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THE ISLAND OF RODOS |
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HISTORY OF RODOS |
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RODOS,
DAUGHTER
OF
APHRODITE,
WIFE OF
HELIOS
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The ancient tales of men report that when Zeus and the Undying Ones portioned the earth ordering Rodos was not yet to be seen in the sea's water, but the island was hidden in the salty depths. The sun was away, and not lot was declared for him; They left him without a portion of Earth, a God undefiled. When he spoke of it, Zeus was for a second cast, but the Sun forbade; For he said that in the gray sea he saw swelling up from the bottom a land with much food for men and friendly to flocks.
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That is how Pindar, in
his seventh Olympic Ode,
describes the geological
phenomenon of the
emergence of Rodos from
the sea as a background
to his praise of the
athlete Diagoras of
Rodos. And in the
yellowish sandstone of
which the monuments of
Rodos are built, we can
often see trapped the
fossils of fish and sea
- shells, proof that
this land once lay
beneath the sea. The
human presence on Rodos
can be traced with
certainty back to the
Stone Age. In the Middle
Bronze Age, the first
signs of the Minoan
culture appear, and
these flooded Rodos,
lalysos, during the Late
Minoan period. Mycenaean
finds show that
Mycenaean Greeks settled
on the island, gradually
spreading out until they
had occupied all of it.
It seems very likely
that the three city -
states familiar from
history — lalysos,
Lindos and Kamiros, each
of them with its own
independent policy —
came into being in the
8th century BC, after
the collapse of
Mycenaean power.
We have very little
information about the
system of government or
political situation in
the cities of Rodos
during the Archaic
period. In the 5th
century, when the
Athenian power was at
its height, they seem to
have gone over to the
democratic system, and
it was at this time that
the idea of unification
came to fruition. The
unification movement was
spearheaded by the
Eratides or Diagorides
family of lalysos,
aristocrats who had a
tradition in producing
athletes of note.
The most important event
in the ancient history
of Rodos was the merging
of its three
city-states, which
occurred between 411 and
408-407 BC. |
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The new city which they
decided to build, named
Rodos, was laid out on
the northern extremity
of the island designed
by Hippodamus of Miletus
the greatest town
planner of antiquity —
or, as more modern
scholars of town
planning have it, by one
of his pupils. In the
Hellenistic period,
Rodos was one of the
finest and best
-organised cities in the
known world. Its
straight, parallel
streets intersecting one
another in a grid
pattern were lined with
temples, gymnasiums,
theaters, and other
admirable public and
private buildings. The
city was surrounded by
impenetrable
fortifications. The
ships of Rodos roved the
Mediterranean, and the
seafaring and commercial
activities of the
citizens filled the town
with wealth. Ships from
all over the world
docked at its large,
safe harbours, bringing
goods of all kinds to
stock the market.
Apart from being a
powerful and independent
state, Rodos also
developed at this time
into an important center
of learning and
education. Schools of
rhetoric and philosophy
sprang up, training
philosophers such as
Eudemus, Praxiphanes,
Hieronymus and
Panaetius. The wealth
and culture of Rodos
attracted important
figures in the wider
Greek world to settle
there, including the
great astronomer and
mathematician
Hipparchus, the Athenian
orator Aeschines, the
Alexandrian poet
Apollonius, and the
philosopher Poseidonius,
of Apameia in Syria.
The Rhodians
commissioned the
adornment and decoration
of their city from the
most important artists
of the age: Bryaxes,
Lysippus, Apelles,
Parasius and Protogenes.
The great sculptors
Deinocrates and Hares
were themselves sons of
the island, and it was
the latter of the two
who created the famous
Colossus. |
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In
305
BC,
Rodos
spent
a
year
under
siege
from
Demetrius
the
Besieger
and
eventually
beat
him
off.
This
victory
consolidated
the
island's
independence
and
strengthened
its
democratic
institutions.
It
reached
the
height
of
its
economic
and
political
power
in
the
3rd
century
BC
and
the
first
half
of
the
2nd
century.
