hes were preserved in urns. Of such urns
were found an immense number in all the pre-Hellenic strata on the
hill. Lastly, the Treasure, which some member of the royal family had
probably endeavored to save during the destruction of the city, but
was forced to abandon, leaves no doubt that the city was destroyed by
the hands of enemies. This Treasure was found on the large enclosing
wall by the side of the royal palace, at a depth of 27-1/2 feet, and
covered with red Trojan ashes from 5 to 6-1/2 feet in depth, above
which was a post-Trojan wall of fortification 19-1/2 feet high.

As Homer is so well informed about the topography and the climatic
conditions of the Troad, there can surely be no doubt that he had
himself visited Troy. But, as he was there long after its destruction,
and its site had moreover been buried deep in the _debris_ of the
ruined town, and had for centuries been built over by a new town,
Homer could neither have seen the Great Tower of Ilium nor the Scaean
Gate, nor the great enclosing Wall, nor the palace of Priam; for, as
every visitor to the Troad may convince himself by the excavations,
the ruins and red ashes of Troy alone--forming a layer of from five to
ten feet thick--covered all these remains of immortal fame, and this
accumulation of _debris_ must have been much more considerable at the
time of Homer's visit. Homer made no excavations so as to bring those
remains to light, but he knew of them from tradition; for the tragic
fate of Troy had for centuries been in the mouths of all minstrels,
and the interest attached to it was so great that tradition itself
gave the exact truth in many details.

"Say now, ye Nine, who on Olympus dwell,
Muses--for ye are Goddesses, and ye
Were _present_ and know all things; _we ourselves_
_But hear from Rumor's voice_, and nothing know--
Who were the chiefs and mighty lords of Greece."

Such, for instance, is the memory of the Scaean Gate in the Great Tower
of Ilium, and the constant use of the name Scaean Gate in the plural,
because it had to be described as double, and in fact it has been
proved to be a double gate. According to the lines of the Iliad, it
now seems extremely probable that, at the time of Homer's visit, the
King of Troy declared that his race was descended in a direct line
from AEneas.

"But o'er the Trojans shall AEneas reign,
And his sons' sons, through ages yet unborn."

Now, as Homer never saw Ilium's G