The island of Rhodos, off the coast of Asia Minor, usually classed with Caria, has had a long and eventful history. Situated in the Mediterranean, just off the Turkish coast, it is the largest of the Dodecanese islands, a short ride by boat from the southwest corner of ancient Caria. The island is much frequented - and with good reason - by hordes of tourists, who enjoy the climate and take a superficial interest in the monuments. Rhodes has been a tourist haven for centuries, as well as a retreat for intellectuals fleeing persecution of one sort or another and even for jaded Roman generals who preferred philosophy to warfare.

     The history of Rhodes (the island, not the city; that comes later) begins long before records. It doesn't help that most of the records preserved are Western, and say as little about Asia Minor as they can. Archaeology tells rather less than we would wish; in the main we learn that the place was important in archaic times. For more details we must turn to the classical authors, of which two are especially important, namely Strabo and Pindar.

     Pindar composed an ode in praise of a Rhodian, Diagoras by name, who had won the boxing contest in the Olympics of 464 BC. While Diagoras is a minor character, Pindar goes into detail about the legendary history of the island. "Rhodes of the sea, the child of Aphrodite and bride of Helios", as Race's translation puts it, was said to have been under water when the Olympian gods were dividing the earth into their respective spheres of influence. As Helios was absent he had no share, and being tolerably honest he refused to demand a re-division. Instead he chose to take Rhodes, which he saw in the process of rising from the sea-bed. The choice was thereupon confirmed by all the Olympians, hence the island was designated as sacred to Helios.

Stater of Kamiros, VI Century BC. Lot 103.

     Along with the island, it seems, appeared a nymph, named Rhodes (whose name survives also in the name of the wild rose of Rhodes), daughter of Aphrodite (who else?). She was of interest to Helios, so things happened as they tended to in these situations, and the result was seven sons. Three of them founded the island's main cities: Kamiros, Ialysos and Lindos.

     The major culture of ancient Rhodes is of the Dorian branch of the Greeks, as Strabo relates. Pindar, continuing, goes into some detail: that the Dorian founder was one Tlapolemos, son of Herakles. He, one day, killed his relative Likymnios with a staff, for no apparent reason; one author claims accidentally, another, in a fit of anger. Homer, indeed, merely claims that he killed the old man, and for that he incurred divine wrath, and that later he led nine ships against Troy. The upshot was that the oracle of Apollo ordered his exile to Rhodes.

     The new settler and his retinue with the aid of Athena learned the arts of metal-working; eventually the Rhodians became so expert in this that they had to go to great lengths to clear themselves and their mythical patron of charges of wizardry. The wizardry was, it seems, a property of the obscure legendary inhabitants known as Telchines, and whatever their origins - they were most likely Cretans who settled during the Minoan period - they had a certain reputation as demi-demons or some such, whose technology owed as much to magic as it did to muscle.

     The so-called "Dark Ages", between Homer and Hesiod, were a time of considerable activity. We know that archaic Rhodian ceramics are found all over the Greek world, and that the Rhodians founded colonies as far away as Akragas and Gela in Sicily. Of their relations with that other maritime power, Phoenicia, we know little, except that they were rivals; one likely reason for the colonism on Sicily, for example, was to forestall Phoenician and, later, Punic control of that strategic island.

     As the history of all of Greece in the period before the accounts of Herodotos is as obscure here as it is elsewhere, not much can be said about it. The Persians occupied all of the mainland of Caria, and the cities of Rhodes acknowledged their rule. Following the defeats suffered by Xerxes at the hands of Athens and allies, the Rhodians took little persuading to join the Delian League, with Athens as chief.

     Athens, however, soon demonstrated an unfortunate tendency to let its reputation as the savior of Greek liberty go to its head. Athenian leadership degenerated in the generation after Salamis into tyranny, with a city rather than an individual ruling over its "allies". Athenian empire-building soon ran afoul of those powers, notably Sparta, which objected. The resulting Peloponnesian War is of limited interest here, as Rhodes was a very minor player in that game.

     Rhodes was unhappy at the Athenian treatment of similar island Greeks like those of Melos - where, as Thucidides related, the Athenian attitude to neutral maritime powers was one of "join us or we destroy you". The Rhodians, alarmed at this, broke with Athens in 411; the result was a series of not especially memorable hostilities.

     The Rhodian cities decided, given the enmity of Athens, to subordinate their several interests to the common good, and in 408 BC the three cities jointly founded the city of Rhodes on the modern site. The citizens selected a site and planned and built a marvel of ancient civil engineering.

