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68-622: The prelude to the conflict in Crete was the commercial war between the cities of Rhodes and Byzantium about the toll introduced by the Byzantines for all ships passing through the Bosporus on their way to the Pontus Euxinus . Posing a huge threat to Hellenistic trade, the conflict was ended in 220 BC with a compromise. Meanwhile in Crete the allied cities of Knossos and Gortys had gained control of

136-472: A siege tower called Helepolis that weighed 360,000 lb (163,293 kg). Despite this engagement, in 304 BC after only one year, he relented and signed a peace agreement, leaving behind a huge store of military equipment. The Rhodians sold the equipment and used the money to erect a statue of their sun god, Helios , the statue since called the Colossus of Rhodes . The Rhodians celebrated in honour of Helios

204-569: A Rhodian race called the Telchines and associated the island of Rhodes with Danaus ; it was sometimes nicknamed Telchinis . In the 15th century BC, Mycenaean Greeks invaded. After the Bronze Age collapse , the first renewed outside contacts were with Cyprus . In Greek legend, Rhodes was claimed to have participated in the Trojan War under the leadership of Tlepolemus . In the 8th century BC,

272-604: A citizen, Timarchus, and, in response, they declared war on the Rhodians. Meanwhile the Knossians and their allies had moved against Lyttos, but then, for some unknown reason, the alliance broke up and the Cretans began to quarrel with each other. Thus, the cities of Polyrrhenia and Lappa , along with some other communities, defected from the Knossians and allied with the Lyttians. In Gortys

340-577: A conflation of the Colossus of Rhodes and Paul 's Epistle to the Colossians , which refers to Colossae . The island's name might be derived from erod , Phoenician for snake, since the island was home to many snakes in antiquity. The island was inhabited in the Neolithic period although little remains of this culture. In the 16th century BC, the Minoans came to Rhodes. Later Greek mythology recalled

408-685: A grand festival, the Halieia . Throughout the 3rd century BC, Rhodes attempted to secure its independence and commerce, particularly its virtual control over the grain trade in the eastern Mediterranean. Both of these goals depended on none of the three great Hellenistic states achieving dominance. Consequently, the Rhodians pursued a policy of maintaining a balance of power among the Antigonids, Seleucids, and Ptolemies, even if that meant going to war with its traditional ally, Egypt. To this end, they employed their economy and their excellent navy as leverage, which

476-486: A mercenary force led by Plator to the island, consisting of 400 Illyrians, 200 Achaeans and 100 Phocians . With these reinforcements, the Polyrrhenians made great progress moving against Eleutherna, Kydonia and Aptera . They quickly forced these cities to abandon their Knossian allies and enter the opposition coalition. Thus the Knossians, in a short time, not only lost most of their allies, but also their hegemony over

544-665: A military protectorate. At the Paris Peace Treaties , Rhodes, together with the other islands of the Dodecanese , was united with Greece in February 1947. 6,000 Italian colonists were forced to abandon the island and returned to Italy. In 1949, Rhodes was the venue for negotiations between Israel and Egypt , Jordan , Lebanon , and Syria , concluding with the 1949 Armistice Agreements . Arcadia (region) Arcadia ( Greek : Ἀρκαδία , romanized :  Arkadía )

612-501: A modern society. The island suffered through many "governors" appointed by the Italian government. As such, in 1938, the "Leggi razziali" (Racial Laws) were passed, mimicking the footsteps of the antisemitic policies promoted in other European countries. All Jews who served in the government, including the military, were forced to resign, school children were forced to abandon their studies, and all commerce that included any dealings with Jews

680-518: A nearby hill. The conflict over Crete was renewed in 205 BC, when Philip V of Macedon used the island as a base for naval raids against the Rhodians. In the Cretan War (205–200 BC) , Philip's major allies in Crete were the cities of Hierapytna and Olous . Toward the end, when the Romans entered the coalition against Macedon, the Knossians sided again with the Rhodians and forced Hierapytna to surrender. As

748-464: A result, the Rhodians took control over eastern Crete which allowed them to largely stamp out piracy in the area. Following the Second Macedonian War , in 197 BC, Philip V lost all former allies and all possessions outside Macedonia proper. Rhodes Rhodes ( / r oʊ d z / ; Greek : Ρόδος , romanized :  Ródos [ˈroðos] ) is the largest of

