Troas
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Map of the Troas |
Troas may also refer to Troas, the wife of Arybbas. For the fictional planet, see Troas (planet).The
Troas (Troad; see also
List of traditional Greek place names) is an ancient region in the northwestern part of
Anatolia, bounded by the
Hellespont to the northwest, the
Aegean Sea to the west, and separated from the rest of Anatolia by the massif that forms
Mount Ida. It is drained by two rivers, the
Scamander (modern
Karamenderes) and the
Simois, which join at the area containing the ruins of
Troy. Grenikos, Kebren, Simoeis, Rhesos, Rhodios, Heptaporos and Aisepos were seven rivers of the Troad and the names of the river gods that inhabited each river.
The region later known as the Troad was called Wilusa by the
Hittites. This identification was first put forth by
Emil Forrer, but largely disputed by most Hittite experts until 1983 when Houwink ten Cate showed that two fragments were from the same original
cuneiform tablet and in his discussion of the restored letter showed that Wilusa was correctly placed in northwestern Anatolia. According to Trevor Bryce, Hittite texts indicate a number of
Ahhiyawan raids on Wilusa during the
13th century BC, which may have resulted with the overthrow of king Walmu.
Bryce also reports that archeological surveys conducted by John Bintliff in the 1970s show that a powerful kingdom that held sway over northwestern Anatolia was based at Troy.
The kings of
Pergamum later ceded the territory of the Troad to the
Roman Republic. Under the
Empire, the territory of the Troad became part of the province of
Asia; under the later
Byzantine Empire, it was included in the
Thema of the Aegean Islands. Following its conquest by the
Ottoman Empire, the Troad formed part of the
sanjak of
Bigha.
As of 2005, Troas is part of the
Turkish province of
Canakkale.
See also:
Alexandria Troas.
*Trevor Bryce. Chapter 14, "The Trojan War: Myth or Reality" in
The Kingdom of the Hittites. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998. ISBN 0-19924010-8
