Tennes, who brought a colony thither from the continent. The siege of Troy has chiefly made this island famous. It was within sight of that mighty city, as Virgil observes. This poet supposes that the Greeks concealed themselves behind this island, when they feigned to raise the siege of Troy. Tenedos was one of the first conquests of the Persians, after their victory over the Ionians at the isle Lada. It was reduced by the Athenians, or at least it acted with them against the Lacedominians, since Nieclochus, admiral of the latter, ravaged this island and raised contributions in it, in spite of the vigilance of the Athenian generals. The Romans took possession of it in their turn, and the temple of the city was plundered by Verres, who carried away to the great grief of the inhabitants, the statue of Tennes, founder of the city. This island has a circumference of about eighteen miles. The Muscat wine of this island is very delicious.

The inhabitants of Phrygia Minor or Troas, were doubtless a very ancient people, but in regard to their origin, there is, as is but natural,

* Tennes is said to have been a son of Cycnus, king of Colone, in Troas, and is described by Diodorus Siculus-lib. v.—as a man of great probity and justice, having been greatly beloved by his subjects during his life, and adored by them after his death. The ancient inhabitants of Tenedos gave the following account of him, which Diodorus looks upon as fabulous; but Suidas and Pausanias seem to credit it. Tennes, said they, was son of Cycnus and Proclea, sister of Caletor, who was killed by Ajax in attempting to burn the ships of Protesilaus. Cycnus, after the death of his wife Proclea, married Philomene, who, falling in love with her step-son Tennes, and finding that she could by no means cause him to comply with her unlawful desires, complained of him to her husband, as if he had offered violence to her. Stephanus adds, that the witness she produced in proof of her charge was a player on the flute. Cycnus giving more credit to his wife than to his son, caused him to be shut up in a chest and thrown into the sea, which carried the chest safe to the island we are speaking of, where Tennes was received as sent by the gods, and with loud acclamations proclaimed king. Some time after Cycnus, being convinced of his son's innocence, sailed to Tenedos to beg his pardon, and express his sorrow for the hasty and severe sentence he had passed upon him. But Tennes, instead of receiving him, went to the harbor, where with a hatchet, he cut the cable which fastened his father's ship to the shore. This hatchet was carried by Perictytus, a citizen of Tenedos, to Delphos, and there lodged in the temple of Apollo. The Tenedians caused two others to be made resembling this in shape and size, which they consecrated in the temple of their city. These adventures gave birth to two famous proverbs among the ancients. The one is Terédios avλnrès, that is, the Tenedian player on the flute, a saying used to reproach a false witness. The other, Tevédios medekus, that is, the Tenedian Ax, an expression used to signify a quick and unalterable resolution. Aristotle, cited by Stephanus, explains this in a different manner. He says, that a king of Tenedos, having enacted a law forbidding adultery on pain of death, the first that transgressed this law was his own son, who was therefore beheaded with an ax. Stephanus adds, that the heads of the two lovers, back to back, were represented on the medals of the island, and on the reverse the ax with which they were beheaded. It is certain several medals of this kind have been found in that island."-English Univ. Hist., vol. ii. p. 308, note D. Suidas tells us that Tennes, after he was seated on the throne of Tenedos, ordered an officer to stand behind the judge in all public trials with an ax in his hand ready to strike off the head of such as should give false evidence ; and hence Τενέδιος ανδραποσ, Τενέδιος συνήγορος, were expres sions used to signify a man or judge of great severity.—Erasmi Adag. Chiliad. iv. Sic. lib. ii. Epictat 2 Fratrem. Tournefort Voyage au Lev.

t Æneid. lib. ii.

Herod lib. vi.

Cic pro Manil. aud pro Muraen.

great disagreement among the several writers on that subject. Some make them Samothracians by descent, others Greek, and tell us that Teucer, according to them the first king of Troy, was by birth an Athenian, and lord of a village named Axonus. Some think that they were emigrants from the isle of Crete; but these again are divided among themselves as to the leader of the colony, some bestowing the honor on Teucer, others on Dardanus. Some derive their origin from Arcadia, and there are writers too who make them come originally from Italy; which opinion though altogether improbable, was embraced by Virgil, as most redounding to the glory of that country, and perhaps entertained by the Romans of his days. Bockart thinks that Phrygia Minor was planted by Ashkenaz, Gomer's eldest son; there being the traces of his name in the Ascanian Lake, and a river called Ascanius, with a bay of the same name in Bithynia, and likewise in a city named Ascania in Lesser Phrygia, with isles, on the coast, named the Ascanian Islands. He also observes, that besides Ascanius, the son of Æneas, Homer mentions a king of that name, who was at the siege of Troy. Hence he concludes, that a colony was led by Ashkenaz, out of Greater Phrygia, where, according to his opinion, Gomer had settled, in Phrygia Minor or Troas; and that by this colony and their de scendants, this region was peopled, which from the Egean Sea extends along the coast of the Hellespont and the Propontis to the Pontus Euxinus or Axenus, as it was first called by the Greeks, which he supposes to be a corruption of the sea of Ashkenaz. Bockart further observes, that the Scriptures, among the nations which were called by the Medes under Cyrus to aid in the destruction of Babylon, mention also the Ashkenaz. In proof that the Ashkenaz of the scriptures were the people of these parts, he shows from Xenophon* that Hystaspes, having conquered Phrygia on the Hellespont, brought from thence many of the horse and other troops, which Cyrus carried with him to the siege of Babylon. But from whatever place the first inhabitants of this region came, it seems very probable, as many modern writers think, that in process of time, their blood became mingled with that of emigrants, from various countries, especially from Mysia, Samothrace, Greece and Crete, who settled among them, and were afterwards considered of the same descent with themselves.

