for since the battle was fought on the Scamandrian plain, Mars might, according to probability, encourage the men, one while from the citadel, at another time from the neighbouring places, the Simoeis and the Callicolone, to which the battle might extend. But since Callicolone is distant from the present Ilium 40 stadia, where was the utility of changing places at so great a distance, where the array of the troops did not extend? and the words “The Lycii obtained by lot the station near Thymbra,”[1407] which agree better with the ancient city, for the plain Thymbra,[1408] is near, and the river Thymbrius, which runs through it, discharges itself into the Scamander, near the temple of Apollo Thymbræus, but is distant 50 stadia from the present Ilium. The Erineos,[1409] a rugged spot abounding with wild fig-trees, lies below the ancient city, so that Andromache might say in conformity with such a situation, “but place your bands near Erineos, where the city is most accessible to the enemy, and where they can mount the wall,”[1410] but it is very far distant from the present city. The beech-tree was a little lower than the Erineos; of the former Achilles says, “When I fought with the Achæans Hector was not disposed to urge the fight away from the wall, but advanced only as far as the Scæan gates, and the beech-tree.”[1411] 36. Besides, the Naustathmus, which retains its name at present, is so near the present city that any person may justly be surprised at the imprudence of the Greeks, and the want of spirit in the Trojans;--imprudence on the part of the Greeks, that they should have left the place for so long a time unfortified with a wall, in the neighbourhood of so large a city, and so great a body of men, both inhabitants and auxiliaries; for the wall, Homer says, was constructed at a late period; or perhaps no wall was built and the erection and destruction of it, as Aristotle says, are due to the invention of the poet;--a want of spirit on the part of the Trojans, who, after the wall was built, attacked that, and the Naustathmus, and the vessels themselves, but had not the courage before there was a wall to approach and besiege this station, although the distance was not great, for the Naustathmus is near Sigeium. The Scamander discharges itelf near this place at the distance of 20 stadia from Ilium.[1412] If any one shall say that the Naustathmus is the present harbour of the Achæans, he must mean a place still nearer, distant about twelve stadia from the sea, [CAS. 599] which is the extent of the plain in front of the city to the sea; but he will be in error if he include (in the ancient) the present plain, which is all alluvial soil brought down by the rivers,[1413] so that if the interval is 12 stadia at present, it must have been at that period less in extent by one half. The story framed by Ulysses, which he tells Eumæus, implies a great distance from the Naustathmus to the city;