," van Wijngaarden wrote. He noted that the settlement's citadel featured houses of the "megaron" type, which contained "an elongated room with a hearth and open forecourt."

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Plan of Troy-Hisarlik

Historical Troy at the Time of the Trojan Wars

The “ Iliad” takes place during the late Greek Bronze Age and the Mycenean Age, between 1,600 and 1,100 B.C. Early archaeological work seemed to indicate that at that time Troy was not a very impressive city. It had a wall and a gate but few buildings were higher tree meters and most had stone foundations, timber roofs and were made of mud bricks. Findings suggest that Homeric Troy was home to as many as 10,000 people, and there is evidence that Anatolians from elsewhere sought refuge there during attacks by invading Greeks.

It is believed the Trojans at the time of the war may have been Luvians, an Anatolian people who became vassals of the Hittites. These people grew barley and raided sheep, cattle, pigs and horses. There is evidence of tin from Afghanistan and horses from the central Asia steppes. Historian believe that the Trojan War was more likely fought over trade and tax revenues than a beautiful woman. Herodotus wrote that the defeat of Troy prompted the Persian invasion of Greece 760 years later. Alexander the Great stopped in Troy and traded for Agamemnon's shield before he attacked Persia.

Two layers (phases) of Troy that date between roughly 1700 B.C. and 1190 B.C. may be the city that featured in Homer's works. Trevor Bryce, a researcher at the University of Queensland in Australia and author the book "The Trojans and their Neighbours" noted that during this period the city's defenses were formidable."The walls, surmounted by mud-brick breastworks, once reached a height of nine meters [30 feet]. Several watchtowers were built into these walls, the most imposing of which is the northeastern bastion, which served to reinforce the citadel's defences as well as offer a commanding view over the Trojan plain," he wrote. [Source Owen Jarus, Live Science, February 29, 2024]

Owen Jarus wrote in Live Science: The exact size of the city is disputed. Archaeological work on the site shows that there was a "lower city" beyond the citadel, bringing its total size to about 30 hectares (74 acres), archaeologist Manfred Korfmann, who led excavations at the site, wrote in a study published in the book "Troy: From Homer's Iliad to Hollywood Epic" (2007). "This Troy had a large residential area below a strongly fortified citadel. As far as we know today, the citadel was unparalleled in its region and in all of southeastern Europe," he wrote. The extent of the residential area is a topic of debate among scholars, with some arguing that Korfmann overestimated its extent.

But was this really the same city as the one depicted by Homer? While scholars have noted that the topography of Troy as told in the legend does seem to generally match that of the real-life city, a key problem with identifying it as Homer's Troy is the way the city was destroyed. Cracks in its walls suggest that it was hit by an earthquake around 1300 B.C., possibly followed by an uprising or attack. "There are also some indications of fire, and slingstones in the destruction layer (suggesting) the possibility that there might have been some fighting," van Wijngaarden wrote. "Nevertheless an earthquake appears to have caused the most damage." An interesting fact is that the city was rebuilt after its destruction by the same population groups as before, rather than by a foreign Greek force, van Wijngaarden noted.

Recent excavations have revealed a Troy at the time of the Trojan War is much larger than previously thought, with buildings extending far outside the citadel walls. The leading archaeologists at the site, Manfred Korfmann of the University of Tubingen, says that Troy is now believed to be 15 times large than previously thought. The whole site covers 75 acres. Korfmann estimated that Troy was home to perhaps 10,000 people at the time of the events in the “Ilaid”, which doesn’t sound like much but was a significant size at that time and large enough to field a formidable army. Artifacts and pottery reveals that city was quite wealthy. [Source: Manfred Korfmann, Archaeology magazine; May/ June 2004; Caroline Alexander, National Geographic, December 1999]

Troy and the Hittites

Troy may have been a trading center for the Hittites, a powerful Anatolian kingdom to the east. Hittite texts describe a small kingdom called Wilussa in northwest Turkey (the pronunciation of Wilussa is not all that different from Ilious). The Hittites courted good relations with Wilussa — thought to be Troy — because it was a regional power and it controlled important shipping lanes. One Hittite king wrote: “Even if the land of Wilussa has seceded from the land of the Hattusa (the Hittite kingdom). Close ties of friendship were maintained....with the kings of the land.” The same text record the Hittites clashing with a state called Ahhiyawa — though to be Mycenae.

