Rhodes

Shortly after this, at the beginning of the winter, Dorieus, the son of Diagoras, sailed into the Hellespont from Rhodes with fourteen ships, arriving at daybreak.

And after Lysander had arrived at Rhodes and secured some ships there, he sailed to Cos and Miletus, and from there to Ephesus, where he remained with seventy ships until Cyrus arrived at Sardis.

and the men who were thus taken were all imprisoned by the Athenians, but their commander, Dorieus, a Rhodian by birth, but some time before exiled from both Athens and Rhodes by the Athenians, who had condemned him and his kinsmen to death, and now a citizen of Thurii, they set free without even exacting a ransom, taking pity upon him.

and, most invidious of all, certain men who had secured positions as agents of foreign states managed to have proclaimed that they were crowned—it might be by the people of Rhodes, or of Chios, or of some other state—in recognition of their merit and uprightness.

Another private citizen, who sailed away to Rhodes, was only the other day prosecuted, because he was a coward in the face of danger.

He won notoriety by his voyage to Rhodes and the discreditable report of you which he made officially to the Rhodians and to those merchants residing there;

He landed and entered Rhodes, where, as if he were bringing good news of great successes for his country, he announced that the main city had been captured when he left it, that the Piraeus was blockaded and that he was the only one who had escaped, feeling no shame at speaking of his country’s ruin as the occasion of his own safety.

Let him make his plea to the Rhodians, since he thought their city safer than his own country.

The Peloponnesians levied money from the Rhodians to the amount of two and thirty talents;

They, in consequence of communications from some of the most powerful men there, were disposed to sail to Rhodes;

In the course of this winter Leon and Diomedon, having by this time reached the Athenian fleet, made an attack upon Rhodes.

Therefore they cherish both the parts of these, as Rome, Athens, Sparta, Rhodes, and, of those cities, apart from the whole, single men, as in the war with Pyrrhus, Curius, Fabricius, Coruncanius;

Perhaps, men of Athens, if we were trying the case in a Rhodian court, these men might get the better of us, seeing that they have taken grain to Rhodes and sailed in their ship into that port;

Now Dionysodorus here does neither the one nor the other, but has come to such a pitch of audacity, that although he borrowed from us three thousand drachmae upon his ship on the condition that it should sail back to Athens, and although we ought to have got back our money in the harvest-season of last year, he took his ship to Rhodes and there unladed his cargo and sold it in defiance of the cont …

The outcome was that Parmeniscus, the defendant’s partner, when he had received the letter sent by him and had learned the price of grain prevailing here, discharged his cargo of grain at Rhodes and sold it there in defiance of the agreement, men of the jury, and of the penalties to which they had of their own will bound themselves, in case they should commit any breach of the agreement, and in co …

they spurned an alliance with you who are Greeks and their betters, and now they are slaves of barbarians, slaves of slaves, whom they admitted into their citadels.

But if the reports are true and he has failed in all his attempts, she must argue that this island would be of no use to him at present-which is true enough—but might serve as a fortress to overawe Caria and check any move on her part.

while as to the King, I should not like to say that I know what he is actually going to do, but that it is to our advantage that he should at once make it clear whether he is going to claim Rhodes or not—that I should maintain positively.

On the contrary, it was when you stood utterly aloof and indifferent that the democracies of Mytilene and of Rhodes were destroyed.

But you should consider, men of Athens, that our hostility towards oligarchies, purely on the ground of principle, is stronger than our hostility towards democracies on any grounds whatever.

In the same way by agreement with Philip we have waived our claim to Amphipolis, and we are permitting Cardia to be excepted from the rest of the Chersonese, the Carian to occupy the islands of Chios, Cos, and Rhodes, and the Byzantines to detain our ships in harbor, obviously because we think that the respite which the peace affords is more productive of advantages than wrangling and coming to bl …

Or from whom more authoritative and greater than from the people of Rhodes and your city?

So too is the territory the city's, yet none the less each of the possessors is master of his own.

These matters, then, men of Rhodes, consider to be in a very poor state among you, and unworthy of the city — I mean the matters concerning benefactors and the honours of good men — though you did not from the beginning so deal with the matter.

Tlepolemos, son of Herakles, a man both brave and large of stature, brought nine ships of lordly warriors from Rhodes.

These dwelt in Rhodes which is divided among the three cities of Lindos, Ialysos, and Kameiros, that lies upon the chalk.

Demosthenes in oratione de libertate Rhodiorum:

The maxim laid down by Cato, in his speech in defence of the Rhodians, that it is not right any one should be punished upon the bare suspicion of his having intended to commit aggression or injury, was well applied in that place;

Again, in the Rhodian War, the King had the good will of the allies of Lacedaemon because of the harshness with which they were governed, he availed himself of the help of our seamen;

If the barbarian strengthens his hold on the cities of the coast by stationing in them larger garrisons than he has there now, perhaps those of the islands which lie near the mainland, as, for example, Rhodes and Samos and Chios, might incline to his side;

in fact they left him without any allotment of land, although he was a holy god.

The ancient stories of men tell that when Zeus and the immortals were dividing the earth among them, Rhodes was not yet visible in the expanse of the sea, but the island was hidden in the salty depths.

And he bid Lachesis of the golden headband raise her hands right away, and speak, correctly and earnestly, the great oath of the gods, and consent with the son of Cronus that that island, when it had risen into the shining air, should thereafter be his own prize of honor.

Suppose you have come to Athens, suppose to Rhodes;

For himself he buys nothing, but for foreigners he sends purchases to Byzantium, Laconian hounds to Cyzicus, and Hymettian honey to Rhodes;

And Cyrus at once took possession of the citadels and sent up to them guards and officers of the guards.

And when day dawned and those in possession of the citadels discovered that the city was taken and the king slain, they surrendered the citadels, too.

And Hystaspas, leaving strong garrisons of Persians upon the citadels, went back with his own army reinforced with many Phrygian horsemen and peltasts.