Let's start with the prehistory, from the very beginning, after the death of Alexander the Great, Rhodes remained one of the few places in the eastern Mediterranean untouched by the wars for the Macedonian inheritance and, moreover, significantly enriched due to trade with all the warring parties (thanks to its neutrality, a kind of Switzerland of antiquity) … All parties tried to win him over to their side, Antigonus, in particular, demanded to join him, but the Rhodians, using obscene language, refused, because then they would lose the rest of their "clients" in trade. Antigonus, without hesitation, sent his son Demetrius to show the presumptuous islanders hu from hu. Rhodes, possessing a considerable fleet, a fairly strong army and a thriving economy with strong allies, seemed to be a serious enemy, but Demetrius brought with him approx. 40 thous.fighters and Rhodians, realizing that the conflict would lead to dire consequences (burning suburbs, stealing cattle and other "joys" of hostilities) decided to do everything possible to avoid hostilities (yes, even in the middle of the capital they made two giant statues of Antigonus and Demetrius and they worshiped them as gods and kings! And even during the war they considered themselves their subjects and the siege itself was a "annoying misunderstanding"!), but Demetrius was implacable! He needed complete control over the island. And even during the war, they considered themselves their subjects, and the siege itself was an "annoying misunderstanding"!), But Demetrius was relentless! He needed complete control over the island. And even during the war, they considered themselves their subjects, and the siege itself was an "annoying misunderstanding"!), But Demetrius was relentless! He needed complete control over the island.
The Rhodians began vigorously preparing for the siege. Having sacrificed the rich suburbs of the city and the harbor, the Rhodians moved all capable of holding weapons inside the city walls. All idle people were removed from the city, foreigners were asked to take up arms on a par with the Rhodians. A census was carried out, as a result of which it turned out that Rhodes has 6 thousand combat-ready citizens and 1 thousand foreigners ready to fight. The slaves were also armed and promised freedom and Rhodes citizenship. The slaves who fell in battle were also promised an honorable burial at the expense of the city, parents - maintenance, daughters - a dowry, sons - full armor on the holiday of Dionysus. Wealthy townspeople voluntarily donated money, artisans prepared weapons and projectiles, townspeople worked to fortify walls and towers,women helped to carry stones and gave their long hair for bowstrings.
It must be admitted that Dima Antigonych got down to business "with a spark" and unprecedented enthusiasm.
Demetrius, whose forces were based in the harbor of Lorima on the mainland opposite Rhodes, moved his troops to Rhodes in strict battle formations. His ships covered the entire body of water between Rhodes and the mainland. The landing party, which landed on the island, seized the bridgehead and began to devastate the coast and the island. Groves and gardens were destroyed, the felled trees were used to build a palisade and organize a camp. Ground forces also began to equip the bay, making it a harbor for ships.
After several successful sorties of the Rhodians, Demetrius switched to heavy artillery (in every sense of the word): he began the construction of such huge siege weapons, which the world had never seen and would not see before Archimedes, because he himself knew engineering well.
At the beginning (“for warming up”) 2 huge “turtles” were built, each mounted on two rafts fastened together. One of them served to protect against horizontal shots of throwing guns, the second - from mounted ones. Further, two four-story siege towers were erected on two rafts, exceeding the height of the harbor walls, then - a floating palisade palisade to protect the siege structures from enemy boats. When this did not work (in a difficult battle, at the cost of huge losses to both sides, the Rhodians still won) Demetrius began to do something completely unimaginable: he built even larger helepolis, which had 9 floors and reached 100 cubits in height and 50 cubits in width, sheathed with sheet metal, capable of moving on 8 wheels in any direction and propelled by the efforts of 3400 people. Embrasures for throwing weapons could be covered with shields and awnings. New turtles and covered galleries were also erected, and the space to the walls of Rhodes was leveled for 1,200 paces, with colossal iron-studded battering machines that were 125 cubits long towered before the walls; thousands of people took their places at the siege engines; Demetrius's troops surrounded the city, and his fleet went to sea. After this spectacle, the Rhodians finally lost heart, and some even fainted.
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The siege, perhaps, would have ended there, but Demetrius chose the time unsuccessfully, since it was autumn, the time of storms, which did not completely block the city from the sea, which the king of Egypt Ptolemy took advantage of and constantly sent them help (as human in the form of fighters, and provisions and materials).