By
this
time
it
was
an
important
centre
for
banking,
a
guarantor
of
the
freedom
of
the
seas
and
one
of
the
main
trading
center
in
the
Eastern
Mediterranean.
The
foreign
policy
of
Rodos
focused
on
an
attempt
to
maintain
balance
amongst
the
major
Hellenistic
kingdoms
so
as
to
protect
its
economic
interests.
The
civil
war
in
Rome
put
Rodos
in
the
embarrassing
position
of
having
to
decide
which
of
the
warring
factions
it
would
better
to
support.
In
the
end,
Cassius
occupied
the
island
in
42
BC
and
stripped
it
of
its
treasures,
its
fleet
and
its
works,
also
depriving
the
inhabitants
of
all
their
political
freedoms.
Even
in
periods
which,
until
only
a
few
decades
ago,
were
seen
as
times
of
decline,
Rodos
continued
to
be
both
Greek
and
universal
and
maintained
its
cosmopolitan
life
style.
In
the
early
Christian
era,
Rodos
was
not
of
course
the
great
political
and
economic
power
which
it
had
been
in
the
Hellenistic
period,
but
it
had
not
lost
its
strategic
importance.
Christianity
took
root
on
the
island
at a
very
early
date
:
together
with
the
merchandise
shipped
through
its
harbours
from
East
and
West
came
new
ideas.
In
the
late
3rd
century
AD
Rodos
was
made
capital
of
the
Roman
provincia
insularum
("province
of
the
islands")
and
undertook
a
leading
role
in
the
Aegean.
When
the
capital
of
the
empire
was
moved
from
Rome
to
Constantinople
in
330
AD,
the
strategic
and
commercial
significance
of
Rodos
seems
to
have
increased.
It
lay
on
the
sea
route
which
linked
the
"Queen
of
Cities"
with
the
rich
and
fertile
imperial
possessions
in
Egypt,
Syria
and
Palestine.
There
seems
no
longer
any
doubt
that
the
Rhodians
of
the
5th
and
6th
centuries
AD
had
the
intellectual
capacity
and
wealth
to
design
and
build
large
and
luxurious
public
and
private
buildings
such
as
those
of
the
leading
and
most
prosperous
cities
of
Asia
Minor:
Ephesus,
Miletus,
Smyrna
and
Hierapolis.
They
also
built
large
basilicas
in
their
cities
and
ornamented
them
with
wall
paintings,
wall
-
mounted
mosaics
and
multi
-
coloured
marble. |
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In the difficult period for all the islands of the Eastern Mediterranean which began in the 7th, century, the city of Rodos shrank under the impact of constant Arab raids, but life went on. As one of the outposts of the Empire and an important naval base, Byzantine craft sailed from here to do battle with the Arabs in Egypt and Syria.
The economy of Rodos became active once more in the post - Byzantine period. As the western Europeans waged the wars of the Crusades in the East, ships from all across the continent moored in Rodos harbour. And together with the economy, all other areas of life in Rodos flourished. In the late 11th century and throughout the 12th some of the most important monuments on the island were built in Rodos' town and the surrounding countryside: Our Lady of the Castle, St Fanourios, the monastery of Archangel Michael at Thari, and others. Many of these were adorned with superb wall - paintings. The important library at the Monastery of St John Artamites, admired by the scholar Nicephorus Blemmydes in 1233, may not have been the only one of its kind. |
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In
the
first
half
of
the
13th
century,
when
Rodos
was
independent
and
ruled
by
the
Gavalas
dynasty,
it
entered
into
alliances
and
commercial
agreements
with
a
number
of
Western
powers
— as
well
as
Byzantium
—
and,
once
more,
its
harbour
filled
with
ships
from
all
over
the
world.
In
1309
the
knights
of
the
StJohn
of
Jerusalem
settled
in
the
Dodecanese.
Given
the
multinational
composition
of
the
chivalric
order,
Rodos
inevitably
came
into
economic,
political
and
cultural
contact
with
all
of
Western
Europe.
