Troas
Tro'as
(Τρωάς). The city from which Paul first sailed, in consequence of a divine intimation, to carry the Gospel from Asia to Europe (Ac 16:8,11) where he rested for a short time on the northward road from Ephesus (during the next missionary journey), in the expectation of meeting Titus (2Co 2:12-13); where, on the return southwards (during the same missionary journey), he met those who had preceded him from Philippi (Ac 20:5-6), and remained a week, the close of which (before the journey to Assos) was marked by the raising of Eutychus from the dead during the protracted midnight discourse; and where, after an interval of many years, the apostle left (during a journey the details of which are unknown) a cloak and some books and parchments in the house of Carpus (2Ti 4:13)-deserves the careful attention of the student of the New Test., and is memorable as a relic of the famous city of Troy.
The full name of the city was Alexandria Troas (Livy, 35:42), and sometimes it was called simply Alexandria, as by Pliny (Hist. Nat. 5, 33) and Straba (13, 593), sometimes simply Troas (as in the New Test. and the Ant. Itin. See Wesseling, p.334). The former part of the name indicates the period at which it was founded. It was first built by Antigonus, under the name of Antigonia Troas, and peopled with the inhabitants of some neighboring cities. Afterwards it was embellished by Lysimachus, and named Alexandria Troas. Its situation was on the coast of Mysia, opposite the south-east extremity of the island of Tenedos. The name Troad strictly belongs to the whole district around Troy.
Under the Romans it was one of the most important towns of the province of Asia. It was the chief point of arrival and departure for those who went by sea between Macedonia and the western Asiatic districts; and it was connected by good roads with other places on the coast and in the interior. For the latter see the map in Leake's Asia Minor, and in Lewin's St. Paul,
2, 81. The former cannot be better illustrated 'than by Paul's two voyages between Troas and Philippi (Ac 16:11-12; Ac 20:6), one of which was accomplished in two days, the other in five. At this time Alexandria was was a colonia with the Justalicum. This strong Roman connection can be read on its coins. The Romans had a peculiar feeling connected with the place, in consequence of the legend of their origin from Troy. Suetonius tells us that Julius Caesar had a plan of making Troas the seat of empire (Caes. 79). It may perhaps be inferred from the words of Horace (Catrm. 3, 3, 57) that Augustus had some such dreams. Even the modern name EskiStamnbul or Eski-Istamboul ("Old Constantinople") seems to commemorate the thought which was once in Constantine's mind (Zosim. 2, 30; Zonar. 13:3), who, to use Gibbon's words, "before he gave a just preference to the situation of Byzantium, had conceived the design of erecting the seat of empire on this celebrated spot, from which the Romans derived their fabulous origin."
⇒See also the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia.
The ruins at Eski-Stambul are considerable. The most conspicuous, however, especially the remains of the aqueduct of Herodes Atticus, did not exist when Paul was there. The walls, which may represent the extent of the city in the apostle's time, enclose a rectangular space, extending above a mile from east to west, and nearly a mile from north to south. The harbor (Conybeare and Howson, St. Paul, 1, 283) is still distinctly traceable in a basin about 400 feet long and 200 broad. — Smith. Descriptions in greater or less detail are given by Pococke, Chandler, Hunt (in Walpole's Memoirs), Clarke, Prokesch, Richter (Walfahrten,p.462), Olivier, Fellows, and the later travelers mentioned in Murray's Handbook for Turkey in Asia, p.153-159. The vicinity has recently become noted for the discovery of what are presumed to be the ruins of ancient Troy at Hisarlik by Sehliemann (Troy and its Remains [Lond. 1875]). See also Maclaren, Plain of Troy (Edinb. 1863); Meyer, Gesch. von Troas (Leips. 1877).
