Under Constantine it was the metropolis of the " Province of the Islands." It was the last place where the Christians of the East held out against the advanc- ing Saracens; and subsequently it was once more fa- mous as the home and fortress of the Knights of St. John. The most prominent remains of the city and harbor are memorials of those knights.
In modern times Rhodes has been chiefly celebrated as one of the last retreats of this military order, under whom it obtained great celebrity by its heroic resist- ance to the Turks; but in the time of Soliman the Great a capitulation was agreed upon and the island was finally surrendered to the Turks, under whom it has since continued. It is now governed by a Turkish pasha, who exercises despotic sway, seizes upon the property of the people at his pleasure, and from whose vigilant rapacity scarcely anything can be concealetl. Under this iron rule the inhabitants are ground to pov- erty and the island is becoming rapidly depopulated.
III. Description and Remains. — Rhodes is immedi- ately opposite the high Carian and Lycian headlands at the south-west extremity of the peninsula of Asia Minor. It is of a triangular form, about forty -four leagues in circumference, twenty leagues long from north to south, and about six broad. In the centre is a lofty mountain named Artemira, which commands a view of the whole island ; of the elevated coast of Car- mania, on the north; the archipelago, studded with nu- merous islands, on the north-west; Mount Ida, veiled in clouds, on the south-west; and the wide expanse of
RHODES
RHODES
av or ck Mods
Plan of Rhodes
waters that wash the shores of Africa on the south and south-east. It was famed in ancient times and is still celebrated for its delightful climate and the fertility of its soil. The gardens are filled with delicious fruit, ev- ery gale is scented with the most powerful fragrance wafte<l from the groves of orange and citron trees, and the numberless aromatic herbs exhale such a profusion of the richest odors that the whole atmosphere seems impregnated with spic}'^ perfume. It is well watered by the river Candura and numerous smaller streams and rivulets that spring from the shady sides of Mount Artemira. It contains two cities — Rhodes, the capital, inhabited chiefly by Turks and a small number of Jews; and the ancient Lindus, now reduced to a ham- let, peopled by Greeks who are almost all engaged in commerce. Besides these there are five villages occu- pied by Turks and a small number of Jews, and five towns and furty-one villages inhabited by (Ireeks. The whole population was estimated by Savary at .3(5,500; but Turner, a later traveller, estimates them only at 20,000, of whom 14,000 were Greeks and 6000 Turks, with a small mixture of Jews residing chiefly in the capital.
The city of Rhodes is famous for its huge brazen statue of Apollo, called Colossus, which stood at the mouth of the liarbor, and was so high that ships passed in full sail between its legs. It was the work of Chares of Lindus, the disciple of Lysi()pus; its height was one hundred and twenty-six feet, and twelve years were oc- cupied in its construction. It was thrown down by an earthquake in the reign of Ptolemy III, Kuorgetes, king of Kgypt, after having stood tifty-six years. The brass of which it was composed was a load for nine hundred camels. Its extremities were sustained by sixty pil- lars of marble, and a winding staircase led up to the top, whence a view might be obtained of Syria and the ships proceeding to Kgypt in a large looking-glass suspended to the neck of the statue. There is not a single vestige of this celebrated work of art now re- maining. The present antiipiities of Rhfides reach no further back than the residence of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. The remains of their fine old for-
tress, of great size and strength, are still to be seen. The cells of the Knights are entire, but the sanctuary has been converted bj'. the Turks into a magazine for military stores. The early coins of Rhodes bear the conventional rose-flower, with the name of the island, on one side, and the head of Apollo, radiated like the
Early Coin of Rhodes.
sun, on the other. It was a proverb that the sun shone every day in Rhodes.
See Meursius, Ik Rhodo fAmst. 1G75) ; Coronelli, hola di Jiodi (Ven. 1702); Vaii\scn, Descriptio Rhodi (Gott. 1818); Host, R/wdus (Alton. 1823); MeugefVurr/exc/ik/i/e vmi Rhodus (Cologne, 1827) ; and especially Rottier, Les Monunieiit.'i de RJiudes (Brussels, 1828) ; Ross, Reiien navh Rhodes (Halle, 1852); Berg, Die Inset Rhudus (Bruns- wick, 18G1).
Rhodes, Alexandre de, a French missionary, was born at Avignon, IMarch 15, 1,591. In l()12 he was admilted to the Order of .Jesuits at Rome, and after long solicitation received permission to go to India as a mis- sionary. In the spring of IGIO he left Lisbon, but on arriving at (ioa was detained under various pretexts until 1G23, when he went on to IVIacao. He desired to penetrate into Japan, and devoted a year to the study of the language; but the great severity which was exer- cised against Christians obliged him to abandon his project. He went into Cocbin-('liina, and at the end of six months began to preach in the native idiom. In 1(>27 he passed into Toncpun, and gained the confidence of the king ; but the jealousy of courtiers destroyed the fruits of Ids labor. An e(lict was launched against the Christian religion, and Rhodes was expelled. He re-