A Summer in Phrygia: Part II

Abstract

After exploring the north side of the Lycos valley, and before proceeding down the right bank of the Maeander towards Ortakche (see Part I. init.), we spent a short time in the Phrygo-Lydian borderland, seeking for some evidence to clear up the uncertainties attaching to the situation of Sala, Tralla, Aetos, Kallatebos, and Apollonos-Hieron. (See Plate IV.)In discussing this district, I enjoy the advantage of having before me the work of three previous explorers, Prof. Ramsay, Prof. Radet, and the late Dr. Karl Buresch. I have been careful to quote the opinions of these critics, though I must sometimes differ from them, because it is convenient for the reader to have before him all the views that are, or have been, held in regard to each town. Amid a few differences, I find myself in general agreement with Prof. Ramsay and Dr. Buresch. In the development of their views from the earliest to the latest stage there is, happily, a steady approximation towards the same results; and yet, by a strange accident, this approximation was quite unconscious, for Dr. Buresch knew only Prof. Ramsay's earliest views, while Prof. Ramsay in his latest work had only a very imperfect knowledge of Dr. Buresch's earliest opinions. I regret that I am obliged to differ more widely from the results reached by M. Radet, and, as some readers might put a wrong construction on such expressions of dissent, I would here record my appreciation of the value of his fresh and suggestive work. When a subject is in process of growth, every suggestion and every fresh point of view are valuable, and it is only by due consideration and open criticism of all proposed combinations that we can cherish the hope of ultimately reaching, or approximating to, the truth.