Troy: The World Deceived: Homer's Guide to Pergamon

By John Lascelles

The Ancient Greeks needed to deceive the Romans about the time and location of the Trojan War. At Ilios and Troy, their ancestors had destroyed the ancestral home and empire of Rome’s leading families. From the 5th century BC, they watched Rome become the world’s greatest military power. How could they avoid blood feud and genocide? They used their intellectual prestige to minimize the Trojan War’s potential for harm. They set back the war four hundred years into pre-history. They separated the war from the settlement of Ionia and the founding of Rome. They created confusion in history and two thousand years of controversy. They survived. Homer guides you in finding Ilios and Troy around the greatest acropolis east of the Aegean Sea. You will realize that the Trojan War began the Western civilization.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Feb 26, 2021
• ISBN: 9781645365389

John Lascelles

John Lascelles was born in Auckland, New Zealand. He was educated in England at Royal Merchant Navy School, Berkshire and Canford School, Dorset. Aged 16, he joined the steamship 'Port Caroline' of Port Line Limited as Apprentice for a wartime Atlantic convoy in December 1944. As Second Officer (Navigating) with a First Mate's Certificate of Competency, he left the sea 8 years, 19 voyages, and 3 circum-navigations later. With a Diploma in Architecture (Oxford), he came to Australia in 1960 on the assisted passage scheme for British migrants. He designed the tourist attraction Cat & Fiddle Square and animated mural in Hobart, Tasmania. In 1962, he joined the National Capital Development Commission in Canberra for Civic Design. Australia's beautiful capital drew him back from Melbourne to Canberra in 1969 for more building design and construction in the Commonwealth Department of Housing and Construction. He retired from the Department's Central Office in 1989. His fascination with the mystery of Troy led him to decades of research and to explore Hisarlik (Truva-the false site) and Bergama Pergamon--the true site, in Turkey. The picture shows him in 1980 on the rocky brow at the summit of the mount that he believes is Homer's famous hill 'Kallikolone' in the Iliad. Troy-Seeker presents new insights in story form to identify the true location of Ilios and Troy and the true time of the Trojan War. Here is a love story for all who love sailing ships and the ways of the sea, and who would enjoy a solution to a mystery that has confounded scholars for two thousand years. He is also the author of a guidebook titled Troy: The World Deceived: Homer's Guide to Pergamon, to be published by Austin Macauley.

Book preview

Troy: The World Deceived

Homer’s Guide to Pergamon

John Lascelles

Austin Macauley Publishers

Troy: The World Deceived

About the Author

Dedication

Copyright Information ©

Notes

Part 1: The Mystery of Troy

Preface

Introduction

The Importance of Troy

Homer: Iliad

Homer: Odyssey

Supporting Accounts

Rejecting False Trails

Hisarlik, the False Troy

Inadequate Hisarlik

Strabo, the Geographer

Some Writers Undeceived

Achilles’ Conquests

Priam’s Realm

Part 2: The Location of Troy

See for Yourself

Approach to Bergama

Old Aesyete’s Tomb

The Burial Mound Maltepe

Toward the Acropolis

Acropolis Ilios and Troy,

Great Altar of Zeus

Philetaerus, Founder of Pergamon

Attalids of Pergamon

Telephus Frieze from Pergamon

Scaean Gate of Acropolis Ilios

Place of the Wild Fig Tree

The Weak Point

Trojan Dwellings

Water Supply

Temple of Trajan

The Athena Precinct

Before the Attalids

Archaeologists Amazed to Find Earlier Restorations

Palaces of Priam, Hector, and Paris

Features of the Acropolis

Troy, the Citadel Hill

Through the Markets

Dardanian Gate

Homer’s Wagon Track

Homer’s Springs

The Second Spring

The Washing Tanks

Processional Way

Asklepion

Water Channels

Underground Bath House

Treatment Building

Viewing the Landscape

The Hill, Erigöl

Bakir Ҫayi or Caicus River

The Ford of Scamander

Achilles Routs the Trojans

Homer’s Hill Callicolone

Heracles’ Heaped-Up Wall

Tumuli in the South

Rising Ground of the Plain

Tumulus of Ilus

Dema Liman-Ancient Elaea

Encampment of the Achaeans

Priam’s Desperate Journey

Mound by Selinos

Ilios, the Acropolis

Laomedon and Penthesilea

Part 3: Hiding the Real Troy

Marble from Paros

Clue to the Motive

Why Hide Troy?

Why Choose Paros?

Pisistratus Edits Homer

Poseidon’s View

Aristarchus Edits Homer

Part 4: The Time of the Trojan War

When Did Troy Fall?

Dating the Fall of Troy

Venture into Chronology

Solomon to Carthage

Assyrian Queen Semiramis

Heracles: God or Man?

Descent from Heracles

Lengthening History

What Is a ‘Generation’?

Herodotus, the Historian

The Theme of Herodotus

How Old Is Cadiz?

