There is an interesting question in relation to Dr. Schliemann's Trojan excavations, which seems yet unsettled; it is this: when was the historical Ilion really founded? and the answer to this question involves another of considerable interest: was the historical Ilion on the site of the mythical Troy? If its foundation be recent, and in historical times, there is room for doubt as to the identity of the sites, and accordingly the ancient inquirers who denied this identity also denied the antiquity of Ilion. I propose, therefore, to review the evidence as briefly as possible by the light of recent discussions, and beg leave for this very brevity's sake to be allowed through the following argument to call the heroic city Troy, and the historical Ilion, without further specification.

Both Dr. Schliemann and I had come independently to the same conclusion on the seeond question just stated. He was led by his excavations, and I by a critical examination of the historical notices of the ancients, to assert the identity of the two sites, and we advanced from this to the further conclusion, that the alleged foundation of Ilion in historical times on a new site was not true, and that probably Ilion succeeded to the site and traditions of Troy without any considerable interruption. This was the general opinion throughout Greek history, till a very learned man, Demetrius of Scepsis, undertook to destroy the claims to a heroic ancestry of the Ilians, then rich and insolent through the favour of Lysimachus.