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816-459: Is Rhodes, jump here!" (as translated from Ancient Greek "Αὐτοῦ γὰρ καὶ Ῥόδος καὶ πήδημα"), an admonition to prove one's idle boasts by deed, rather than boastful talk. It comes from an Aesop's fable called " The Boasting Traveller " and was cited by Hegel , Marx , and Kierkegaard . In 395 with the division of the Roman Empire , the long Byzantine period began for Rhodes. In Late Antiquity ,

884-464: Is a region in the central Peloponnese . It takes its name from the mythological character Arcas , and in Greek mythology it was the home of the gods Hermes and Pan . In European Renaissance arts, Arcadia was celebrated as an unspoiled, harmonious wilderness; as such, it was referenced in popular culture. The modern regional unit of the same name more or less overlaps with the historical region, but

952-556: Is slightly larger. Arcadia was gradually linked in a loose confederation that included all the Arcadian towns and was named League of the Arcadians . In the 7th century BC, it successfully faced the threat of Sparta and the Arcadians managed to maintain their independence. They participated in the Persian Wars alongside other Greeks by sending forces to Thermopylae and Plataea . During

1020-602: The Angeloi emperors (1185–1204), in the first half of the 13th century, Rhodes became the centre of an independent domain under Leo Gabalas and his brother John , until it was occupied by the Genoese in 1248–1250. The Genoese were evicted by the Empire of Nicaea , after which the island became a regular province of the Nicaean state (and after 1261 of the restored Byzantine Empire). In 1305,

1088-581: The Dodecanese islands of Greece and is their historical capital; it is the ninth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit , which is part of the South Aegean administrative region . The principal town of the island and seat of the municipality is the city of Rhodes , which had 50,636 inhabitants in 2011. In 2022,

1156-669: The Palace of the Grand Master , were built during this period. The walls had been strengthened by the Knights through hiring Italian engineers that used knowledge of ballistics to design defences against gunpowder attacks, and which withstood the attacks of the Sultan of Egypt in 1444, and a siege by the Ottomans under Mehmed II in 1480. Eventually, however, Rhodes fell to the large army of Suleiman

1224-617: The Peloponnesian War , Arcadia allied with Sparta and Corinth . In the following years, during the period of the Hegemony of Thebes , the Theban general Epaminondas reinforced the Arcadian federation in order to rival neighboring Sparta. Then he founded Megalopolis , which became its new capital. Over the next centuries Arcadia weakened. It initially was subjugated by the Macedonians and later

1292-712: The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World . The Medieval Old Town of the City of Rhodes has been declared a World Heritage Site . Today, it is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe. The island has been known as Ρόδος (Ródos) in Greek throughout its history. Similar-sounding ῥόδον ( rhódon ) in ancient Greek was the word for the rose, whilst in modern Greek the also similar-sounding ρόδι ( ródi ) or ρόιδο ( róido ) refers to

1360-619: The Turkish Consul Selahattin Ülkümen succeeded, at considerable risk to himself and his family, in saving 42 Jewish families, about 200 persons in total, who had Turkish citizenship or were members of Turkish citizens' families. On 8 May 1945, the Germans under Otto Wagener surrendered Rhodes as well as the Dodecanese as a whole to the British, who soon after then occupied the islands as

1428-697: The Achaean League. As a side effect of the conflict, Cretan mercenaries (the famed archers and the so-called Neocretans) are recorded all over the Hellenistic world, although none of the leaders (Cnopias of Allaria, Philon the Knossian, Eurylochus of Crete, Zelys the Gortynian at Raphia 217 BC ; Lagoras , Kambylos and Bolis at the siege of Sardis 215/13 BC ) can be traced directly to the civil war. The Lyttians eventually returned to their homes and rebuilt their city on

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1496-571: The Aegean and western Anatolia and Antiochus' plan for Egypt. Heading a coalition of small states, the Rhodians checked Philip's navy , but not his superior army. Without a third power to which to turn, the Rhodians (along with ambassadors from Pergamum, Egypt, and Athens) appealed in 201 BC to the Roman Republic . Despite being exhausted by the Second Punic War against Hannibal (218–201 BC)

1564-541: The Aegean Sea, Rhodes was an important stopping point for Phoenician merchants, and prosperous trading colonies and Phoenician communities emerged there, some within the Greek cities. In 408 BC, the cities united to form one territory . They built the city of Rhodes , a new capital on the northern end of the island. Its regular plan was, according to Strabo , superintended by the Athenian architect Hippodamus . In 357 BC,