The form of government which prevailed among this people seems to have been monarchical and hereditary; for from Dardanus to Priam we find the father constantly succeeded by the son, or the elder brother by the younger. The country itself seems at first like most others, to have been parcelled out into several petty kingdoms; for we read of Cycnus, Pandorus, Eurypilus, and other princes of small territories within the limits of Phrygia Minor. But all of these were in length of time either extirpated or made tributary to the Trojan kings; as Strabo enumerates nine small

* Cyropæd. lib. vii.

t Diod. Sic. lib. v. Strabo lib. xiii.

These princes, it would seem, exercised an unlimited power over their subjects.

kingdoms or principalities, subject to Troy. Diodorus tells us that the Trojans were subdued by Ninus; but Philostratus on the contrary, says, that they were allies and in no manner vassals or tributaries to the Assyrians.

In regard to the laws of the Trojans we know almost nothing; but of their religion we are not left without information. It seems in substance to have been the same as that of the inhabitants of Greater Phrygia, of which I have already spoken. The principal deities of the Trojans seem to have been Cybele, or as they styled her, the Great Mother of the gods, who, according to the common opinion, was brought into Troas from Crete by Teucer, lord of that island, and the alleged progenitor of the Trojans ;* Apollo, who had a temple in the citadel of Troy, called Pergamus, in which Homer makes it appear that Æneas was concealed by this god, till the wounds he had received in an encounter with Diomedes, were cured by Latona and Diana, Apollo's mother and sister; and Minerva or Pallas, from whose temple Virgil pathetically describes Cassandra dragged by the victorious Greeks, while the city was in flames. The famous Palladium was a wooden statue of this goddess, holding in one hand a buckler, and in the other a spear, so contrived as to be set in motion, while the eyes rolled in a threatening manner. We are told that while the Trojans were erecting a temple to Pallas in their citadel, this statue fell from heaven into the temple before it was covered; whereupon an oracle being consulted, answered that the city of Troy could not be taken, so long as this heavenly gift remained within its precincts. This being made known to the combined Greeks during the siege of Troy, the poets tell us that Diomedes and Ulysses contrived to secretly enter the temple, and, after having killed the guards carried away the Palladium, thus bereaving the Trojans of that protecting power, which had hitherto frustrated all attempts of the Greeks to capture Troy. The Roman writers however, assure us that this very statue was brought into Italy by Æneas, and lodged first at Lavinium, then at Alba, and at last removed to Rome, and deposited in the temple of Vesta, under the care of the Vestals and the Nautian family. The Romans were so strongly impressed by the false notion, that the city which was blessed with this image of the mighty goddess could never fall into its enemies hands, that Metellus seeing the temple of Vesta in flames, risked his life to rescue this sacred depository; and for this act received the thanks of the senate and the people of Rome, for having saved the republic. The Romans universally asserted, and the vulgar no doubt believed, that they were in possession of the identical Palladium of Troy, without producing proof of this assertion. "For to say that it was in Troy when the city was taken, is the same as to deny its boasted virtue of rendering that city impregnable in which it was

* Virg. lib. iii.

lodged. On the other hand, if it was stolen by the Greeks before they entered Troy, how could Æneas bring it into Italy ?”*

Venus also is considered among the Trojan deities, but as to Vesta, whom Æneas is said by the poets to have carried into Italy with his household gods, there are no traces of worship paid to her at Troy.t Among the Trojan deities, we find mention made of Apollo Smynthius.‡

In regard to the modes of worship and the religious customs of the Trojans, we know almost nothing; but it is generally presumed that they were nearly the same as those of the inhabitants of Greater Phrygia.