The
harbour
became
one
of
the
most
important
portals
through
which
goods
and
ideas
passed
east
from
Western
Europe.
Particularly,
after
the
mid
-
15th
century
the
Greek
population
seems
to
have
prospered.
The
economic
development
of
Rodos
led
naturally
to a
very
varied
social
stratification,
all
the
way
from
the
classes
of
the
nobility
and
the
wealthy
down
to
the
underworld.
A
numerous
scholarly
class
of
Greeks
and
Westerners
cultivated
learning
and
studied
the
Classical
writers
in
Greek
and
Latin.
This
mixed
population
of
Greeks,
Westerns
and
Jews
lived
together
in a
walled
city
surrounded
by
orchards
of
fruit
trees.
An
interior
wall
running
east
-
west
divided
the
city
into
two
unequal
parts.
The
more
northerly,
and
smaller,
of
these
parts
was
called
the
Collachium
; it
was
the
administrative
centre
and
contained
the
Palace
of
the
Grand
Master,
occupying
the
ancient
acropolis,
the
Hospital,
the
inns
of
the
"tongues",
the
church
of
StJohn,
and
many
other
buildings.
The
larger
southern
quarter
was
the
town
itself,
known
as
the
Burgus
or
Burgum.
Here
lived
a
blend
of
races,
with
the
Greeks
in
the
majority.
The
city
was
surrounded
by
impregnable
fortifications
(inex-
pugnabilis
murus).
In
the
form
in
which
it
has
survived,
the
city
wall
dates
from
the
period
in
which
the
invention
of
cannon
had
caused
an
upheaval
in
the
military
arts.
The
knights
of
St
John
had
began
to
adapt
their
techniques
of
fortification
to
the
new
and
revolutionary
requirements
— a
process
which,
for
reasons
of
caution,
took
place
gradually.
The
walls
were
converted
without
being
demolished,
and
thus
older
sections
stand
cheek
to
cheek
with
more
modern
parts.
The
walls
of
Rodos
are
unique
in
Europe
in
their
state
of
preservation
and
their
form.
The
network
of
streets
in
the
densely
-
built
town
was
not
the
work
of
the
medieval
Rhodians,
but
followed
that
which
their
ancestors
had
designed
in
the
Hellenistic
period,
modified
to
suit
the
historical
connotations
and
life
-
style
of
the
day.
The
urban
architecture
of
Rodos
under
the
Knights
falls
generally
within
the
Late
Gothic
style,
but
climatic
conditions
of
the
Aegean
and
the
long
architectural
tradition
of
the
island
gave
it a
character
of
its
own
which
differs
from
the
contemporaneous
architecture
of
Western
Europe.
Ecclesiastical
architecture
developed
in
much
the
same
way
as
its
secular
counterpart.
In
the
city
at
this
time,
there
were
35
to
37
churches,
of
which
29
have
survived.
Four
of
them
are
in
Western
European
styles,
and
the
remainder
in
Byzantine
style.
Outside
the
town,
the
Greek
population
lived
in
more
than
50
small
villages,
tilling
the
soil
and
breeding
animals.
The
worship
of
God
took
place
in
small,
humble
churches,
most
of
which
can
still
be
seen
on
hill
tops
and
in
the
villages.
Whenever
an
enemy
attack
threatened,
the
villages
sought
refuge
in
one
of
the
more
than
twenty
castles
scattered
all
over
the
island.
Most
of
these
structures
have
survived,
perched
on
mountain
peaks
as
reminders
of a
harsh
age
full
of
anxiety
and
fear.
In
Rodos,
the
amount
of
monumental
painting
done
under
Western
rule
was
strikingly
greater
than
in
former
periods.
In
this
vast
quantity
of
monumental
painting
produced
in
Rodos
under
the
Knights,
we
can
clearly
distinguish
three
stylistic
and
iconographic
trends,
corresponding
to
an
identical
number
of
ideologies
on
the
part
of
those
who
commissioned
or
purchased
the
works
in
question.