1632-625: The Aegean was cemented through the organization of the Cyclades into the Second Nesiotic League under Rhodian leadership. The Romans withdrew from Greece after the end of the conflict, but the resulting power vacuum quickly drew in Antiochus III and subsequently the Romans. The Roman–Seleucid War lasted from 192 to 188 BC with Rome, Rhodes, Pergamon, and other Roman-allied Greek states defeated

1700-625: The Arabs in 673 as part of their first attack on Constantinople . When their fleet was destroyed by Greek fire before Constantinople and by storms on its return trip, however, the Umayyads evacuated their troops in 679/80 as part of the Byzantine–Umayyad peace treaty. In 715 the Byzantine fleet dispatched against the Arabs launched a rebellion at Rhodes, which led to the installation of Theodosios III on

1768-637: The Arcadians joined the Achaean League . Geographically, ancient Arcadia occupied the highlands at the centre of the Peloponnese. To the north, it bordered Achaea along the ridge of high ground running from Mount Erymanthos to Mount Cyllene ; most of Mount Aroania lay within Arcadia. To the east, it had borders with Argolis and Corinthia along the ridge of high ground running from Mount Cyllene round to Mount Oligyrtus and then south Mount Parthenius . To

1836-524: The Athenian rhetorician Aeschines , who formed a school at Rhodes; Apollonius of Rhodes , who wrote about Jason and Medea in the Argonautica ; the observations and works of the astronomers Hipparchus and Geminus ; and the rhetorician Dionysius Thrax . Its school of sculptors developed, under Pergamese influence, a rich, dramatic style that can be characterized as " Hellenistic Baroque ". Agesander of Rhodes , with two other Rhodian sculptors, carved

1904-790: The Byzantine throne. From the early 8th to the 12th centuries, Rhodes belonged to the Cibyrrhaeot Theme of the Byzantine Empire, and was a centre for shipbuilding and commerce. In c. 1090, it was occupied by the forces of the Seljuk Turks , after the long period of chaos resulting from the Battle of Manzikert . Rhodes was recaptured by the Emperor Alexios I Komnenos during the First Crusade . As Byzantine central power weakened under

1972-580: The Greek Orthodox community of ritually murdering a Christian boy. This became known as the Rhodes blood libel . Austria opened a post-office at RHODUS (Venetian name) before 1864, as witnessed by stamps with Franz Joseph 's head. In 1912, Italy seized Rhodes from the Ottomans during the Italo-Turkish War . Being under Italian administration, the island's population was thus spared the "exchange of

2040-512: The Magnificent in December 1522. The Sultan deployed 400 ships delivering 100,000 men to the island (200,000 in other sources). Against this force the Knights, under Grand Master Philippe Villiers de L'Isle-Adam , had about 7,000 men-at-arms, with an English, Spanish, French, and Italian contingent each defending separate areas and their fortifications. The siege lasted six months, at the end of which

2108-608: The Mediterranean and Rhodian autonomy was ultimately dependent upon good relations with them. Those good graces soon evaporated in the wake of the Third Macedonian War (171–168 BC). In 169 BC, during the war against Perseus , Rhodes sent Agepolis as ambassador to the consul Quintus Marcius Philippus , and then to Rome in the following year, hoping to turn the Senate against the war. Rhodes remained scrupulously neutral during

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2176-577: The Mediterranean and in use throughout Byzantine times (and influencing the development of admiralty law up to the present). In 622/3, during the climactic Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 , Rhodes was captured by the Sasanian navy . Rhodes was occupied by the Islamic Umayyad forces of Caliph Muawiyah I in 654, who carried off the remains of the Colossus of Rhodes. The island was again captured by

2244-550: The Near East and bronze objects from Syria. At Kameiros on the northwest coast, a former Bronze Age site, where the temple was founded in the 8th century BC, there is another notable contemporaneous sequence of carved ivory figurines. The cemeteries of Kameiros and Ialyssos yielded several exquisite exemplars of the Orientalizing Rhodian jewelry, dated in the 7th and early 6th centuries BC. The Persians invaded and overran

2312-539: The Rhodians because the islanders were the only people they had encountered who were more arrogant than themselves. After surrendering its independence, Rhodes became a cultural and educational center for Roman noble families. It was especially noted for its teachers of rhetoric, such as Hermagoras and the unknown author of Rhetorica ad Herennium . At first, the state was an important ally of Rome and enjoyed numerous privileges, but these were later lost in various machinations of Roman politics. Cassius eventually invaded