Joshua Hammer wrote in Smithsonian magazine: Although Troy was long regarded as a Hellenistic city, recent findings have shown that it has roots in Anatolian culture, a fact that has deepened Turks’ awareness and appreciation of the city. The evidence includes an urban layout that resembles other towns east of the Dardanelles, and a 3,000-year-old bronze seal containing hieroglyphics written in the language of the Hittite empire. In addition, tablets found in the Hittite capital of Hattusa, some 400 miles east of Troy, suggest direct ties between the two entities. [Source: Joshua Hammer, Smithsonian magazine, March 2022]

One tablet, dating from around 1200 B.C., describes the close economic and political relationship between the empire and a city-state in northwestern Anatolia that the Hittites called “Wilusa”...which many scholars believe refers to Troy. The tablet even names the Wilusan king who signed the treaty as Aleksandu, which sounds an awful lot like Alexandros, the name sometimes given to Paris. Other Hittite tablets record several wars that took place in Wilusa during the late Bronze Age. Rüstem Aslan, head of the excavations at Troy, like Korfmann, believes that the Trojan-Hittite alliance inflamed Troy’s relationship with the Mycenaeans, making it a target for attack. But, more than that, he points out that it shows the world was not divided between East and West in quite the way it was long assumed to be. One of the foundational legends of Western culture, it turns out, involved a powerful political actor that lay across the sea from Europe, in what is now Turkey, with influence that extended all the way to central Anatolia.

Evidence of Warfare at Troy During Trojan Wars?

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ruins of Troy
At the time of the Trojan Wars Mycenae was a powerful state and Mycenae and Troy were located across the Aegean Sea from one another, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) apart. Ancient Troy was known as a "pirate fortress" as we said and was strategically located on a bay at the entrance of the Dardanelles straight (the Hellespont), a key link to the Black Sea and central Asia. The prevailing winds were from the northeast and ships often had difficultly sailing into the wind, which meant that eastward-traveling ships most likely had to beach before entered the strait, and were candidates for Trojan taxes.

In the 1990s, archaeologists under Manfred Korfman discovered wooden palisades and an extensive-ten-foot-wide trench around the lower town. The trench may have been used as a trap to stop incoming chariots. Excavations of Troy VI and VII are dated at 1250 to 1150 B.C., when the Trojan War my have taken place revealed filled piles of sling pellets, skeleton, scorch marks and other "evidence of a lost war.” Piles of sling stones suggest the city was overrun by its enemy (if the city was victorious the stones would have been stored and reused). Archaeologists have also found images of Trojan-War-era Mycenaean ships that match descriptions of them in the “ Iliad” .

Joshua Hammer wrote in Smithsonian magazine: Korfmann first carried out excavations at a bay several miles away, where he developed a theory, disputed by some archaeologists, that a Greek-Trojan maritime rivalry culminated in a major war around 1200 B.C. He hypothesized that Troy’s extortionate demand for tribute from Greek trading vessels was a chief instigator for conflict. As evidence that mariners were forced to linger here, essentially as Trojan hostages, he cited the discovery of a necropolis near the bay that appeared to be the final resting place for foreign sailors. He also pointed to a settlement in the headlands that may have served as a Trojan base of operations. [Source: Joshua Hammer, Smithsonian magazine, March 2022]

Next, Korfmann conducted excavations and surveys in and around the Citadel itself. His work dramatically reshaped what was known about the ancient city. The surveys revealed a grid pattern of streets outside the gates, a tunnel system that collected and distributed potable water, and a 6-foot-deep, 13-foot-wide trench dug into the bedrock, which he interpreted as a defensive structure intended to prevent chariot invasions. Although some scholars dismissed the trench as a drainage ditch, it matched Homer’s description of a “dike being everywhere so deep and (where it is least deep) set with stakes exceeding thick, sharp, strong, that a horse could never pass, much less their chariots after them.” Perhaps most important, Korfmann found that the Lower City extended all the way to the defensive trench — making the city ten times larger than previously thought, and laying to rest many questions about whether it was ever substantial enough to form the basis for legendary Troy.

Archaeologists have since found more evidence of a rapid expansion of the Lower City during the late Bronze Age, as well as a second defensive trench outside the first. That suggests that the city expanded as people from across the Troad took refuge in the fortified city, possibly during a period of conflict, Ernst Pernicka, an archaeologist at the University of Tubingen in Germany, told me. Pernicka also analyzed copper and lapis lazuli ornaments from the Bronze Age that may have come from as far away as Central Asia, which attest to the city’s international reach. And Aslan’s excavations have only added more texture to the life of the city.

