The Trojans and Their Neighbours

1111 2 3 7 4 5111 THE NEW CITY 6 7 (LEVELS VIII TO IX) 8 9 10111 11 2 3111 A FRESH LEASE OF LIFE 4 Aeolian Greeks had become the proud possessors of the all but 5 derelict site where they believed great heroes had once dwelt, where 6 once King Priam had ruled. Before its walls mighty warriors had 7 fought, slaughtered and died, their exploits celebrated in a succes- 8 sion of bardic songs spanning many centuries and culminating 9 finally in the tale told by Homer, the greatest bard of them all. His 20111 was the creative genius that would ensure immortality for this 1 setting and the story that allegedly took place within it. 2 But the great days of the city were now long past. There would 3 be no glorious new era for Troy, now called Ilion. The new age 4 Trojans went about their daily activities in relatively comfortable 5 obscurity. In practical terms the city had lost its essential raison 6 d’être. Whether or not it had served as the gateway to regular trading 7 contacts with the Black Sea and regions beyond in the Bronze Age, 8 its close sea access had undoubtedly been a key to its prosperity and 9 to the attractions it offered to those with whom it came into contact, 30111 whether in peace or in war. Its location on the north-western flank 1 of the Hittite empire had made it a strategically valuable asset to 2 the empire in a region that was prone to insurrectionist activity and 3 unwelcome intervention from across the Aegean. But changes in the 4 topography of Troy’s coastal areas, which were imposing increasing 5 limitations on its sea access, removed any major practical incentive 6 for its redevelopment on a large commercial scale. Further, the polit- 7 ical reshaping of the western Anatolian region deprived it of the 8 strategic importance it had enjoyed in the days of the Great 9111 Kingdom of Hatti. folio 151 THE NEW CITY (LEVELS VIII TO IX) 1111 CASPIAN BLACK 2 SEA 3 Troy Gordion 4 LYDIA PHRYGIA 5111 Sardis Halys R. SEA 6 L. Van L. Urmia 7 Tigris R. 8 ASSYRIA O r o 9 n t e Euphrates R. Nineveh s R 10111 . 11 MEDITERRANEAN PERSIA 2 SEA SYRIAN DESERT 3111 BA Babylon B Susa YL DEAD O 4 NI SEA A 5 Memphis 6 7 EGYPT 8 Nile R. 9 RED 0 400 km 20111 SEA 1 2 Map 7.1 Homelands of the Near Eastern kingdoms, first half of first 3 millennium BC. 4 5 6 7 Ilion was left largely undisturbed by the dramatic changes that 8 were taking place in the Near Eastern world during the first half 9 of the first millennium. Five great empires rose and four of them 30111 fell in this period. The first of these was the so-called Neo-Assyrian 1 empire. From his northern Mesopotamian homeland, the Assyrian 2 king Adad-nirari II (c.911–891) embarked upon a programme of 3 aggressive territorial expansion that reached its peak in the reign 4 of Sargon (c.721–705), around the time Aeolian settlers were occupy- 5 ing the site of Troy. A century later, the Assyrian kingdom fell to 6 a coalition formed between the Chaldean rulers of Babylonia and 7 the newly emerging kingdom of the Medes east of the Tigris. The 8 Chaldeans now became the new overlords of Mesopotamia. But the 911 empire that they built was one of the briefest in the history of folio 152 THE NEW CITY (LEVELS VIII TO IX) 1111 the Near East. After peaking in the reign of the biblically infamous 2 Nebuchadnezzar (c.605–562), it was destroyed in 539 by the newly 3 emerging Persian empire founded by Cyrus the Great. Already Cyrus 4 had conquered the Lydian empire of western Anatolia, which had 5111 arisen after the collapse of the kingdom of Phrygia; the latter, whose 6 royal seat lay at Gordion in central Anatolia, had been founded in 7 the eighth century by King Mita (Greek Midas). Cyrus comprehen- 8 sively defeated the Lydian king Croesus in a battle outside the Lydian 9 capital Sardis in 546, and thereupon incorporated his kingdom into 10111 the Persian empire, which now extended to the Ionian cities along 11 the Aegean coast, formerly subjects of the Lydian king. 2 This constant reconfiguring of the map of the Near East appears 3111 to have had minimal effect on the backwater settlement in the 4 Troad. The present little township on the site, which lacked even 5 the status of a polis, was but a pale shadow of the royal capital that 6 had once been there. But Ilion was not destined to sink into oblivion. 