2380-547: The Romans agreed to intervene, still angry over the Macedonian alliance with Carthage that had led to the First Macedonian War from 214 to 205 BC. The Senate saw the appeal from Rhodes and her allies as the opportunity to pressure Philip. The result was the Second Macedonian War (200–196 BC), which Rome won and greatly reduced Macedon's power, prestige, and territory. Rhodian independence was preserved. Rhodian influence in

2448-509: The Seleucids and their allies, the last Mediterranean power that might even vaguely threaten Roman dominance. Having provided Rome with valuable naval help in her first foray into Asia, the Rhodians were rewarded with territory and enhanced status by the Treaty of Apamea (188 BC). The Romans once again evacuated the east – the Senate preferred clients to provinces – but it was clear that Rome now ruled

2516-520: The ancient authors as Pelasgians . Whilst Herodotus seems to have found the idea that the Arcadians were not Greek far-fetched, it is clear that the Arcadians were considered as the original inhabitants of the region. This is testified by ancient myths, like the myth of Arcas , the myth of Lycaon etc. Arcadia is also one of the regions described in the " Catalogue of Ships " in the Iliad ; its troops were led by Agapenor . Agamemnon himself gave Agapenor

2584-410: The capital of Arcadia became Megalopolis . Arcadia was the location of the cult of Despoina , also known as the Arcadian mysteries. Despoina means "the mistress", but was only a title given to the goddess, and was not her real name, which was told only to those initiated in the mysteries. Despoina, along with Demeter , was the primary deity worshipped in Arcadia, and was particularly worshipped at

2652-523: The citadel of Gortys. While the Knossians were occupied at Gortys, most of the Lyttian warriors left their city to invade the enemy territory. The Knossians, however, got intelligence of their plan and took the opportunity to invade the undefended city of Lyttos, capturing all the women and children and razing the city to the ground. When the Lyttians returned from their expedition, they decided to abandon their devastated homes and settled in Lappa whose citizens were willing to host them. Meanwhile, tensions on

2720-419: The cities were named for their three sons. The rhoda is a pink hibiscus , native to the island. Diodorus Siculus added that Actis , one of the sons of Helios and Rhode, travelled to Egypt . He built the city of Heliopolis and taught the Egyptians astrology . In the second half of the 8th century BC, the sanctuary of Athena received votive gifts that are markers for cultural contacts: small ivories from

2788-411: The citizens were divided on the question of alliance and a civil war broke out in the city. The elder Gortynians remained loyal to Knossos, while the younger Gortynians favoured the Lyttians. Taken by surprise by the sudden reverse, the Knossians asked the Aetolian League for help. The Aetolians were already present in Kydonia and sent 1000 warriors as assistance. After the arrival of the Aetolians,

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2856-402: The elders in Gortys led the Knossians and the Aetolians to occupy their citadel and proceeded to kill or expel their younger opponents. The young Gortynians took refuge in the ancient castle of Phaistos overlooking the bay south to Mount Ida . Later, the young Gortynians in Phaistos launched a bold attack against the port of Gortys which they occupied, and they then besieged their opponents in

2924-400: The famous Laocoön group , now in the Vatican Museums , and the large sculptures rediscovered at Sperlonga in the villa of Tiberius , probably in the early Imperial period . In 305 BC, Antigonus directed his son, Demetrius , to besiege Rhodes in an attempt to break its alliance with Egypt. Demetrius created huge siege engines , including a 180 ft (55 m) battering ram and

2992-516: The island and by 216 BC Crete was more or less a Macedonian protectorate. Two years later the Achaean strategos Aratus of Sicyon confirmed this outcome claiming that Philip V of Macedon enjoyed the faith of the Cretans and his ships ruled the Cretan Sea, while most of the island's strongholds obeyed his command. Among the mercenary leaders fighting on the island was a young Arcadian named Philopoemen , who acquired great fame and experience which would serve him well in his later years as strategos of

3060-414: The island and sacked the city. In the early Imperial period Rhodes became a favorite place for political exiles. In the 1st century AD, the Emperor Tiberius spent a brief term of exile on Rhodes. By tradition, Paul the Apostle evangelized and helped establish an early Christian church on the island during the first century. In ancient times there was a Roman saying: " Hic Rhodus, hic salta !"—"Here

3128-420: The island had a population of 125,113 people. It is located northeast of Crete and southeast of Athens . Rhodes has several nicknames, such as "Island of the Sun" due to its patron sun god Helios, "The Pearl Island", and "The Island of the Knights", named after the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem , who ruled the island from 1310 to 1522. Historically, Rhodes was famous for the Colossus of Rhodes , one of

