The Trojan War: 874-864 BC ?

 

There is a theory that moves the date of the Trojan War from 1184-1174 BC (set by Eratosthenes) further down to 874-864 BC.  This makes more sense to me. 

 

The Etruscans were Trojans who had fled the destruction of Troy.  Their land of Etruria--to the north of Rome and Latium--came into being circa 700 BC.  And then there's the fact that both Etruria and Troy have the TR root in them.  That's telling, I think.

 

A historian named Timaeus moved the founding of Rome down to 814 BC.  In light of the later dating of the Trojan War, this makes sense.

 

Now there's a problem, and it has to do with the Dorians.  If it is true that the Dorians were Danites who left Israel in the days of the Judges--which would have occurred closer to the older date of the Trojan War (12th cent. BC)--then they (Dorians) could not have come into Greece Proper before 864 BC.  How do we resolve this?

 

Well, we could do so by saying that these Danites or Dorians did leave the Levant in the 12th cent. BC.  They migrated westward, making their way across Anatolia and crossing over into Thracia.  Or more likely they went around the Black Sea, for the Hittite Empire would have been a formidable power at this time.  The Dorians may also have arrived in Greece by ship. 

 

When the Dorians arrived, they pretty much settled in the northern frontier (later known as Macedonia) of the lower Greek lands (Peloponnese, Attica, Aetolia, etc.).  By the time of the aftermath of the Trojan War--the collapse of Achaean or Danaan society--many Dorians moved in.  The Achaeans, except for those of Athens, evacuated the Greek cities--eventually moving up the Danube River into Northwest Europe.  The Dorians moved in to fill the vacuum.  They became, for the most part, the Greeks of the classical era.