Didrachm of Rhodes, after 304 BC. Lot 104.

     The site is indeed a superb one for a maritime power. With its four harbors and its carefully laid out street plan, it was described by Stabo as unequalled with regard to harbors, roads, walls and buildings. The most important part of the city, from a strategic point of view, was the section containing the shipyards. The Rhodians, dependent as they were on their shipping, had their secrets and they guarded them carefully.

     As notable as all this was, what Rhodes became known for above all else was its laws. Politically the Rhodian state was a modified democracy. "The best-governed city in Greece" was that way mainly because those who governed it realized that it benefited everybody if everybody was made a part of everything, and if nobody had reason to believe that they could benefit by someone else's robbery or destruction. Even slaves could gain freedom by some extraordinary service, as many did for service against Demetrios.

     The Rhodian state fit Machiavelli's definition of a virtuous state; like the Swiss, the Rhodians knew that their interests lay in co-operation, and they co-operated very well. So well, in fact, did this system work that the Rhodian maritime rules provided the basis for sea-law not only for the Greek states and the Romans, but was in use throughout the Byzantine period.

     With the fall of Athens to the Spartan coalition the Rhodians watched to see what would happen. As the Spartans in their turn had delusions of grandeur, and as the Athenians seemed the lesser evil, Rhodes again joined an Athenian-sponsored league, and built itself up into a formidable sea power. In 355 it returned to Persian rule, and remained until Alexander's conquests. After the battle of Issos in November 333 Alexander secured all the port cities to prevent the Persians from cutting his supply lines.

     Rhodes, seeing the fate of Tyre and Gaza - subjected to all the horrors of a thorough sack - quickly came to terms. They promoted the grain trade; they sent their squadrons into action against pirates, earning them the gratitude of all the Greek states; they developed their own institutions at home - including a notable welfare system, essentially providing a basic living to the poorer citizens, who in turn were available for public works.

     Such prosperity could only come from neutrality. The Rhodians were militarily neutral, at war only with pirates. When Alexander's empire broke up they did their best to avoid entanglements, although they inclined toward Ptolemy. It wasn't that Ptolemy was so great that they were willing to sacrifice themselves for him; Egypt, however, was then as in Roman times the granary of Greece, and as the shipping agents the Rhodians kept on good terms with their customers. This tended to bring them into conflict with those of the Successors who did not care for Ptolemy. Although the Rhodians took care to establish the best possible relations with each of the Successors, the reckoning was only postponed.

     As far as Rhodes was concerned the major threat was Demetrios, son of Antigonos. As Antigonos was engaged in intermittent warfare with Ptolemy he needed control of the supply lines at sea. As the Rhodians were inclined to support Ptolemy he decided to bring them into his orbit in 305.

Demetrios the Besieger, AR Tetradrachm. Lot no.74.

     Antigonos accordingly made certain demands: that they join themselves in alliance with him and that they furnish warships. Citing their treaties with Ptolemy, they refused, so he sent Demetrios with a fleet to seize any Rhodian ships going to Egypt. The Rhodians protested, so Antigonos repeated his demands, sending Demetrios with a siege fleet to back up his words. He nearly frightened the Rhodians into compliance, but Demetrios then added to his demands. He insisted on getting as hostages 100 of the most notable citizens, as well as the use of the harbor as a base. This was too much for the Rhodians, who refused.

     Demetrios gathered a powerful force for this expedition: two hundred warships with additional transports, an army of forty thousand soldiers plus cavalry and the remnants of the pirates, and a swarm of private vultures looking to be in on the sack of a city unpillaged for more than a century. This force, enormous for its day, sailed to Rhodes with a great show, designed to ruin the defenders' morale. The force landed, set up its siege works, and ignored all attempts at diplomacy.

     The Rhodians mustered their forces and send envoys to Ptolemy for help. The force was augmented by the public spirit of the rest of the population; those who had money donated it; those who had skills volunteered them; those who could labor built walls and performed other public works. They even fitted out three ships which ran past the blockade and harassed Demetrios' shipping, destroying large numbers of the enemy's merchantmen and selling the captives back to Demetrios for cash.

     As the Rhodians were at their best at sea, the Besieger's main efforts at first were against the main harbor, to develop an effective blockade. The Rhodians in reply set up fortifications at the entrance to both the inner and outer harbor with various sorts of artillery, and like Demetrios converted merchant ships to gunboats by building artillery sheds for catapults on their decks.

