According to the British historian Nennius a group of people, under the leadership of BRUTUS, invaded England some 1100 years before the Messiah and set up a dynasty of British kings. WHO was this Brutus; and WHERE did he come from? The legends and histories of the ancient world trace Brutus and his throng back to Italy and, through his ancestors, BACK TO THE TROY OF HOMER! Read the fascinating story of an Israelite refugee from Egypt who founded the famous city of TROY on the Dardanelles and started several lines of Jewish kings that are still extant in Europe today!

John D. Keyser

When the wind blows through the stone walls and battlements on top of the mound of Hissarlik, the sounds of clashing armies echo through the ancient ruins. With a little imagination the heroes of Troy can be seen walking the streets and defending the walls against the encircling Greek armies on the plain of the Troad below.

This site of ancient Troy, four miles from the Aegean Sea and four miles from the Dardanelles of western Turkey, is full of ghostly figures and mythological scenes of the ancient world to those who love the epic poems of Homer. For the readers of the classics amongst us, this is heady stuff!

After the memories of battles fought and the tragic lives of the Homeric heroes faded from human consciousness, the story of Troy and the Trojans was deemed to be fable by following generations. While retaining a core of truth, the ancient histories became confusing stories of almost nonsensical proportions, elevating the heroes of the past to super-human and godlike statue. These stories, spun by the bards and storytellers, became part of the bulk of Greek legend and lore.

The Legends of Troy

The legends claim that the oldest town in the land of Troy (the Troad) was founded by Teucer, who was a son of the Scamander (a stream of Crete, according to John Tzetzes, the 12th century Byzantine poet and grammarian) and the nymph Idaea. During the reign of Teucer, DARDANUS -- son of Zeus and the nymph Electra -- drifted from the island of Samothrace in the Aegean to the Troad, following a great deluge in the Mediterranean area. After he arrived in the Troad, Dardanus received a grant of land from Teucer and married his daughter Batea, shortly thereafter founding the city of DARDANIA at the foot of MOUNT IDA. On the death of Teucer, Dardanus succeeded him as king, and called the whole land DARDANIA.

He sired Erichthonius, who begat TROS by Astyoche, daughter of Simois. Tros named the country TROY (after himself) and the people TROES (TROJANS). By Callirrhoe, daughter of Scamander, Tros had three sons -- Ilus, Assaracus and Ganymede. From two of Tros' sons -- Ilus and Assaracus -- sprang TWO SEPARATE LINES; Ilus, Laomedon, Priam, Hector; and Assaracus, Capys, Anchises, Aeneas.