DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4692#0046
37
DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES.
ASSOS."
E arc informed by tradition that Assos was founded by the inhabitants of Methymna.
Ephorus places the town in the vicinity of Gargara. It received an iEolian colony
and possessed a large part of the neighbouring country, but little is known of its early
history. When Mysia submitted to the kings of Lydia, this town became the strongest
and most important place in the Troad, and when the province was conquered by the
Persians, these princes required the territory of Assos to furnish them with corn.
Strabo has recorded the curious history, not without precedent, of the eunuch Hermias,
who was for some years governor at Assos. He originally belonged to the establishment
of a banker, but during a journey made to Athens, he learnt the lessons of Aristotle and Plato. On his
return he joined his master, who was about to seize by force Assos and Atarnea, and afterwards succeeded
him m the possession of those places. He summoned Aristotle and Xenocrates to his court, and showed them
much attention. He also gave his niece in marriage to Aristotle; but Memnon the Rhodian, a general in the
Persian service, pretending friendship for nermias, invited him to his house, seized him, and sent him to the
King of Persia, who put him to death. Some years afterwards the eunuch Phileta3rus became, in the same
manner, master of Pergamus.
Prom the hands of Lysimachus, Assos passed into those of the Kings of Pergamus, and the Romans
took possession of it in the time of Attalus III. This town produced several celebrated men, whose names
are given by Strabo.
Assos was visited by St. Luke and St. Paul when those apostles came to preach in the Troad. A
church of the 5th century shows that Christianity was established here even at that early period. Assos
became the scat of a bishop, and its bishop Maximus assisted at the Council of Ephesus in the year 431.
The military constructions which have replaced the Acropolis and iEolian towers attest that in the Middle
Ages this place was still of importance.
The plateau of the citadel commands a view of the Gulf of Adrymittium, and of the canal of
Mytilene, the sea view extending as far as Scio. No ship can approach without being signalled from
the mountain. At the present time the village, which has succeeded this important place, has the name
of Echram, probably from that of some emir who governed this part of the Troad. All the names of Turkish
provinces have been derived from those of emirs.
It is to be regretted that the walls of fortified cities have in later times been frequently disfigured by
conditions. The town of Assos is free from such disfigurement. One may here study to advantage the beautiful
Hellenic construction which time has spared. The perfection of the work is such that the Romans found
nothing to alter in it. All the walls are constructed of blocks of trachyte, without mortar or cement.
Beginning the tour of the walls at the north angle, we observe a small square bastion, differing in
construction from the rest of the walls. The masonry is partly Cyclopean, partly isodomous, but in large
blocks, roughly hewn and bossy. It measures 21 feet by 13 feet.
A neighbouring tower is semicircular; its interior diameter is 23 feet; and its walls are 5 feet thick. The
entrance to the town near the tower is by a doorway with a semicircular arch, which appears to be Roman.
All the towers seem to be constructed on the same system. A fort surmounts the north-east angle, and
from it the walls turn south towards the postern: a wide road which runs alongside this wall is the only one
that is level. Here are placed numerous sarcophagi in the Greek style, and still in situ, all, however, opened;
but the tops remain near them. The walls form in this place a re-entering angle, at the bottom of which
1 Abridged from Texior's Asie Mlneure.