'Troas' or 'The Troad' is the historical name of the
Biga peninsula (Biga yarımadası) in the northwestern part of
Anatolia,
Turkey. This region now is part of the
Çanakkale province of
Turkey. Bounded by the
Çanakkale Boğazı to the northwest, by the
Aegean Sea (Ege Denizi) to the west and separated from the rest of Anatolia by the
massif that forms the
Mount Ida. It is drained by two
rivers, the
Scamander (
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
Pergamon (
Bergama) 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.
Luke
New Testament writings refer to this as Troas, and it is thought to be the home of
St. Luke, writer of the
Book Of Luke and
The Book of Acts. Evidence of this is that Luke writes in the third person about the travels of Paul, until Paul and his companions get to Troas, where the writer switches to the first person plural. Compare Acts 16:8 with Acts 16:10. This "we" section of Acts continues until Paul is arrested in Acts 16:19 and the writer goes back to writing in the third person. Then in Acts 20:5, Paul's group again arrives in Troas, and the writer again switches to the first person plural, the second "we" section of Acts. Luke never states that he lived in Troas, but this is evidence that he did.
Paul
Paul himself also refers to Troas, when he asks his fellow worker
Timothy out of
Ephesus, to get his coat there. Cf. 2 Timothy 4: 13
This was a journey of about 500km.
See also
★
Alexandria Troas
★
List of traditional Greek place names
External links
★
Coinage of Ancient Troas
Bibliography
★
Trevor R. Bryce. Chapter 14, "The Trojan War: Myth or Reality" in ''The Kingdom of the Hittites''. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998. ISBN 0-19-924010-8