The
three
schools
were
the
Western
European,
the
late
-
Byzantine
or
Paleologian
(most
of
it
highly
conservative),
and
the
eclectic,
whose
painters
chose
to
use
iconographic
or
stylistic
features
from
both
of
the
other
schools.
Not
many
months
after
their
enslavement
by
the
Turks
(1522),
the
Rhodians
reached
an
agreement
with
the
Order
of
the
Knights
to
throw
off
the
Ottoman
yoke.
In
1531
the
Turks
sniffed
out
the
conspiracy,
arresting
and
killing
the
ringleaders.
The
16th
century
seems
to
have
been
a
black
period
for
Rodos.
No
traces
of
any
art
from
this
period
have
come
to
light
— so
far,
at
any
rate
—
and
that
is a
clear
indication
that
the
island
was
suffering.
A
further
revolt
in
1575/6
was
bloodily
suppressed.
In
the
17th
and
18th
centuries,
churches
of
all
sizes
were
built
and
decorated
with
wall
-
paintings,
and
in
Lindos
the
wealthy
ship
owners
constructed
houses
which
were
influenced
by
the
architecture
of
the
period
of
Knights.
When
the
Greek
War
of
independence
broke
out
in
1821,
the
people
of
Rodos
were
unable
to
rise
in
mass
revolt
:
political
and
military
conditions
on
the
island
did
not
permit
it.
Rodos
was
the
seat
of
the
Turkish
authorities
and
a
major
military
base,
while
its
castles
would
have
been
impossible
to
overcome.
As
long
as
the
Turks
were
in
power,
Rodos
was
not,
of
course,
the
crossroads
of
people
and
ideas
that
it
had
been
in
the
Hellenistic
period
and
the
Middle
Ages.
Economy
activity,
too,
died
away,
and
cultured
received
little
attention.
Yet
the
Greek
population
kept
its
language,
religion
and
traditions,
and
maintained
contact
with
the
rest
of
the
nation.
In
May
1912
Rodos
was
occupied
by
Italian
forces,
which
went
on
to
capture
the
other
Dodecanese
islands.
The
Italian
and
the
Greek
governments
signed
an
Agreement
(1919
and
1920)
according
to
which,
the
Dodecanese
islands
would
be
ceded
to
Greece,
except
Rodos,
where
a
referendum
would
be
held
after
five
years,
but
the
islands
stayed
under
their
control.
In
1924,
Italy
appointed
Mario
Lago
as
governor,
an
urbane
and
cultured
man
whose
policies
were
relatively
mild
but
nonetheless
intended
to
ensure
the
long
-
term
assimilation
of
the
Greek
population. |
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Mario Lago embarked on an ambitious plan of public works on the island. New roads and public buildings were constructed, archaeological sites were laid out and beauty - spots were landscaped. The civil service was reorganised, and the island gave the impression of being part of Western Europe. However, the Greek population was treated repressively. In 1936, Cesare Mario de Vecchi, a leading member of the Fascist Party, was appointed. Governor, and he stepped up the campaign to assimilate the Greeks. All the Greek patriots were persecuted, tortured, imprisoned and exiled from the island. The teaching of Greek in schools was restricted, and Fascist propaganda |
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flooded the island in the hope that the islanders, young and old, could be lured into support for the cause. In fact, however, such measures had exactly the reverse effect ; the people of Rodos organised themselves, resisted and never lost sight of their identity as Greeks. During the Second World War, Rodos was occupied first by the Germans and then by the British. In 1947 it was at last united with Greece.
Nowadays, Rodos attracts more tourists than any other Greek island, and it is once more a crossroads for the peoples of the world, who come to enjoy its natural beauty and the historical memories which permeate its atmosphere and can almost be said to emanate from the soil. "Rodos, daughter of Aphrodite of the oceans, wife of Helios" (Pindar, Olympic Ode), has been a Greek island throughout its lengthy history, and in periods of prosperity its culture and the vigour of its people have made its name known throughout the world. |
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