Egypt’s Trojan Colony

Effects of Backdating

Vergil Probes a Mystery

300-Year Bubble

All-Pervading Skepticism

Reconstruction

Toward Understanding

Part Five: Appendices

Bibliography

Archaeology of Pergamon

Tips for Tourists

Covered Features

About the Author

John Lascelles was born February 8, 1928, in Auckland, New Zealand. He was educated in England at the Royal Merchant Navy School, Berkshire, and Canford School, Dorset.

Aged 16, he joined the steamship, ‘Port Caroline,’ as Apprentice for a wartime Atlantic convoy in December, 1944. As Second Officer (Navigating) with a British Ministry of Transport First Mates Foreign-Going Certificate of Competency, he left the sea eight years, 19 voyages, and three circumnavigations later.

With a Diploma in Architecture (Oxford), he came to Australia in 1960 by government-assisted migration. He designed the tourist attraction, Cat and Fiddle Square, and animated mural in Hobart.

In 1962, he joined the National Capital Development Commission in Canberra for civic design. From 1966, he worked on commercial projects and on the Austin Hospital in Melbourne. Australia’s beautiful capital drew him back to Canberra in 1969 for more building design and construction in the Commonwealth Department of Housing and Construction. He retired from the Department’s Central Office in 1989 and continues to live in Canberra. He has two sons and a daughter.

His fascination with the mystery of Troy led him to decades of research and to explore Hisarlik (Truva—the false site) and Pergamon (the true site) at Bergama, in Turkey. The photograph shows him, in 1980, on the rocky brow at the summit of the mount that he believes is Homer’s famous hill, ‘Callicolone,’ in the Iliad.

He is also the author of the novel, Troy-Seeker: Saga of the Ship Ilica.

Troy-Seeker presents new insights, in story form, to identify the true location of the acropolis, Ilios, the lower town of Troy, and the true time of the Trojan War. It is a love story for all who love sailing ships and the ways of the sea, and who would enjoy a solution to a mystery that has confounded scholars for two-thousand years.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to Peter John Crowe of Kings Lynn and Eastbourne, England. He gave years of moral support and provided valuable discussions. He visited Bergama, in Turkey, to follow up ideas presented here and make his own judgments. He gave permission to use his photographs, including the photograph taken during his 2005 visit and shown in Covered Features.

John Crowe wrote his book, The Troy Deception, which was published by Matador, U.K., in 2011.

To Eric Aitchison of Newcastle, N.S.W., Australia, who introduced John Crowe to me when he visited Newcastle and Canberra, and they gave me encouragement for years.

Copyright Information ©

John Lascelles (2021)

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher.

Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

Ordering Information

Quantity sales: Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the address below.

Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data

Lascelles, John

Troy: The World Deceived

ISBN 9781643788500 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781643788517 (Hardback)

ISBN 9781645365389 (ePub e-book)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020908415

www.austinmacauley.com/us

First Published (2021)

Austin Macauley Publishers LLC

40 Wall Street, 33rd Floor, Suite 3302

New York, NY 10005

USA

[e-mail]

[phone]

Concentrating on getting these insights into the public domain has been hard on my family.

Research for this study was pursued across fifty years, taking second place to a demanding career as an architect for design and documentation. Two books, each dealing with the location of Ilios and Troy, and the time of the Trojan War, were written across twenty years.

Notes

SPELLING: For the Roman poet, Publius Vergilius Maro (70-19 B.C.), I use ‘Vergil,’ although it is usually spelled ‘Virgil’ in English. A mosaic panel, with his portrait head and his name spelled VERGILIUS MARO by Monnus of the fourth century C.E. (Christian Era), is in the Rhenish State Library at Trier, Germany.

I use Latin spellings for Greek names to the convention in English Classical studies. I use the Greek Pergamon instead of Latin Pergamum to the usage of the German archaeologists who have done so much work at Hisarlik and Pergamon.

In Turkish names, pronounce ‘Ç’ as English ‘ch’ and ‘Ş’ as ‘sh.’

LOST WORKS: The 114 books of the Universal History of Nicolaus of Damascus, and the works of Dius, were ‘lost.’ We know these works only from quotation by other writers. Writers with a contrary view of the site of Troy were ‘lost’ in antiquity. This suspicion led to these studies.

FRONT COVER PHOTOS: The west side of the acropolis of Pergamon from the town of Bergama, in Turkey, and from the Processional Way of the Asklepion.

Part 1

The Mystery of Troy

Preface

The author used leisure during his sea career, for wide reading in ancient history. This interest and study continued to the present. Two important works, studied during his last voyage in 1952, prepared him to confront the questions of ancient history and see the need for reconstruction of its timetables. Emil Ludwig’s exhaustive volume, Egypt, led him to read the pioneering work, Ages in Chaos, by Immanuel Velikovsky (1895-1979), and follow his lead.

