Twenty years ago, it looked as though Troy was just a small citadel of only about half an acre. New excavations since 1988 constitute little less than an archaeological revolution, proving that Homer was right about the city. Spectacular new evidence makes it likely that the Trojan War indeed took place. And they all came to Troy because of the words of a Greek poet.īut are those words true? Granted that ancient Troy really existed, was it anything like the splendid city of Homer's description? Did it face an armada from Greece? Did the Trojan War really happen? But the trained archaeologists who have followed him by the hundreds in the 130 years since have put the excavations on a firm and scientific basis. Schliemann, who relied on preliminary work by Frank Calvert, was an inspired amateur, if also something of a fraud. In 1871 Heinrich Schliemann amazed the world with the announcement that a mound near the entrance to the Dardanelles contained the ruins of Troy. Over the centuries since then, armies have swept past Troy's ancient walls, from Alexander the Great to the Gallipoli Campaign of 1915.Īnd then there are the archaeologists. People had already fought over Troy for two thousand years by the time Homer's Greeks are said to have attacked it. Walls, warriors, and blood were the city's lot. Although the north wind often blocked ancient shipping there, Troy has a protected harbor, and so it beckoned to merchants - and marauders.
At Troy, the steel-blue water of the Dardanelles Straits pours into the Aegean and opens the way to the Black Sea.
Its location, where Europe and Asia meet, made it rich and visible. Chapters of Barry Strauss' new book include "War for Helen," "Assault on the Walls" and "The Night of the Horse."
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