The full and explicit argument of Strabo, in the 13th book of his Geography, has persuaded the philological world pretty generally, from his day to our own, that the Greek Ilium of his time was not the town about which the heroes of the Iliad were supposed to have fought their immortal conflicts. I now propose, according to the flattering invitation of Dr. Schliemann, to enquire critically into this argument, and see what foundation it has in real history.

Let me first observe that Strabo is not our original authority for this theory, but that he professedly borrows his arguments from a certain Demetrius of Skepsis (in the Troad), who had written largely on the subject, and who had, in fact, started what I may call the illegitimacy of the Ilium of his day.