     Demetrios opened the game by sending a force to take the mole across the entrance to the outer harbor. He seized the end of the breakwater and landed a force of infantry and catapults on it and soon began to bombard the Rhodian wall. Accomplishing little, that night he left the soldiers to hold the place while he towed off the artillery. The Rhodians attempted a counterattack with fireships to no avail; they were unable to get past the boom he had installed across the harbour mouth.

     From this point Demetrios was able to clear the Rhodian artillery from the harbor entrance, and concentrate on the city itself. Here he found the going tough, as the soldiers on the wall fought well, and the Rhodian shipping launched a number of sorties against the transports, burning and sinking many. Some of the Macedonians managed to get on the wall, where after a stubborn fight the Rhodians threw them off with heavy loss.

     Demetrios retired to regroup his forces, while the Rhodians repaired their walls. After a week the Macedonians returned, this time concentrating on the ships in the inner harbor. His "gunboats" attacked both the walls and the shipping, setting some of the Rhodian ships on fire. The Rhodians managed to extinguish the fires. Three shiploads of volunteers then made a sortie which broke through the boom to where the "gunboats" were operating and rammed and sank many. They destroyed two of the three largest catapult platforms as well as other shipping, and finally retired with the loss of one ship.

     Demetrios, nothing daunted, set about constructing an even larger floating artillery platform. Unfortunately for him he had just finished it when it sank in a storm. Even worse, the Rhodians, used to these storms, took advantage of it to attack the garrison on the mole, and captured the fort. As a result five hundred reinforcements from Ptolemy and others, entered the harbor, making up some of the Rhodians' losses.

     With the complete failure of his assaults from the harbor Demetrios decided to attack from the landward side instead. Accordingly he built the largest of his so-called "helepolis" (city-taker) towers. Covered with iron plates to protect against being set on fire, with platforms for all sorts of artillery, it was an oversized version of what had served him so well in the past, and it was expected to make short work of Rhodes. Nine stories and 150 feet high, armored and on pivoting wheels, it was a mobile castle. This he had hauled up to the walls to begin his work.

     The defenders vigorously counter-attacked; now that the harbor was clear they attacked all of his shipping they could catch, which was a considerable number of ships. Three squadrons cruised; one captured a quadrireme carrying a set of royal robes made for Demetrios by his wife. The Rhodians annoyed Demetrios more by this than by their resistance; to add insult to injury they sent the robes as a gift to Ptolemy.

     The Rhodians had statues set up before the war of both Antigonos and Demetrios; during the war debate raged as to whether the Rhodians ought to pull them down. Eventually the people decided to let them remain; after all, it made it easier to pose as the injured party if they won, and was likely to result in milder treatment if the defenders lost, so the statues stood.

     Demetrios tried all the usual siege tactics which we encounter in Aeneas Tacticus' manual; no doubt the Rhodians were just as familiar with that work. Sappers, bribes, battering-rams were tried; the Rhodians counter-mined, rewarded loyal mercenaries - all of whom remained loyal in this siege - and one night nearly succeeded in setting the siege-tower on fire. Nonetheless the siege progressed, with the Macedonians destroying part of the wall but the Rhodians holding the towers and building a second, equally strong wall behind the breaches.

     The climax of the siege took place one night when the Macedonians carried out a general assault to cover an attack through the breaches in the walls. In the confusion the attackers advanced into the area of the amphitheater; the magistrates managed to gather a force, including some recent arrivals sent by Ptolemy, and counter-attacked. They kept the invaders pinned down all night, and the troops on the walls prevented any reinforcement; then as the day began the Rhodians attacked the Macedonian force in relays. The result was that few of Demetrios' troops made it back to their own lines.

     With this failure Demetrios regrouped to try again; but by this time Antigonos had had enough of having his fleet and best troops tied up there. Were the siege continued Rhodes would eventually fall; but the cost would be considerable. A force of nine thousand men - six thousand of Rhodes, a thousand resident aliens and two thousand mercenaries - had inflicted unacceptable losses on Demetrios' myriads; accordingly everyone was suddenly in the mood for a settlement. The terms were as follows: Rhodes was independent and ungarrisoned; was allied with Antigonos against all except Ptolemy; and they would give a hundred hostages, office-holders being exempt. The hostages were the original problem, but this time the demand was not simply a pretext for attack.