There is also archaeological evidence that the city was attacked in 1190 B.C., but there also evidence that an earthquake not war destroyed Troy VI in 1250 B.C. Many archaeologists and historians say the evidence that exists still does not support the Homer story. Troy 6 was large enough to historical Troy but it appears to have been destroyed by an earthquake not a siege. Troy 7A was the layer in which most of the evidence of warfare was found but that city was not nearly as large as Troy 6. Historians say that it is likely a number of battles were fought in the area over a long period of time and that the “Iliad” perhaps records battles that took place over a century and are condensed into ten years.

Even if Troy was attacked it is hard to say whether of not the attack was carried out by Greeks. By 1190 B.C, Greece's Mycenaean civilization had collapsed. On top of this, archaeologists have found ceramics and bronze axes at Troy at this time that originate from southeast Europe, suggesting that people from this area may have conquered, or otherwise moved into the city then. By 1190 B.C. the Hittite Empire was also in decline and may have been unable to help Troy.

Archaeological Work at Troy

In the modern era, the first person to suggest Hisarlik as the site of Troy was the Scottish polymath Charles Maclaren (1782-1866), a one-time editor of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. But it wasn't until nearly a half a century later than an amateur archaeologist named Frank Calvert began to explore the mound overlooking the Dardanelles that the Turks called the “Place of Fortresses.” Joshua Hammer wrote in Smithsonian magazine: A wealth of detail in the Iliad suggested to him that Hisarlik and Troy were one and the same. Homer had placed the city on a hill situated between two rivers, the Scamander and the Simoeis, which some modern scholars suggest correspond to the rivers now known as the Karamenderes and the Dumrek Su. The Iliad also contains dozens of references to mile-high Mount Ida, 20 miles south of Hisarlik, from which Zeus “the cloud-gatherer” and his “ox-eyed queen” Hera observed the fighting and intervened on behalf of favored warriors. And there is a tantalizing description of “two well-heads of lovely water,” one hot and one cold, around which Achilles pursued Hector toward the end of the Iliad. [Source: Joshua Hammer, Smithsonian magazine, March 2022]

In the 1860s, convinced that the site was likely Troy, Calvert uncovered temples and other ruins from Hellenistic and Roman towns, but he ran out of money to dig further. When he met a self-taught German archaeologist named Heinrich Schliemann, who was in Turkey conducting his own search for Troy, he encouraged Schliemann to pick up where he left off. Owen Jarus wrote in Live Science: Schliemann started larger excavations at the site starting in 1870. He dug deep into the city, most famously unearthing treasures that he incorrectly attributed to King Priam. His work greatly increased the fame of the site. [Source Owen Jarus, Live Science, February 29, 2024]

Archaeological work continued off and on over the next 150 years. As archaeological techniques were refined and new scientific tests — such as radiocarbon dating — were discovered the different levels of Troy could be more accurately dated. This dating was important as it showed what levels could be associated with the Trojan war and what levels were too early. They also proved that the artifacts that Schliemann attributed to King Priam were created almost a millennium before Priam lived.

Excavations continue at Troy but are now led by archaeologists from Turkey, the most recent digs being led by Rüstem Aslan, a professor at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart Üniversitesi. The fact that work is now led by Turkish archaeologists is important as historically work was led by archaeologists from Europe or the United States. Aslan's team found that Troy may have been founded around 3500 B.C., which makes it about 600 years older than originally believed.

Joshua Hammer wrote in Smithsonian magazine: Since taking over the excavation, Aslan has found pottery from the Lower City that definitively dates that part of the city to 1200 B.C., reinforcing Korfmann’s view that a thriving metropolis existed outside the Citadel at the time of Homer’s conflict. He also discovered, in the deep trench just outside the South Gate, a Minoan seal from Crete, made of clay, imprinted with a deer, and used to endorse official documents. The 3,300-year-old emblem offers some of the most compelling evidence, Aslan says, that the city was an important urban center with commercial and political links extending across the Aegean even before the era of Homeric Troy. In 2019, he dug down to the bedrock and uncovered the remains — pottery shards, wooden beams — of a pre-Bronze Age settlement from 3500 B.C., showing that Troy was at least 600 years older than archaeologists had previously thought. The identification of a tenth layer of habitation, which Aslan called “Troy 0,” proved that people lived here at the same time that the first cities were being built in the Tigris and Euphrates valleys, and the early Egyptians were organizing into powerful chiefdoms along the banks of the Nile. [Source: Joshua Hammer, Smithsonian magazine, March 2022]

Other Archaeological Discoveries Related to the Iliad

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In March 2006, Greek archaeologist Yannas Lolos said that he had discovered a large palace on the island of Salamus, west of Athens, that he said could very well he the palace of the Ajax, the king and warrior who appears in the “Iliad” and Sophocles tragedy “Ajax”. The palace covers 750 square meters and was believed to be four stories high. The claim is based on the fact the ruins have been linked to the Aicid dynasty, an ally of Mycenae, and Ajax (also known as Aias). Some classicists have heralded the find as proof that the “Iliad” was based in fact. Other scholars are more skeptical.

