Historical
Troas (Troad) 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. 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. Hittite texts indicate a number of raids on Wilusa during the 13th century BC. 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 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.
Alexandria Troas ("Alexandria of the Troad") is an ancient Greek city of the Troad, situated on the Aegean coast at nearly its middle point, a little south of Tenedos. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, this site was first called Sigia; perhaps about 310 BC. Antigonos refounded the city as Antigonia Troas. Early in the next century the name was changed by Lysimachos to Alexandria Troas, in memory of Alexander the Great.
As the chief port of north-west Asia Minor, the place prospered greatly in Roman times, and the existing remains sufficiently attest its former importance. Strabo mentions that a Roman colony was created at the location in the reign of Augustus, named Colonia Alexandria Augusta Troas (called simply Troas during this period). Augustus, Hadrian and the rich grammarian Herodes Atticus contributed greatly to its embellishment; the aqueduct still preserved is due to the latter. Julius Caesar and later Constantine the Great considered making Troas the capital of the Roman Empire. In Roman times, it was a significant port for travelling between Anatolia and Europe. Paul of Tarsus sailed for Europe for the first time from Alexandria, and returned there from Europe (and there occurred later the episode of the raising of Eutychus. Ignatius of Antioch also paused at this city before continuing to Rome.
