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Helen looks down at the traders entering the gates of the city from the east.  The western gates of the city are shut - the Greek army is encamped on the beach in front of them!  But the three other gates all remain open, so in some ways the city is trading as normal.  But life is not normal!  The Greek fleet now commands the sea lanes off the coast and as a result for the last 10 years Troy has been deprived the tax money that it had charged ships entering the passage to the Black Sea.  So the city and its people are poorer and less well fed than they were 10 years before.