     The Rhodians went on to become known as patrons of the arts, as rich and peaceful communities do. The most famous literary figure, Apollonios, was a refugee from factional fighting in Alexandria, and he is known for the very enjoyable Argonautica, dealing with Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece). Stoic philosophers found a haven there. The Laocoon, probably the most famous surviving Hellenistic sculpture, was the work of a trio of Rhodians (although the surviving work may be a Roman copy. The most famous of the sculptures of antiquity, the Colossus, built to commemorate the conclusion of the siege, was so huge that when it was scrapped in 672 AD the wreckage made 900 camel-loads. It had collapsed in an earthquake in 227 BC, but as it was sacred to Helios the ruins remained there until the Arab conquest.

     Allies of Rome before it was fashionable, Rhodes grew rich on trade until, backing Perseus of Macedon against Rome, they saw Delos, with Roman backing, prosper at their expense. They subsequently gained Roman regard by assisting against Mithradates, then backed Ptolemy against Caesar, for which they paid heavily, then paid again for their objections to the conduct of the "Liberator" Cassius, he of the "lean and hungry look". The result was an upsurge of piracy, which took all the resources of an Agrippa to bring back under control.

     Rebuilt, it remained a center of philosophy, to which Tiberius retired in BC 6 when he tired of court intrigue. As the center of the Roman world shifted, so did the fortunes of Rhodes; it became a backwater when the Mediterranean was a Roman lake.

     After the fall of western Rome and the establishment of the Eastern Roman "Byzantine" Empire, Rhodes was a pawn manipulated by all the players in the early medieval Mediterranean. Rhodes became the capital of the Byzantine "Province of the Islands" and suffered at the hands of Byzantium's ever-changing list of enemies and allies.

     In 620, it was captured by Khusru II for the Sasanians. In 651 it was attacked by the Ummayads and again in 807 by Caliph Haroun-el-Raschid. By the twelfth century, Venice had set up a port on Rhodes under Byzantine rule. Following the Fourth Crusade and the sack of Constantinople, Rhodes was part of Venice's share of the spoils. When Constantinople was recaptured by the Byzantines, Rhodes returned to the Imperial fold, now administered by the Genoese, the Empire's new trading partner. Central administration was lax; the island was loosely ruled by the Genoese pirate/admiral Vignolo Vignoli.

Grand Master Robert de Juilly, 1374-1377. AR Gigliato. Lot 529.

     The Knightly Order of St. John was founded in the early twelfth century by Father Gerard in Jerusalem. The original purpose of the Order was to operate a hospital (hence the name "Hospitallers") for the Christian pilgrims. Soon the order became a religious-military one and joined other Orders as the "swords of God" wielded to free the Holy Lands from the "infidel". Despite their best efforts, by the second half of the thirteenth century the Crusaders were being driven from Syria and Palestine. The last foothold, the citadel at Acre, surrendered in 1291 and with it the Order was driven from the Holy Land to the island of Cyprus.

     Between 1291 and 1310 the Hospitallers raised a fleet in Cyprus, but King Henry II resented their power. Conflict was avoided when in 1306 the order was approached by Vignoli, who offered to sell his lease on Rhodes to the Order if the Knights would overthrow the largely independent Byzantine Governor. The Order sought Papal permission which was soon granted.

     The campaign started in 1307 but it went slowly and expensively. During the next two years the Knights mortgaged the revenues of the Order for the next 20 years to obtain the finances from Venetian moneylenders. Finally, on August 15, 1309 the citizens of Rhodes accepted the Order's surrender terms.

     Once ensconced in Rhodes, the Order slowly built a formidable reputation. The first test was the Ottoman occupation of Amorgo; the Order responded immediately by sending its fleet. The naval action was a decisive victory for the Order with the Turks losing almost their entire force.      In 1345 the Knights captured Smyrna from the Turks and established an important stronghold in Asia Minor that would last until 1402.

     The Knights joined Peter I of Cyprus in a crusade (endorsed by Urban V) against a secret target. Peter issued orders to recall all Cypriot citizens from Syria, seemingly in preparation for his attack. The ruse worked; the fleet arrived outside Alexandria on October 9, 1365 virtually unopposed. Within 24 hours the crusaders had captured the city. Over the objections of the Hospitallers the troops began an orgy of looting and destruction, which left their ships so loaded they were barely sea-worthy and little left of the city to retain. The Order wished to establish a Christian base of operations at Alexandria from which they could begin a land campaign. The Crusade was over nearly as quickly as it started with the bulk of the army content to return to Europe with their new-found riches.

     In 1396 the grand master Philibert de Naillac had the order join an expedition to Nicopolis -- not really a Crusade -- more of a defensive posture to protect Europe form the advances of the Turks. Lack of preparation and leadership sealed their fate. Once they were pinned down in an untenable siege, the light Turkish cavalry proved decisive in skirmish attacks. This would be the last expedition from Europe, the Knights were now on their own.

