Troy
Troy names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below. 1 of them is described by more than one encyclopedia.
Troy or Ilium, an ancient city of Asia Minor
Described by 2 of the 6 encyclopedias.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
or Ilium, an ancient city of Asia Minor . It was situated in the plain of the Scamander River, near the Asiatic side of the entrance to the Hellespont. The legend of the siege of Troy is the most celebrated in antiquity. It furnishes the theme of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, and is, in part, the theme of Virgil's Aeneid. According to the legend, Troy was a strongly walled city inhabited by Asiatics. Paris, son of Priam, the king, visited Menelaus, king of Sparta, and repaid his hospitality by carrying away his wife, Helen, the most beautiful woman in Greece. Menelaus called on his countrymen to aid him in taking revenge. Achilles, the lion-hearted, came with his Myrmidons from Thessaly; Odysseus, the crafty king of Ithaca, and the aged Nestor, sage in council, came at the call. Agamemnon, king of Mycenae and brother of Menelaus, was made commander-in-chief. A hundred thousand warriors, twelve hundred war galleys, they crossed the Aegean and laid siege to Troy. Wondrous deeds of valor were done under the old walls. The Trojans drove the Greeks repeatedly to their ships. Achilles slew Hector, the valiant son of Priam, and dragged his body at the tail of his chariot around the city. The siege lasted for ten years, 1194-1184 B. C. At last the Greeks gained entrance through the strategy of the wooden horse. They built an immense wooden horse, the body of which they filled with armed men. The rest of the Greeks withdrew to their ships and sailed away, leaving behind one man, Sinon, who was taken prisoner. Sinon acted well his part. He pretended to have been deserted by Ulysses and to be terribly frightened. When told that his life would be spared, he explained to the Trojans that the horse was an offering to Minerva and that it was made of great size lest it be taken into the city and thus win the favor of the goddess for the Trojans instead of the Greeks. So the horse was taken into the city with much rejoicing. At night the armed men came forth from their concealment and opened the gates for their companions who had returned. Carnage and conflagration, and "Troy was not." The very site of the city was long in controversy. In 1870 Dr. Schliemann, an enthusiastic German student of Homer, began a series of excavations on a mound popularly believed to be the site of the lost city of Troy. As he descended, he found nine distinct strata-the remains of nine cities, one under the other. The second stratum from the bottom, fifty feet below the present surface, revealed massive walls and defensive gateways, the foundation of a palace and archaic articles of gold, silver, and bronze. For a time this was believed to be the Troy of Homer, but later enlargements of the excavations have established the conviction that the Troy of Homer is the sixth from the bottom, and that still older civilizations preceded the age described by Homer. Above the Homeric city is a Grecian city, evidently a place of wealth and magnificence in the time of Alexander. Above this are the remains of a Roman city, and finally, at the present surface, a wretched Turkish village, squalid with dogs and offal, the Hissarlik of modern atlases. See Homer ; Iliad; Odyssey ; Achilles ; Ajax ; Paris ; Hector ; Menelaus ; Agamemnon ; Ulysses ; Aeneas ; Mycenae; Laocoon ; Cassandra ; Schliemann
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
or TROJA, in classical legend and geography, the name of a district in the N. W. part of Mysia, in Asia Minor, and of a city situated in it. The latter was also called Ilium, and the former Troas, now the Troad. According to the account of Homer, the city was situated on ground rising above the plain formed by the rivers Scamander and Simoïs. On the S. E. was a hill, which was a spur of Mount Ida, and on which were the acropolis of the Trojans called Pergamum, the palaces of the king, and the temples of the gods. No such city as Troy, and no such people as the Trojans, were known in historic times. There have been various opinions respecting the site of the ancient city, and many efforts made to reconcile the present topography with the geographical statements made in the Homeric poems, the most important work in this line being the excavations of Schliemann in the Troad, at the mound of Hissarlik, long the traditional site of Troy. Schliemann excavated Hissarlik, and came first on the remains of the Græco- Roman town, Novum Ilion, or New Troy; below it he dug out the ruins of four (or three) village settlements, one below another; below them he came on "the burnt city," and finally on the lowest, the oldest, the first city. This yielded, in the way ay of relics, principally pottery and stone implements. Metals were practically unknown to its inhabitants, who were plainly a settled pastoral and agricultural people. The interval that elapsed between the desertion and decay of this first city and the foundation of the next must have been long, for a layer of earth 1 foot 9 inches deep intervenes between the debris of the first and the second or "burnt city." The inhabitants of this city were, however, still in the stone age; but the number of gold and silver relics, and the presence of some copper implements, point to the approach of the bronze age, and seem to indicate a transition from the age of stone to that of metals. The two most important facts in connection with this city are the discovery of what Schliemann believed at first to be "Priam's Treasure" and the evidence that the city was destroyed in a conflagration. The treasure consists of big diadems of gold, chains and pendants of gold, golden earrings, all packed in a silver jar, bars of silver, 8,700 small gold rings, disks, buttons, and small bars of gold, old, sil silver vases, gold cups, electrum cups, silver daggers, etc. The whole of this treasure had been packed together and stowed away probably in a secret chamber constructed in the acropolis wall. Scholars are not agreed as to the accuracy of Schliemann's discoveries.