7 On the contrary, current developments in the Greek world ensured 8 that its name would become ever more widely known. The great 9 Greek diaspora (c.800–500 BC) commonly called the colonization 20111 movement did much to facilitate the spread of Homer’s tales to 1 many parts of the expanding Greek world. And in sixth-century 2 Athens, during the regime of the tyrant Pisistratus, performances of 3 the Homeric epics were incorporated into the newly reorganized 4 Panathenaic festival. Perhaps now for the first time they gained 5 permanent form in writing.1 6 Athens’ official adoption of the epics could hardly have been 7 prompted by the role that Homer assigned its warriors in the 8 Achaean Confederacy. The part the Athenian contingent played in 9 the conflict was a minor one and produced no Athenian heroes 30111 worthy of note. Rather, under Pisistratus’ leadership Athens was 1 inspired by a panhellenic vision in which it saw itself as the cultural 2 as well as the commercial centre of the Greek world. The ambitious 3 new building programmes, the city’s vigorous commercial develop- 4 ment and the revamping of its religious festivals were all explicit 5 statements of its self-assumed role as the leading state in Greece. By 6 embedding the Homeric poems within their city’s most important 7 religious and cultural festival, the Athenians were in effect closely 8 identifying the city with the greatest and most widely known 9111 literary masterpieces of the Greek world. Henceforth Athens would folio 153 THE NEW CITY (LEVELS VIII TO IX) 1111 become the cultural and spiritual home of these masterpieces. Their 2 adoption was an explicit statement of the city’s role as the focus of 3 panhellenic culture. 4 It was also the expression of an outlook that drew no distinction 5111 between those who fought on the Greek side and those who fought 6 on the Trojan. Though both sides slaughtered each other mercilessly 7 on the plains of Troy, Homeric tradition united them in a common 8 culture, with shared beliefs and customs, and adherence to a common 9 set of ideals and values. So too, Pisistratid Athens embraced all its 10111 Homeric heroes without distinction. And the incorporation of the 11 epics in Athens’ most important festival no doubt spawned genera- 2 tions of little Hectors and Priams and Andromaches alongside many 3111 an infant Achilles, Agamemnon and Helen. 4 But any affinity or empathy the Classical Greeks may have felt 5 with the legendary inhabitants of Troy was soon to give way to 6 feelings of a quite different kind – in the context of the rise of Persia 7 and its relentless advance westwards. 8 9 THE PERSIAN FACTOR 20111 1 After the fall of the Lydian empire, the Greek states along Anatolia’s 2 Aegean coast were also forced to acknowledge the conqueror Cyrus 3 as their sovereign. For most practical purposes, they were merely 4 exchanging one overlord for another. But they fiercely resented their 5 subjection to the Persian despot. For almost fifty years the resent- 6 ment simmered. Finally, in the reign of the emperor Darius, the 7 Greek states joined forces in an heroic and ultimately futile rebellion 8 against Persian rule (499). Athens responded to an appeal for assis- 9 tance by dispatching to their Ionian kinsfolk a small fleet of twenty 30111 ships. But defeat was inevitable. Darius ruthlessly crushed the rebel- 1 lion and then turned his attention to the Greek mainland. He was 2 furious at Athens for its support of the rebels. This, allegedly, was 3 one of the reasons for his abortive invasion of mainland Greece in 490 4 – which was followed by a much more ambitious and determined 5 invasion by his son and successor Xerxes ten years later. 6 Troy once more comes to our attention in the course of Xerxes’ 7 preparations for leading his vast army from Asia into Europe. On 8 reaching the Scamander River and before crossing the Hellespont, 911 Xerxes ascended the citadel of Troy, where he was told the whole folio 154 THE NEW CITY (LEVELS VIII TO IX) 1111 story of the place. Thereupon, he sacrificed 1,000 oxen to the goddess 2 Athena of Ilion and ordered his priests to offer libations to the 3 heroes of the Trojan War.2 4 According to Herodotus, the Persians dated their hostility to 5111 Greece right back to the time of Troy’s fall. And it is possible that 6 Xerxes sought to represent himself as the avenger of Troy’s defeat 7 – the avenger arising from the bones of King Priam. His arrival at 8 Troy was a critical point in his campaign against Greece.

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