Rhodes

RHODES (rōdz, Gr. Rhodos, rose). A large island off the mainland of Caria, some 420 square miles (1,077 sq. km.) in extent. Three city-states originally shared the island, but after internal tension and conflict with Athens, which lasted from 411 to 407 b.c., a federal capital with the same name as the island was founded. Rhodes controlled a rich carrying trade, and after the opening of the east by Alexander, became the richest of all Greek communities. It was able to maintain its independence under the Diadochi, or “Successors,” of Alexander. Rhodes, over this period, became a center of exchange and capital and successfully policed the seas. Coming to terms with the rising power of Rome, Rhodes cooperated with the Republic against Philip V of Macedon, and Antiochus of Syria (201-197). In the third Macedonian war Rhodes adopted a less helpful attitude, and in spite of the protest of Cato, preserved in one of the earliest samples of Latin oratory, the state was punished by economic reprisals. Rome in fact was seeking an excuse to cripple a rival to her growing eastern trade. The amputation of Rhodes’s Carian and Lycian dependents, and the declaration of Delos as a free port ruined the community (166 b.c.) . Loyalty to Rome in the war with Mithridates won back some of the mainland possessions, but Rhodes’s glory was past; and when Paul stopped on his way from Troas to Caesarea (Acts.21.1), Rhodes was only a station on the trade routes, a free city, but little more than a provincial town. Rhodes was the center of a sun cult, the famous colossus being a statue of Helios. See also Rodanim.——EMB

A large island of the Dodecanese group, over 500 square m. in area, twelve m. off the coast of modern Turkey, and ancient Caria. Rhodes is hilly, but cut by fertile and productive valleys. Its name may be an assimilated formation, for roses are not, and, to the best of modern knowledge, never were a characteristic flower of the island.

The island was originally settled by Dorian Greeks and three city states emerged originally from the occupation. In the 5th cent. these states were members of the Athenian Confederacy with, presumably, democratic constitutions. Strife with Athens broke out in 411 b.c. and lasted for five years. The result was the federation of the three states into one unit with a new capital—Rhodes. The three constituent city-states appear to have retained a large measure of autonomy, and kept democratic institutions—a situation interrupted, in the second half of the 4th cent. b.c., by a period of Pers. domination.

After Alexander’s conquests, Rhodes, aided by her advantageous position and her maritime skill captured and held a considerable carrying trade with the eastern end of the Mediterranean, which was opened by Alexander to the commerce and penetration of the western world. Rich, powerful, and naturally garrisoned by the sea, she maintained her independence under the “successors” of Alexander, policed the seas against the perennial piracy of the Asiatic coast, and functioned, as Athens had once done as a center of exchange and capital. Generally in the Hel. period, Rhodes sided with Egypt rather than with Syria.

Shrewdly appraising the rise of Rom. power, Rhodes assisted the Republic in the wars against Philip V of Macedon and Antiochus of Syria (201-197 b.c.), and was rewarded with territory in Caria and Lycia. In the third war with Macedon, Rhodes angered Rome by an attempt at neutrality and in spite of a vigorous oration by Cato, the famous censor, an oration which survives in part as the earliest sample of Lat. oratory, Rhodes was punished by the institution of Delos as a rival port (166 b.c.). It was a shrewd economic blow, and this, with the amputation of the mainland territories in Caria and Lycia, went far to destroy Rhodes’ commercial prosperity.

Rhodes regained some of her standing as a Rom. ally when she withstood a siege by Mithridates when that dynamic king of Pontus all but destroyed Rome’s position E of the Aegean in 88 b.c. Rhodes assisted Pompey with her fleet when he cleared the eastern end of the Mediterranean of pirates in 67 b.c., and later when he fought against Caesar. After Caesar’s victory in the Civil War, Rhodian ships assisted him in the siege of Alexandria. When Paul passed that way, traveling from Troas to Caesarea (Acts 21:1), Rhodes was little more than a port of call with a degree of prosperity and distinction as a beautiful city, but no more than that. It was the place of self-exile of Tiberius when Augustus rejected him as his successor. It is still a beautiful city, full of ancient and Crusader remains, on a lovely island.

Bibliography

CAH VIII, 617ff.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)

An island (and city) in the Aegean Sea, West of Caria, rough and rocky in parts, but well watered and productive, though at present not extensively cultivated. Almost one-third of the island is now covered with trees in spite of earlier deforestation. The highest mountains attain an altitude of nearly 4,000 ft. The older names were Ophiusa, Asteria, Trinacria, Corymbia. The capital in antiquity was Rhodes, at the northeastern extremity, a strongly fortitled city provided with a double harbor. Near the entrance of the harbor stood one of the seven wonders of the ancient world--a colossal bronze statue dedicated to Helios. Tiffs colossus, made by Chares about 290 BC, at a cost of 300 talents ($300,000 in 1915), towered to the height of 104 ft.