3196-416: The island was conquered by the king Mausolus of Caria ; then it fell again to the Persians in 340 BC. Their rule was also short. Rhodes then became a part of the growing empire of Alexander the Great in 332 BC, after he defeated the Persians. Following the death of Alexander, his generals ( Diadochi ) vied for control of the kingdom. Three — Ptolemy , Seleucus , and Antigonus — succeeded in dividing

3264-410: The island was given as a fief to Andrea Morisco , a Genoese adventurer who had entered Byzantine service. In 1306–1310, the Byzantine era of the island's history came to an end when the island was occupied by the Knights Hospitaller . Under the rule of the newly named "Knights of Rhodes", the city was rebuilt into a model of the European medieval ideal. Many of the city's famous monuments, including

3332-503: The island was the capital of the Roman province of the Islands , headed by a praeses ( hegemon in Greek), and encompassing most of the Aegean islands , with twenty cities. Correspondingly, the island was also the metropolis of the ecclesiastical province of Cyclades, with eleven suffragan sees. Beginning from ca. 600 AD, its influence in maritime issues was manifested in the collection of maritime laws known as " Rhodian Sea Law " ( Nomos Rhodion Nautikos ), accepted throughout

3400-406: The island's settlements started to form, with the coming of the Dorians , who built the three important cities of Lindus , Ialysus and Camirus , which together with Kos , Cnidus and Halicarnassus (on the mainland) made up the so-called Dorian Hexapolis (Greek for six cities). In Pindar 's ode, the island was said to be born of the union of Helios the sun god and the nymph Rhodos , and

3468-409: The island, but they were in turn defeated by forces from Athens in 478 BC. The Rhodian cities joined the Athenian League . When the Peloponnesian War broke out in 431 BC, Rhodes remained largely neutral, although it remained a member of the League. The war lasted until 404 BC, but by this time Rhodes had withdrawn entirely from the conflict and decided to go their own way. Being the eastern gate to

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3536-441: The island, mainly in the capital "Rodi", while some of them founded farm villages (like "Peveragno Rodio" (1929), "Campochiaro" (1935), "San Marco" (1936) and "Savona" (1938): in 1940 the creation of the " Provincia italiana di Rodi " in the Dodecanese islands was officially proposed. In the late 1930s, Mussolini embarked on a program of Italianization , attempting to make the island of Rhodes a transportation hub that would facilitate

3604-412: The island. Nevertheless they were still able to assist the Aetolian allies with 1000 archers in their war on the Greek mainland. The Polyrrhenians on the opposite side did the same by sending 500 Cretans to support Philip V. The war continued for several years, but the further narration by Polybius is lost. Generally, the war went favourably for the enemies of Knossos. Thus the Aetolians were expelled from

3672-463: The kingdom among themselves. Rhodes formed strong commercial and cultural ties with the Ptolemies in Alexandria , and together formed the Rhodo-Egyptian alliance that controlled trade throughout the Aegean in the 3rd century BC. The city developed into a maritime, commercial and cultural center; its coins circulated nearly everywhere in the Mediterranean. Its famous schools of philosophy, science, literature and rhetoric shared masters with Alexandria:

3740-452: The mainland had risen between the Achaean League and the Aetolian League. As a result, in 220 BC the Social War broke out, which was to involve the Macedonian king Philip V of Macedon as he was a key ally of the Achaeans. The Polyrrhenians then used the Aetolian interference in Crete as justification for asking Philip and the Achaeans for assistance against their common enemy. The Achaeans and Macedonians accepted them as allies and sent

3808-477: The minorities" between Greece and Turkey . Rhodes and the rest of the Dodecanese Islands were assigned to Italy in the Treaty of Ouchy. Although the treaty stipulated that the islands were to be returned to Turkey, the advent of World War I prevented this from happening. Turkey ceded them officially to Italy with the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne . It then became the core of their possession of the Isole Italiane dell'Egeo . Thousands of Italian colonists settled in

3876-410: The pomegranate. It was also called Lindos ( Ancient Greek : Λίνδος ). In addition, the island has been called Rodi in Italian , Rodos in Turkish , and רודי (Rodi) or רודיס (Rodes) in Ladino . Other ancient names were Ρόδη (Rodē), Τελχινίς ( Telchinis ) and Ηλιάς (Helias). The Travels of Sir John Mandeville incorrectly reports that Rhodes was formerly called "Collosus", through