He took up a full-time course in architecture in 1952. Attempting an essay on the development of Greek architecture, he found bewildering anomalies in the history of Mycenae and Crete. As architect for alterations to the Provisional Parliament House in Australia’s developing capital city of Canberra, in 1965, he noticed the works of Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890) in the Parliamentary Library. Perhaps, some Australian politician took a lead from the interest of British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898) in Schliemann’s discoveries. The volumes he took out on loan were Schliemann’s Troy and its Remains, of 1875; Ilios, The City and Country of the Trojans, of 1881; and Troja, of 1882.

He became thoroughly dissatisfied with Hisarlik, near the Dardanelles, as the site of Troy, unable to believe that Homer had exaggerated so much. The problem continued to puzzle him. His reading broadened, to name a few, with Blegen’s Troy and the Trojans, Gladstone’s Homeric Synchronism, Lechevalier’s Description of the Plain of Troy, McLaren’s Dissertation, and Mahaffy’s The Site and Antiquity of the Homeric Ilion.

He read the Geography of Roman writer, Strabo, that led Schliemann to investigate the region of the so-called ‘Troad.’

He read the criticisms made of the identification of Troy at Hisarlik, in Schliemann’s own time. In 1882, the scholar, Sir R.C. Jebb, wrote that the collective opinion of intelligent antiquity rejected the claim of the Greek Ilium to occupy the site at Hisarlik. Jebb had a controversy with Professor J.P. Mahaffy, who had to argue that the alleged foundation of Ilion at Hisarlik in historical times is not true. To account for the later habitation levels found at Hisarlik, Mahaffy held that there had not been total and final destruction at Troy.

Jebb quoted Hellanicus and Demetrius of Scepsis against him, saying that ancient authors implied that the ruin was final and total  that the site remained desolate. Jebb capped his argument against Mahaffy, with what the orator, Lycurgus, had said, about 332-330 B.C.: Who has not heard of Troy, how it became the greatest city of its time, the mistress of Asia, and how, since it was demolished once for all by the Greeks, it has been left uninhabited through the ages? We can see immediately that the small ‘Troy,’ at the Hisarlik site, has never fitted this description by Lycurgus.

Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.) visited the Greek Ilion at Hisarlik after the Battle of the Granicus (334 B.C.). Finding it inhabited, he gave it privileges and the title of a city. Therefore, Jebb held that Lycurgus, speaking a few years later, could not have overlooked the existence of the Greek Ilion at Hisarlik, and must have meant some other place.

Schliemann had also explored the coast from Hisarlik to Edremit (ancient Adramyttium). The author followed his description, wondering if any other place on that coast would fit Troy, as perhaps Schliemann himself had done. At Edremit, however, Schliemann had turned north. He never saw Pergamon. The area to the south remained unknown to him.

The author wondered if some other place in western Turkey would fit Troy. About 1978, he entertained the thought that the Attalid kingdom’s successors of Alexander the Great, in the third century B.C., might have built Pergamon (Pergamum to the Romans) on the acropolis site of ancient Ilios. Homer applied the name of Pergamos to the highest, most sacred part of the acropolis, Ilios, and he wondered why scholars disregarded it.

Bergama’s present town spreads out from its lower hill, which could be the site of ancient Troy. From his reading, the area corresponded remarkably well with Homer’s description. It occurred to him that the Catalog of Ships in Homer’s Iliad might reveal an extended location of Achilles’ domain.

Extensive exploration on foot at Hisarlik and Bergama, in 1980 and 1991, confirmed his suppositions beyond expectation. He thought that there must have been serious reasons for such long-standing mystery, confusion, and deception. He sought the motives in the politics of ancient times and realized he had no need to accept that conventional history had the last word.

The author’s training and daily work as a design architect required him to be a problem-solver. Clients normally brief architects with inadequate information. Architects are under pressure to produce a design solution within a short time.

They use problem-solving processes of lateral thinking that differ from the academic discipline of vertical thinking. Based on experience, they tend to conceive a loose-fit solution to their immediate information and make a rough sketch of it. They use it to extract more information. If the sketch has validity, it may progress toward detailed design.

If not, it can usefully confront the client with a realization of what is not wanted, and force deeper consideration of needs. Then, they cast the sketch aside, and seek other loose-fit concepts.

The design process may not wait until research has accumulated all relevant data. The mental process often involves turning around earlier ideas and asking: What if…? Good designers know that it is a fatal restraint on creative thought to hang on to an initial concept, fearful of not being able to produce alternate solutions. Architect or historian, approaching the problem of the mystery of Troy, is challenged to proceed with inadequate information.

Problem-solvers need to be prepared to propose loose-fit concepts until they find a structure that embraces as many as possible of the requirements. We can find answers to the questions raised, but only if we desire a solution regardless of the penalty. It will be necessary to revise hallowed texts. Be willing to pay that price, and we will gain a new view of the past, leading to new discoveries. We will deepen understanding and enrich experience. The nature of the enquiry does not supply unchallengeable proof of propositions put forward here. Further exploration might provide proof. Perhaps hard evidence might come out of museum backrooms or private collections. Always, we find only what we are looking for.

Do the concepts put forward provide simpler and better explanations of what happened at Troy? Will they lead to progress in historical studies?