Pylos is an ancient Mycenaean site, discovered in 1939, that is said to have been where King Nestor of the “Iliad” was from. It is also where the Linear B tablets were found. When these tablets were translated they revealed that the Greek language evolved out of the Mycenaean language. The small Archeological museum there houses Mycenaean pottery, lovely Hellenistic glass vases; and two small bronze figures of youths.

The Palace of Nestor was originally a sprawling two-story compound that covered a 164-by-104-foot area. Situated on a strategic ridge with views of Navarino Bay and the heart of the kingdom to the north, it was destroyed by a fire in 1200 B.C., heralding the collapse of the Mycenaean culture. The fire also baked and preserved some clay tablets with writing that led to the decipherment of Linear B.

Archeologist at the site have also found jars of herb-scented olive oil, kraters with honeyed wine and 2,853 wine cups in a single room, which has led scholars to believe that the Mycenaeans were pretty hard core partiers or they smashed these cups after each toast. In another room archeologist found the bones of 10 cattle, which have provided enough meat for 6,000 people, far more than lived around the citadel. The presence of outdoor banqueting courtyards and storerooms and pantries filled with a variety of foodstuffs and gear such as ladles, mixing bowls, wine storage jars appears to indicate that place was a huge banqueting hall that could accommodate thousands of people form all over the kingdom at one time. Status could have beeen determined by where people sat — based in the kinds of foodstuffs found in each place — with low status people sitting n courtyards and the elite sitting with the king in a special room called the megaron.

The site of the lost city of Tenea was discovered in Greece in 2018. Ancient historians say that the people of Tenea believed that they were descendants of Trojan prisoners taken to the city. Another recent find is a woman who died at Troy of a pregnancy related cause during the Middle Ages.

Troy After the Trojan War Period

Troy was abandoned around 1000 B.C. but was reoccupied in the eighth century B.C., around the time Homer lived. The Greeks called the reoccupied city "Ilion." Owne Jarus wrote in Live Science: Many scholars believe that the people who resettled Troy were Greek colonists, although there is some evidence that people who already lived in the area also settled in the reoccupied settlement. In 2014, a team of scholars published research in the Oxford Journal of Archaeology that examined amphorae at Troy dating to after 1000 B.C., and found that they were locally made rather than imported from Greece, leading the researchers to conclude that the new settlers were not exclusively from Greece. [Source Owen Jarus, Live Science, February 29, 2024]

For its first few centuries, Ilion was a modest settlement, although it later grew thanks to its association with Homer's works. The "new settlers had no doubt that the place they were preparing to occupy was the fabled setting of the Trojan War," Bryce wrote, and in later times its inhabitants took advantage of this to draw in political support and ancient tourists. Xerxes, the Persian king (lived 519-466 B.C.), stopped to pay homage to Troy on his way to attack Greece around 480 B.C.

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painting of
Helen Brought to Paris
Joshua Hammer wrote in Smithsonian magazine: Writing in the first century A.D., Plutarch described a visit by Alexander the Great in 334 B.C. to celebrate the Mycenaean conquest nearly a millennium earlier — and to grieve at the supposed tomb of Achilles. The Romans, for their part, believed that they descended from the Trojan hero Aeneas, who fled to Italy after Troy’s destruction, as recounted by Virgil in the Aeneid; Julius Caesar was said to have visited Hisarlik in 48 B.C. to pay homage to Aeneas, Hector and other Trojan heroes. The emperor Constantine even considered making Hisarlik the new capital of his empire before choosing Byzantium, later to become Constantinople, then Istanbul. In the fifth century, a series of earthquakes led to the city’s abandonment, and its links to Homeric Troy were largely forgotten. Still, as late as the 15th century, a Castilian traveler and writer named Pedro Tafur visited a collection of ruins — apparently Hisarlik — and described it as “that place which they say was Troy.” [Source: Joshua Hammer, Smithsonian magazine, March 2022]

Jarus wrote: "It is said that the city of the present Ilians was for a time a mere village, having its temple of Athena, a small and cheap temple," wrote Strabo, an ancient Greek geographer and historian who lived from 64 B.C. to A.D. 23 . When "Alexander went up there after his victory at the Granicus River he adorned the temple with votive offerings, gave the village the title of city, and ordered those in charge to improve it with buildings, and that he adjudged it free and exempt from tribute; and that later, after the overthrow of the Persians, he sent down a kindly letter to the place, promising to make a great city of it." (Translation by H.L. Jones, through Perseus Digital Library)