3944-559: The present-day Dalyan , Turkey. Rhodes successfully carried on this policy through the course of the third century BC, an impressive achievement for what was essentially a democratic state. By the end of that period, however, the balance of power was crumbling, as declining Ptolemaic power made Egypt an attractive target for Seleucid ambitions. In 203/2 BC the young and dynamic kings of Antigonid Macedon and Seleucid Asia, Philip V and Antiochus III , agreed to accept—at least temporarily—their respective military ambitions: Philip's campaign in

4012-411: The region of Arcadia was mountainous, apart from the plains around Tegea and Megalopolis , and the valleys of the Alpheios and Ladon rivers. The Arcadians were an ancient Greek tribe which was situated in the mountainous Peloponnese. It is considered one of the oldest Greek tribes in Greece and it was probably part of, or a relative tribe of, the aboriginal inhabitants of Greece, who are mentioned by

4080-534: The ships for the Trojan war because Arcadia did not have a navy. The Arcadians founded numerous towns. Of these the strongest were the cities which controlled the few fertile valleys; Mantinea , Tegea and Orchomenos . The remaining towns were more mountainous or had smaller plains. Some of these were Nostia , Asea , Ypsounta, Teuthis , Heraea , Thyraion , Nestani , Alea, Lykosoura , Trikolonon, Tropea, Caphyae , Pallantion, Petrosaca , Feneos , Phoezon , Leucasium , Mesoboa , Stymphalus , etc. From 370 BC

4148-441: The south, the borders with Laconia and Messenia ran through the foothills of the Parnon and Taygetos mountain ranges, such that Arcadia contained all the headwaters of the Alpheios river, but none of the Eurotas river. To the south-west, the border with Messania ran along the tops of Mount Nomia , and Mount Elaeum , and from there the border with Elis ran along the valleys of the Erymanthos and Diagon rivers. Most of

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4216-443: The spread of Italian culture in Greece and the Levant . The Fascist program coincided with improvements to infrastructure, building imposing buildings such as the Hotel Rodon, the Puccini Theater and many administrative buildings with master architects such as Armando Bernabiti and Florestano Di Fausto . While the government worked at modernization, they also obliterated many historical buildings that did not match their ideal of

4284-421: The surviving defeated Hospitallers were allowed to withdraw to the Kingdom of Sicily . Despite the defeat, both Christians and Muslims seem to have regarded the conduct of Villiers de L'Isle-Adam as extremely valiant, and the Grand Master was proclaimed a Defender of the Faith by Pope Adrian VI (see Knights of Cyprus and Rhodes ). The knights would later move their base of operations to Malta and Gozo . Rhodes

4352-405: The war, but in the view of hostile elements in the Senate she had been a bit too friendly with the defeated King Perseus. Some actually proposed declaring war on the island republic, but this was averted. In 164 BC, Rhodes became a "permanent ally" of Rome, which was essentially a reduction to client state of nominal but meaningless independence. It was said that the Romans ultimately turned against

4420-442: The whole island, except for the Spartan colony of Lyttos which alone resisted. When the Rhodian navarch Polemocles returned from the war against Byzantium, the Knossians thought that he could be helpful to their efforts against Lyttos. So they asked the Rhodians for assistance and Polemocles arrived with three decked and three undecked ships. Soon after his arrival, however, the people of Eleutherna accused him of assassinating

4488-444: Was forbidden. Following the Italian Armistice of 8 September 1943 , the British attempted to get the Italian garrison on Rhodes to change sides. This was anticipated by the German Army , which succeeded in occupying the island with the Battle of Rhodes . In great measure, the German occupation caused the British failure in the subsequent Dodecanese Campaign . After September 1943, the Jews were sent to concentration camps. However,

4556-400: Was manned by proverbially the finest sailors in the Mediterranean world: “If we have ten Rhodians, we have ten ships.” The Rhodians also established their dominance on the shores of Caria across from their island, which became known as the " Rhodian Peraia ". It extended roughly from the modern city of Muğla (ancient Mobolla ) in the north and Kaunos bordering Lycia in the south, near

4624-416: Was thereafter a possession of the Ottoman Empire (see Sanjak of Rhodes ) for nearly four centuries. In the 19th century the island was populated by ethnic groups from the surrounding nations, including Jews, whose presence goes back 2,300 years. Under Ottoman rule, they generally did fairly well, but discrimination and bigotry occasionally arose. In February 1840, the Jews of Rhodes were falsely accused by

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