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.

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

but being a little too late, they sailed back in the first instance to Chalce, thence to Samos, and afterwards carried on the war against Rhodes by attacks from Chalce, Cos, and Samos.

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

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;

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 …

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 …

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;

No one has come forward to dissuade Mausolus when he was alive, or Artemisia since his death, from seizing Cos and Rhodes and various other Greek states, which the King, their overlord, ceded by treaty to the Greeks, and for which the Greeks of those days faced many dangers and won much honor in the field.

I think that if the King’s designs in Egypt were meeting with any success, Artemisia would make a big effort to secure Rhodes for him, not from any goodwill towards him, but because, while he is in her neighborhood, she would like to put him under a great obligation, so that he may give her as cordial a recognition as possible.

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 …

whereas if I speak, as best I can, about a matter of the greatest importance, and one too in so very poor a state that the city is publicly slandered on its account, and that all of you, well thought of in everything else, in this one thing meet with a reputation that does not befit you, you might reasonably be grateful to me and consider me well disposed toward you.

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

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.

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

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

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;

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;

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;

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

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.