Troy: A simple nonlinear mathematical perspective

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a mathematical model for the Trojan war that, supposedly, took place around 1180 BC. Supported by archaeological findings and by Homer’s Iliad, we estimate the numbers of warriors, the struggle rate parameters, the number of individuals per hectare, and other related quantities. We show that the long siege of the city, described in the Iliad, is compatible with a power-law behaviour for the time evolution of the number of individuals. We are able to evaluate the parameters of our model during the phase of the siege and the fall. The proposed model is general, and it can be applied to other historical conflicts.