     Fortunately, the battling between the Turks and the Tartars under Tamerlane kept their enemies busy for several years (although Smyrna was lost to Tamerlane in 1403). In 1440 Pope Eugenius IV preached a new crusade but nobody came. A treaty was signed assuring a 10 year peace. The peace was soon broken by the Turks who sent a fleet of ships to besiege Kastellario (a supporter of the Order) in 1444. Although outnumbered, the Knights relieved the siege and captured 12 of of the enemy ships. In 1444 the Muslims laid siege to Rhodes and were again defeated at sea; the remnants returned to Egypt after only 40 days.

Tower of St. Nicholas, Rodes.

     In 1453 Constantinople fell to Mehmet II the Conqueror's Turks and the Knights began to improve the fortifications of the city, certain that they would be attacked shortly. The day finally arrived on May 23, 1480 when a force of about 70,000 Turks with 100 ships descended on the island. The Knights numbered about 600 members of the Order plus 1500 mercenaries. The Turks centered their attack on the Tower of St. Nicholas with its 24 foot-thick walls situated on the mole which defended the harbors. The Turks brought their huge cannons - over 17 feet long firing balls 2 feet in diameter at the rate of 1000 shots/day in an effort to knock down the walls. Although the walls were damaged, they were constantly repaired by the Knights and the tower held.

     The Turks finally came to the conclusion that they needed to stage an all-out frontal assault. They concentrated their artillery fire on the wall near the Tower of Italy. The Turks charged after the defenders were driven from the remnants of the wall with their Yeni Cheri ("Janizzaries", New Soldiers - trained from the age of 7 only in the arts of warfare) in the vanguard. Grand Master Di'Aubusson led the defense in spite of his wounds (he was to take five arrows and a spear through his lung before the day was over - still to survive thanks to the Order's fine hospital), but the Turks had rushed into breach and the city seemed all but lost.       The knights were at their best in the close quarters, however; their heavy armor made them almost invincible to the lighter Turkish weapons. But the weight of superior numbers was on the side of the Turks and it seemed to be their day

     All at once something strange happened, regarded by the defenders as a miracle. The advancing Moslems, disoriented by the smoke and din of the battle, came to regard the banners and relics of the Order as Christian divinities coming to protect the city, and they began to panic. Whether this was the true cause or a later excuse, the tide of the battle turned most unexpectedly, with the Turks now fleeing from the advancing knights. When the day was over, between 3500 and 5000 Turks were killed in the attack. Eleven days later the Turkish forces left the island.

     There was some more sparring between the Turks and the Knights in the next several years, but the decisive round began in 1522. Suleiman, "the magnificent" was the Sultan of the Ottomans (now masters of most of the Islamic world) and Philip Villars was Grand Master of the Order. A massive force of 400 ships and 200,000 men were led against the Order's 300 knights and 5000 men at arms. The Ottoman forces attempted to mine under the walls and set explosives to topple the walls while the defenders countermined. The war in the trenches was won by the Knights thanks to the efforts of their military engineer, Gabriele Tadini who developed a listening device to hear the miners' approach.

     On September 24 the grand offensive began. Suleiman, like Xerxes centuries before at Salamis, sat enthroned on raised ground to watch the inevitable triumph of his vastly superior forces. Again like Xerxes he was doomed to witness his failure. By the end of the battle the Order had held the Turks out of the city -- over 15,000 Turks were killed versus 200 dead and 150 wounded for the Christians. Although unbeaten, the siege took a serious toll of the Knights and the local populace. Largely at the insistence of the native Rhodians, the Order accepted an honorable peace. On Dec. 26, the Knights agreed to terms and on Jan. 1, 1523 they withdrew from Rhodes sailing away with all their arms and relics to Crete; eventually to find a home on Malta in 1530. Charles V remarked upon hearing of the fall of Rhodes "Nothing in the world was ever so well lost as Rhodes."

     The local populace never completely accepted the western ways of the Order, but in the end the surrender to the Ottomans proved to be a case of jumping from the frying pan into the fire. To the Turks, the Knights merely upgraded their defenses; on Malta the Order proved invincible. The Turkish occupation of Rhodes proved to be a dark period for the island that was to last until 1912 when it was captured by the Italians with help from the local Rhodians. Italy was replaced by British administration following the defeat of the Axis in WW II. Finally, on March 7, 1948, Rhodes was united with Greece.

Grand Master's Palace, Rhodes.