In the popular mind--both before and after Shakespeare represented Caesar as bestriding the world like a colossus--this gigantic figure is conceived as an image of a human being of monstrous size with leas spread wide apart, at the entrance of the inner harbor, so huge that the largest ship with sails spread could move in under it; but the account on which this conception is based seems to have no foundation.

The statue was destroyed in 223 BC by an earthquake. It was restored by the Romans. In 672 AD the Saracens sold the ruins to a Jew. The quantity of metal was so areat that it would fill the cars of a modern freight train (900 camel loads).

The most ancient cities of Rhodes were Ialysus, Ochyroma, and Lindus. The oldest inhabitants were immigrants from Crete. Later came the Carians. But no real advance in civilization was made before the immigration of the Dorians under Tlepolemus, one of the Heraclidae, and (after the Trojan war) Aethaemanes. Lindus, Ialysus and Camirus formed with Cos, Cnidus and Halicarnassus the so-called Dorian Hexapolis (Six Cities), the center of which was the temple of the Triopian Apollo on the coast of Caria. Rhodes now founded many colonies--in Spain (Rhode), in Italy (Parthenope, Salapia, Sirus, Sybaris), in Sicily (Gela), in Asia Minor (Soli), in Cilicia (Gaaae), and in Lycia (Corydalla). The island attained no political greatness until the three chief cities formed a confederation and rounded the new capital (Rhodes) in 408 BC. In the beginning of the Peloponnesian war, Rhodes sided with the Athenians, but, after 19 years of loyalty to Athens, went over to the Spartans (412 BC). In 394, when Conon appeared with his fleet before the city, the island fell into the hands of the Athenians again. A garrison was stationed at Rhodes by Alexander the Great. After his death this garrison was driven out by the Rhodians. It is at this time that the really great period of the island’s history begins. The inhabitants bravely defended their capital against Demetrius Poliorcetes in 304 BC--the same Demetrius who two years before had won a naval victory and had coins stamped with a "Victory" that is the counterpart of the "Winaed Victory" which commands the unbounded admiration of the modern world--and extended their dominion over a strip of the Carian coast, as well as over several of the neiahboring islands, and for the first time in the history of the world established an international maritime and commercial law. The arts and sciences now began to flourish in the fair island in the southeastern Aegean. Aeschines, the famous orator of Athens, fled to Rhodes after his defeat by Demosthenes, and rounded a school of oratory, which was attended by many Romans. Rhodes became the faithful ally of Rome after the defeat of Antiochus in 189 BC. As a reward for her loyalty she received Caria. In 168, however, only a small portion of this territory remained under Rhodian sway (Peraea, or the Chersonesus). In 42 BC the island was devastated by Cassius. Later it was made a part of the Roman province of Asia (44 AD). Strabo says that he knows no city so splendid in harbor, walls and streets. When the Roman power declined, Rhodes fell into the hands of Caliph Moawijah, but later was taken by the Greeks, from whom at a later date the Genoese wrested the island. In 1249 John Cantacuzenus attempted to recover Rhodes, but in vain. Finally, however, success crowned the efforts of the Greeks under Theodoros Protosebastos. In 1310 the Knights of John, who had been driven from Palestine, made Rhodes their home. After the subjuaation of the island by Sultan Soliman in 1522 the Knights of John removed to Malta, and Rhodes has remained uninterruptedly a possession of the Sublime Porte down to the recent war between Turkey and the Balkan allies, forming, with the other islands, the province of the "Islands of the White Sea" (Archipelago). It has a Christian governor whose seat, though mostly at Rhodes, is sometimes at Chios. The population of the island has greatly diminished by emigration. In 1890 the total number of inhabitants was 30,000 (20,000 Greeks, 7,000 Mohammedans, 1,500 Jews). The chief products of Rhodes are wheat, oil, wine, figs and tropical fruits. A very important industry is the exportation of sponges. The purity of the air and the mildness of the climate make Rhodes a most delightful place to live in during the fall, winter and early spring. The city, built in the shape of an amphitheater, has a magnificent view toward the sea. It contains several churches made out of old mosques. The once famous harbor is now almost filled with sand. The inhabitants number nearly 12,000 (all Turks and Jews). Rhodes is mentioned in the New Testament only as a point where Paul touched on his voyage southward from the Hellespont to Caesarea (Ac 21:1); but in 1 Macc 15:23 we are informed that it was one of the states to which the Romans sent letters in behalf of the Jews.

LITERATURE.

Berg, Die Insel Rhodes (Braunschweig, 1860-62): Schneiderwirth, Geschichte der Insel Rhodes (Heiligenstadt, 1868); Guerin, L’ile de Rhodes, 2nd edition, Paris, 1880; Biliotti and Cottrel, L’ile de Rhodes (Paris, 1881); Torr, Rhodes in Ancient Times (Cambridge, 1885) and Rhodes in Modern Times (1887).