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Bible Dictionaries
Troas
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or (Τρῳάς)
Troas was a seaport on the N.W. coast of Asia Minor, opposite the island of Tenedos, midway between the Hellespont and Cape Lectum, and about ten miles south of the much more ancient Troja (Ilium). The name was an abbreviation of ‘Trojan Alexandria’ (Ἀλεξάνδρεια ἡ Τρῳάς, Strabo, XIII. i. 2, Ptol. V. ii. 4; or Ἀλεξάνδρεια τῆς Τρῳάδος, Strabo, II. v. 36; or Ἀλεξάνδρεια ἡ ἐν τῇ Τρῳάδι, Paus. X. xii. 2). The qualifying adj., Τρῳάς, which was needed to differentiate this Alexandria from the many other cities of the same name, came to be used sometimes alone (as in Pliny, Historia Naturalis (Pliny) v. 33, ipsaque Troas), though this led to ambiguity, Troas (ἡ Τρῳάς, the Troad) being properly the whole territory once ruled by the kings of Troy.
The city, which was founded by Antigonus and named Antigonia Troas, was enlarged and improved by Lysimachus and renamed Alexandria. The names are found together on some coins. ‘It appeared to be an act of pious duty in the successors of Alexander first to found cities which should bear his name, and afterwards those which should be called after their own. Alexandria continued to exist, and became a large place; at present’ [i.e. under Augustus] ‘it has received a Roman colony, and is reckoned among celebrated cities’ (Strabo, XIII. i. 26). Troas was under the power of the Seleucids till the defeat of Antiochus the Great at Magnesia in 190 b.c., after which it was a free city of the kings of Pergamos, the last of whom bequeathed his realm to the Roman Republic in 133 b.c. The Troad had a romantic interest for the Romans as the traditional motherland of their race, and the honours which they lavished upon the city were the expression of a kind of filial devotion. As a colony with the ius Italicum, and as the seaport of a fruitful country, Troas rose to the front rank among the cities of Asia Minor. According to Suetonius (Jul. 79), Julius Caesar had thoughts of making it the capital of the Empire instead of Rome, and Augustus may have played with the same idea (Hor. Od. III. iii. 61 f.), which finally presented itself as a possibility to Constantine three centuries later, before he decided to make Byzantium the future seat of the Empire (Zosim. ii. 30).
St. Paul’s connexion with Troas illustrates the high pressure at which he habitually worked. He was at least three times in the city, and could not but earnestly desire to stay and plant a church in a place of such importance, but each time he was torn away from it to some other sphere of labour. To Troas he came down from the borders of Bithynia, and received the vision which made him ‘immediately’ embark for Europe (Acts 16:7-10). To Troas he came again, after his flight from Ephesus (Acts 20:1-6), ‘for the gospel of Christ,’ eager to preach to willing hearers, yet restlessly preoccupied by thoughts of Corinth, and soon compelled to turn his back upon ‘an open door’ (2 Corinthians 2:12-13). On a third visit he ‘tarried sevendays,’ on the last of which-a Sunday-he took no sleep, but preached till midnight, breaking bread, and talking ‘till break of day,’ knowing that his ship was waiting him in the harbour (Acts 20:6-12). On the Monday morning his companions went on board to rest, but the wakeful Apostle discovered that he could give a few more hours to Troas, take the short overland route-doubtless not on foot, if Christian courtesy and gratitude meant anything-to Assos, 20 miles distant, and there catch his ship after she had rounded Cape Lectum. And meanwhile how much could be done in the last flying hours of intimate and unforgettable fellowship!
On the theory that St. Paul never again visited Troas, it must be assumed that this was the occasion on which he left behind him the cloak and the parchments which Timothy was afterwards requested to bring to Rome (2 Timothy 4:13). But those who believe in the Apostle’s release from prison hold that Troas was one of the places to which he returned. The point is fully discussed in A. C. McGiffert, History of Christianity in the Apostolic Age, Edinburgh, 1897, p. 407 f.
Troas is now almost deserted. It bears the Turkish name of Eski Stambul or Old Constantinople, and its former greatness is attested by the extent of its ruins, including the old walls, which are six miles in circumference, and the supports of an aqueduct which conveyed water down from Mount Ida.
Literature.-R. Chandler, Travels in Asia Minor and Greece3, London, 1817; Murray’s Handbook to Asia Minor, do., 1895.
James Strahan.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Troas'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/t/troas.html. 1906-1918.