The assault ended with a new defeat for Demetrius, after which he lost all interest in her. A stalemate arose: the Rhodians were bled out of blood, like the besiegers, no one had the strength. As a result, Demetrius, not receiving reinforcements, lifted the siege and sailed away. But he left one of his giant siege towers to the Rhodians as a symbol of his grandiose work and a monument to the courage of the Rhodians.
It was a significant siege, which lasted a whole year, thanks to which Demetrius received the nickname Poliorketus (that is, "Besieger"), and Ptolemy was henceforth called Soter ("Savior").
Demetrius and the Rhodians, through the mediation of the Aetolians, concluded peace on the following conditions: the Rhodians retain their freedom and independence, do not receive a garrison, retain their sources of income, and undertake to be allies of Demetrius and Antigonus against everyone except Ptolemy. As an assurance of loyalty, the Rhodians hand over one hundred prominent citizens to Demetrius at his discretion (excluding officials). Thus, Rhodes withstood the terrible danger, retaining freedom and independence. In the future, Rhodes retained its importance as a strong maritime and commercial power, which the Hellenistic states reckoned with until the Roman conquest.
The people of Rhodes decided to sell the abandoned siege weapons and build a statue of their revered Sun god Helios to thank him for his intercession. Helios was not just a particularly revered deity on the island - according to legend, he was its creator: having no place dedicated to him, the sun god carried the island out of the depths of the sea in his arms.
The Rhodesians ordered the sculptor Khares, a student of Lysippos, a statue ten times taller than human height, that is, 18 meters. But then the residents of the city demanded that the height of the statue be doubled, adding the same amount to the amount paid. But this amount was not enough, since when the height doubles, the volume of the material increases eightfold. Therefore, Hares had to borrow colossal amounts of money from relatives, relatives and friends.
For twelve years he worked on the creation of an almost 36-meter bronze giant. When the work on the statue was completed, a tall and slender youth-god with a radiant crown on his head appeared to the eyes of the amazed Rhodians. He stood on a white marble pedestal, leaning back slightly, and peered intently into the distance.
It is believed that the statue should have looked something like the one in this picture - to maintain balance. With her legs spread out, she simply sank down under her own weight.
The statue of the god towered right at the entrance to the harbor of Rhodes and was visible from the nearest islands (so it is highly doubtful that she was like her in the vast majority of cases depicted: ships sailing between the legs of the statue, rather near it, located on one of the shores). The statue was made of clay, at the base of it was a metal frame, and on top it was covered with bronze sheets. To work on the image of the god directly at the place of its installation, Hares used an original technique: with the gradual rise of the sculpture, an earthen hill around it also rose; the hill was subsequently torn down, and the complete statue was revealed to the astonished inhabitants of the island.
To make the grandiose monument, it took 500 talents of bronze and 300 talents of iron (about 13 and about 8 tons, respectively). The colossus also gave rise to a kind of fashion for giant statues, in Rhodes already in the II century BC. e. about a hundred colossal sculptures were installed.
After the completion of the construction, Hares was completely ruined and surrounded by creditors, so he committed suicide.
The colossus stood for just over 50 years. The statue was destroyed by the Rhodes earthquake (circa 225 BC). As Strabo writes, in his time "the statue was lying on the ground, defeated by an earthquake and broken at the knees." But even then, the colossus was surprising for its size. Pliny the Elder mentions that only a few could clasp the thumb of the statue with both hands (given the natural proportions of the human body, this indicates that the statue is 200 feet or 60 m tall).
The wreckage of the colossus lay on the ground for more than a thousand years, until, finally, they were sold by the Arabs, who captured Rhodes in 977, to a merchant who, as one of the chronicles tells, loaded 900 camels with them and went into the fog.
There was a legend: when the statue of the Colossus of Rhodes was erected, an earthquake happened, after which it collapsed. The statue was rebuilt again, and again there was an earthquake. The sages said that if the people erect a statue again, then the island of Rhodes will go under water.
Despite its fragility (it existed much less than all other wonders of the world), the Colossus remained in the memory of people even after thousands of years and still excites the imagination of writers, being the prototype of the fantastic miracles they described.
Nowadays, at the place where the legs of the Colossus were supposed to be, there are figures of a deer and a deer, also symbols of Rhodes.
Author: Impearator