The Trojans appear to have been a very loyal people, for we do not find in their history any plots, conspiracies, or revolts against their princes. To judge from the deeds related of them in the long war with the Greeks, they seem to have been brave and experienced warriors. We have very little information of their attainments in art and science, or of their civil institutions; but they are celebrated by ancient writers, as one of the most polite and civilized nations of their time, and during the reign of their latter kings, appear to have risen to a high degree of splendor and magnificence, which indicate both industry and progress in the arts.

That the trade of the Trojans must have been considerable, we may infer from the situation of their country, which invited to it merchants from, all neighboring parts, as it was provided in abundance with many useful commodities, and all the necessaries of life. Besides their settlements in Thrace, in Peloponnesus, in Sicily, in Egypt,|| and in Africa,¶

*

English Universal History, vol. ii. pp. 309, 310. Though according to the common opinion of the ancients the Palladium was carried by stealth away from Troy by Diomedes and Ulysses; some tell us that the true Palladium never fell into the hands of the Greeks, it being carefully concealed, and another of the same shape and size exposed to public adoration; this, say they, was carried off by the Greeks, but the true Palladium remained in Troy till Eneas removed it from thence to Lavinium. But as this is derogating from the virtue of the true Palladium, and putting it, as it were, upon the same level with a false one, since it was not able to save the city in which it was kept; others, to mend the matter, pretend that the Greeks returned the Palladium to the Trojans, or rather to Eneas, being warned to do so by the oracles.

† As Vesta was so zealously worshipped in Greece that there was scarcely a city that did not contain a temple dedicated to this goddess, with a lamp always burning in her honor, some writers have concluded that the rites and ceremonies of Vesta were introduced into Italy by the Greeks, and not by the Trojans.

This deity was styled Smynthius, from the Phrygian word Sminthos, signifying a fieldmouse. Strabo, lib. xiii. and Ælian, lib. iv, tell us that this animal made such a devastation in the field of Troas, that the inhabitants, finding all other means of ridding the country of them unsuccessful, had recourse to the Oracle of Delphos, which answered that they should be delivered from that plague if they sacrificed to Smynthian Apollo, which they did accordingly, and moreover erected a temple in Amaxito, a city of Troas, to their pretended deliv. erer, addressing him under the name just now given. Others relate the matter differently, telling us, that the inhabitants of Troas worshipped mice, for having, on a certain occasion, gnawed the bowstrings of their enemies, and thereby secured a complete victory to the Phrygians. THerod. 1. iv.

Pausanias, lib. ii.

Diod. Sicul. lib. i. c. 1.

are convincing evidence that the Trojans early applied themselves to trade and navigation, which in all likelihood, were the sources of the riches, splendor, and power, for which they were at one time eminent.*

LETTER XX.

THE TROJAN KINGS.

IT is with much probability assumed by several modern writers, and also indicated by a few among the ancients, that Troas, or Phrygia Minor, was governed by kings, even before the reigns of Teucer and Dardanus ; but we cannot determine which of these two kings first reigned, as writers differ in regard to their priority, yet yielding to the majority of opinion, we will give to Teucer the precedency.

Teucer, the son of Scamander and Ida,† is said to have ruled over all Troas, or Phrygia Minor, and to have been successful in all his undertakings; but what they were, we find nowhere specified. Having no son, he married his only daughter, by some called Batia, by others Asia, and again by others Arisba, to Dardanus, settling the crown of Troas upon him and his descendants. Those who make Teucer a Phrygian by birth, suppose him to have come into possession of the kingdom by a lineal descent, and place a king named Cynthius among his ancestors. Thus according to these writers, Teucer was not the founder of the Trojan kingdom, but the last of a long series of kings, prior to those of the family which sprung from Dardanus and Batia.‡ From Teucer the country was called Teucria, and the inhabitants Teucri.

* English Universal History, vol. ii. p. 311.

+ That is, born in Phrygia, near the river Scamander and the Mount Ida.

This is the opinion of Diodorus Siculus, but Virgil makes Teucer a Cretan.-See Eneid, lib. iii. verse 104, &c.

Teucer, according to those who follow Virgil's opinion, which is ascribed to Berosus, was the son of one Scamander, a native of Crete, from which island Teucer, retiring in the time of a great famine, put to sea, with the third part of the inhabitants, in quest of new homes, and arrived at a port of Phrygia, which lay on the Hellespont. Here he landed not far from the Rhætean promontory, and being the first night greatly annoyed by vast numbers of mice, he resolved to settle there in compliance with the oracle, which had directed him, before he set sail, to settle where he should be attacked in the night-time by an enemy sprung from the earth. His first care was to raise a temple to Apollo Smynthius, who was pictured treading under foot a mouse, called in the Cretan or Phrygian language, Sminthos. He gave new names to the hill and river near which he landed, calling the one Ida, from the hill of the same name in his native country, and the other Scamander, which was the name of his