Troy's special status continued into the period of Roman rule, when the Romans conquered the region in 129 B.C. The Romans believed that Aeneas, one of Troy's heroes, was an ancestor of Romulus and Remus, ancient Rome's legendary founders. Troy's inhabitants took advantage of this mythology, and it became a "popular destination for pilgrims and tourists," Bryce wrote. He noted that in this phase the city became larger than at any time before, including when the Trojan War was said to have taken place. However, during the Middle Ages, Troy fell into decline, and by the 13th century, the city had been reduced to a modest farming community.

Literature and Troy

The Trojan wars and the Iliad inspired and was the source for a number of works of literature that followed, including Euripides “Trojan Women” , which focus on the suffering of the captives after Troy’s fall; Virgil’s The “Aeneid” , which among other things linked the Trojans with the founding of Rome; Chaucer’s “Troilus and Crisdeyde” , which follows a Trojan prince as he falls in love in life and question early attachments in heaven after being killed by Achilles; and Shakespeare’s “Troilus and Cressida” , in which the love of the prince for his beloved is so strong he regards his early attachments as stronger as better than those in heaven.

The 17th century English dramatist Christopher Marlowe was the one who wrote that Helen had a "face that launched a thousand ships." “Les Troyens” by Berloiz is famous piece of classical music inspired by the Trojan wars.

Drawn from Homer's “ Iliad” , the “ Aeneid” attributes the origin of the Roman people to Aeneas, a hero of the Trojan War. Although it is set in the distant past it has many features of A.D. first century Rome. Homeric themes are presented in a Roman way and battles are fought like Roman battles. Some key facts are different. Virgil records the events of the “ Odyssey” as occurring before those in the “ Iliad” (the contrary is true in Homer’s books). Many of the details from events in the “ Iliad” , particularly the Trojan horse story, come to us from the “ Aeneid” not the “ Iliad”

In the “ Aeneid” the Trojans have been kicked out of the their homeland because of the war and the end up in Italy, which is caste as a kind of Promised land. There, Aeneas marries an Italian princess and their descendants founded Rome. The Roman emperors embraced the story and used the links to the Trojans to legitimize their rule.

Virgil selected Aeneas, a grandson of Aphrodite and a member of the Trojan royal family, because he seemed to be the only Trojan in the “Iliad” who had a future. He kept Aeneas true to his character in the “ Iliad” and made him one of the founders of the Roman race by incorporating an existing Roman tale about him.

See The Aeneid, Romans

Hollywood and Troy

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painting of the Slaying of Hector
Holly woods takes on Troy include “The Trojan Women” with Katherine Hepburn and Vanessa Redgrave; “The Trojan Horse” with the muscle-bound Steve Reeve as Aeneas. There is a also a “Battle for Troy” video game.

The film “ Troy” , directed by Wolfgang Peterson and starring Brad Pitt as Achilles, Erica Bana as Hector, Orlando Bloom as Paris, newcomer Diane Kruger as Helen and Peter O’Toole as Priam, was released in May 2004. It cost at least $175 million to make (some say almost $250 million) and was generally panned by the critics.

“ Troy” was shot in Malta and Mexico. The original plan called for it be shot in Morocco but the location was changed because of worries of anti-American feeling stirred up by the war in Iraq. The Troy in the film has no basis in history (the real Troy was not considered impressive enough). A 40-foot-high, 500-foot-long wall was made from 200 tons of plaster.

The production was halte by hurricanes and war and the death of stuntman after an accident. Pitt injured his Achilles tendon and was caught by Paparazzi clad in his costume talking on a cell phone. More than 1,500 military-trained extras, including 250 weightlifters from a Bulgarian sports academy, were used in some of the fight scenes.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons, The Louvre, The British Museum

Text Sources: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Greece sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Hellenistic World sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; BBC Ancient Greeks bbc.co.uk/history/; Canadian Museum of History, Perseus Project - Tufts University; perseus.tufts.edu ; MIT Classics Online classics.mit.edu ; Gutenberg.org, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, Live Science, Discover magazine, Natural History magazine, Archaeology magazine, The New Yorker, Encyclopædia Britannica, "The Discoverers" and "The Creators" by Daniel Boorstin. "Greek and Roman Life" by Ian Jenkins from the British Museum, Wikipedia, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP and various books and other publications.

Last updated September 2024