Troy a city of New York
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city of New York, and the county-seat of Rensselaer co. It is at the head of the navigation on the Hudson river, and is the terminus of the New York Barge Canal. It is on the Delaware and Hudson, the New York Central, the Rutland, and the Boston and Maine railroads. There is communication by river with New York and other cities. Troy is the distributing center for a large area. It is on the border of the Adirondack country and is is placed in the center of a beautiful surrounding country. On the E. are the Berkshire Hills, S. is the valley of the Hudson, W. the valley of the Mohawk, and on the N. the Adirondack Mountains. All of this territory is easily accessible by trolley, steam roads, and improved State highways. Troy is connected by trolley lines with other cities, and is served by four interurban trolley systems. The suburbs of the city are unusually attractive. There are 8 public parks, which are well cared for. Troy is an important educational center. It is the seat of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the Emma Willard School for Girls, the the Russell Sage College of Practical Arts, the Troy Conservatory of Music, the Emma Willard Conservatory of Music, the Mary Warren Free Institute, the La Salle Institute, and the Troy Business College. There are three high schools, a vocational school, 18 trade schools, and 16 kindergartens. There are also 10 parochial schools. The public library contains over 50,000 volumes. There were in 1921 75 churches, representing practically every denomination, There are four hospitals equipped with modern appliances. There are also many homes and asylums which provide for the treatment of persons needing assistance. The city maintains 7 public playgrounds. Troy is an important manufacturing city. There were in 1920 32 wholesale houses and nearly 360 manufacturing concerns, employing more than 20,000 wage earners and producing annually products valued at over $60,000,000. More than 90 per cent. of the collars and cuffs made in the United States are manufactured in this city. It ranks second in the manufacture of brushes and is one of the most important manufacturing centers for engineering instruments. Other manufactures include valves, fire hydrants, merchant iron, pig iron, rivets, stoves, laundry machinery, ventilators, knitting machines, paper, paint, knit goods, shirts, tinware, marine engines, and anchor chains. The Watervliet Arsenal, across the river from Troy, is one of the largest and most important government plants in the country. There are six National banks, two trust companies, and three building and loan as sociations. The assessed valuation of real estate of the city, in 1920, was $55,700,- 114, with a grand total of $61,194,631. The city has many large retail establishments and is the shopping center for a district embracing more than 500,000 people. History. The site of the city was a Van der Heyden was one of the first settlers. He purchased a farm of 65 acres which in 1787 was laid out as a village. The name, Troy, was adopted in 1789, and the place was chartered as a city in 1816. It has been three times nearly destroyed by fire. In 1892 there were election riots there during which Robert Ross was murdered. One of his slayers, "Bat" Shea, was executed in 1896. Pop. (1910) 76,813; (1920) 72,- 013, including the sections annexed in 1901.
Troy a city of New York
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a city of New York . It is situated on the east bank of the Hudson River at the head of tide-water navigation. The Erie canal connects the Hudson at this point with Buffalo, and the Champlain canal gives water communication with Lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence. Steamers from New York City, canal boats from the shores of Lake Erie, and canal boats from Canadian waters meet here and are the sight of the city. These commercial facilities are supplemented by railroads and local trolley lines. The business portion of the city occupies a narrow plain, extending north and south along the river, with bluffs in the rear. The city is well built; the post-office, court house, city hall, public library, the union station, the savings bank building, music hall, the Rensselaer Hotel, and other public and semi-public buildings testify to public spirit and wealth. There are electric lights, excellent waterworks and fifty miles of paved streets. A complete public school system, Willard Seminary, and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute afford educational advantages. Troy is noted for manufactures. It is the greatest collar and cuff center in the world. Troy stores are noted. Henry Burden developed his machine-made horseshoe here. Guns for coast defense are made at Watervliet on the opposite shore of the Hudson. Troy lays claim to an early industry that gave rise to the expression "Uncle Sam." The current account runs that "Uncle Sam" Willson furnished the American army with beef during the war of 1812. It was packed in white oak barrels and was spoken of by the soldiers as "Uncle Sam's" pork. From this start all supplies furnished by the United States became known as "Uncle Sam's." Troy occupies ground in the center of a region rendered historic during Burgoyne's campaign. There are a number of note-worthy monuments. The more recent are in Oakwood cemetery, including shafts to General Wool of the Mexican War and General Thomas, the Rock of Chickamauga. A soldiers' and sailors' monument adorns one of the city squares. The city has been formed by the union of various farms and villages. Bridges, one of them the oldest covered bridge in the United States, connect Troy with Watervliet, Cohoes, Waterford, and Green Island. The census of 1900 gave Troy a population of 75,057. If subsequent increase of territory, natural growth, and suburbs be included, the industrial center has a population of not far from 150,000.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's 1910 account states that later digging had "established the conviction that the Troy of Homer is the sixth from the bottom"; excavations by Carl Blegen in 1932-38 shifted the candidate to Troy VIIa, destroyed by fire around 1180 BC, while Troy VI is now generally thought to have been damaged by earthquake. The gold "Priam's Treasure" described by Collier's in 1921 belongs to Troy II, roughly 2400 BC, a thousand years before any conceivable Trojan War; it vanished from Berlin in 1945 and reappeared in Moscow's Pushkin Museum in 1993, where it remains disputed between Russia, Germany and Turkey. Hittite archives have since supplied a real Bronze Age city in the region, Wilusa, with a treaty naming its king Alaksandu, and excavations led by Manfred Korfmann from 1988 traced a large lower town and defensive ditch far beyond Schliemann's citadel. The "wretched Turkish village" at the surface is now a UNESCO World Heritage site (1998) with a museum opened nearby in 2018.
Written for this edition, 2026.