A.C. 352.

The beautiful island of Rhodes, with all its delightful mythological associations, its roses and its splendid scenery, has not escaped the horrors of war; it has been besieged several times, and in all instances in connection with great names and great events.

Mausolus, king of Caria, subdued Rhodes. After his death, the Rhodians revolted, and besieged Artemisia, his widow, in Halicarnassus. This king and queen are rendered immortal in the European word mausoleum, derived from the splendid monument so called, one of the seven wonders of the world, which she built to his memory. She gave prizes to poets for panegyrics written to commemorate his virtues; but still further did her grief carry her,—she resolved to give him a yet more extraordinary tomb. Having collected his ashes left by the burning of his body, and caused the bones to be beaten in a mortar, she mingled some of the powder every day in her drink, till she had consumed it all, meaning by this to make her own body the sepulchre of her husband. Notwithstanding her active, energetic spirit, her grief proved too strong for her, and she died lamenting him, two years after his decease.

This princess ordered the inhabitants of Halicarnassus to meet the Rhodians with open arms, as if they meant to deliver up their city to them. The deceived Rhodians landed their men, and left their ships empty, for the purpose of entering the place. In the mean time, Artemisia ordered out her own galleys, which seized the fleet of the enemy, and, having thus deprived them of the means of retreat, she surrounded the Rhodians and made a general slaughter of them. This intrepid queen then sailed towards Rhodes. The citizens, perceiving their vessels coming home crowned with flowers, admitted the Carian fleet into their port, amidst cries and exclamations of joy. Their surprise may be supposed when they recognised their unwelcome visitors. Artemisia insisted upon having the authors of the revolt put to death, and returned home in triumph. We cannot leave this remarkable princess without mentioning the extraordinary part she played in the immortal battle of Salamis. She, from her country, was of course against the Greeks, and, with her vessels, formed part of the fleet of Xerxes. She strongly advised Xerxes to avoid a naval engagement; the Greeks, she said, were more accustomed to the sea than the Persians were, and would have a great advantage upon that element. Although her advice was not listened to, she did her duty so nobly in the fight, that Xerxes exclaimed,—“That if the men appeared like women before the Greeks, the women fought like heroes.” In order to escape the Greeks, who pursued her warmly, she hoisted a Greek flag, and to complete the deception, attacked a Persian vessel commanded by Clamasithymus, king of Calydna, her personal enemy, and sunk it. After this, the Greeks, believing her to be of their party, offered her no more molestation.

SECOND SIEGE.

Demetrius Poliorcetes was commanded by his father, Antigonus, to punish Rhodes, which held the first rank among the Sporades isles. Demetrius presented himself before Rhodes with a numerous fleet; he knew that he was about to contend with skilful warriors, experienced in sea-fights, and possessing more than eight hundred machines of war as redoubtable as his own helepolis. Demetrius was an extraordinary character: equally addicted to pleasure and business, he never let the one interfere with the other; if embarked in indulgence, he prided himself upon carrying it further than any other man; but if thoroughly engaged in an affair of state, or prosecution of a war, none of the blandishments of pleasure could turn him aside from the great business in hand.

The Rhodians, who had foreseen the tempest, had applied to all the princes their allies, particularly to Ptolemy, king of Egypt, whom they informed that it was for having favoured his pretensions they were subjected to this invasion. Our young readers will not fail to observe that Antigonus, the father of Demetrius, and Ptolemy, king of Egypt, were two of Alexander’s generals, and were now endeavouring to carry out their master’s will, and proving themselves “most deserving of his empire,” by tearing it to pieces.

The preparations on each side were immense. Demetrius had a fleet of two hundred ships of war, and more than a hundred and seventy transports, bearing forty thousand men, without including the cavalry and the assistance he received from pirates. He had, likewise, a thousand small vessels, laden with provisions and other accommodations for an army. Rhodes was extremely rich; and the expectation of booty lured vast numbers to the ranks of Demetrius. This prince was celebrated for his skill in attacking fortified places, and for his ingenuity in constructing machines. He brought a great number of the latter with him.

Upon landing, Demetrius took a survey, in order to ascertain the most favourable point for an assault; he likewise ordered the country round to be laid waste on all sides; he cut down the trees and demolished the houses, in the parts adjacent to Rhodes, and employed them as materials to fortify his camp with a triple palisade.

The Rhodians, on their part, prepared for a vigorous defence. All persons in alliance with them, possessed of military merit, threw themselves into the city, for the purpose of gaining honour as well as of serving them; the besieged being as celebrated for their valour and constancy, as the besieger was for his consummate art in attacking fortified places.

After they had dismissed all useless mouths from the city, they found their force to consist of six thousand citizens and a thousand strangers. All slaves who should distinguish themselves were promised the rights of denizens, the public paying their masters the full value for them. It was likewise publicly declared that all who lost their lives in action should be honourably interred; that their parents, wives, and children should be provided for, and their daughters portioned in marriage; and that when their sons should be of an age capable of bearing arms, they should be presented with a complete suit of armour, on the public theatre, at the great solemnity of the Bacchanalia. This decree inspired all ranks, particularly the wealthy and the makers of war-machines, with incredible zeal.

The besieged sent out three good sailers against a small fleet of sutlers and merchants, laden with provisions for the enemy; they sunk some vessels, burnt others, and carried all prisoners likely to pay a ransom into the city. The Rhodians gained a great deal of money by this, the stipulated prices of prisoners being high.

This siege is said to be the masterpiece of Demetrius, both as to the use of acquired skill and invention. To make himself master of the port and of the towers which defended its entrance, he began his operations by sea. To facilitate his approach to the place he meant to batter, he caused two tortoises to be erected on two flat-bottomed vessels joined together. One of these was more solid and strong than the other, in order to cover the men from the enormous masses which the enemy discharged from their catapultas on the walls: the other was of a lighter structure, and intended to shield the soldiers from the flights of arrows and darts. Two towers of four stories each were erected at the same time, which exceeded in height the towers which defended the entrance to the port, and which were intended to be used in battering the latter with volleys of stones and darts. Each of these towers was placed upon ships strongly bound together.

Demetrius likewise caused a kind of floating barricado to be erected in front of these tortoises and towers, on a long beam of timber, four feet thick, through which stakes, armed at the end with large spikes of iron, were driven. These stakes were disposed horizontally, with their spikes projecting forward, in order to prevent the vessels of the port from shattering the work with their beaks.

He likewise selected some of his largest vessels, on the sides of which he erected a rampart of planks, with little windows easy to be opened. He there placed the best Cretan archers and slingers in his army, and furnished them with an infinite number of bows, small balistas or cross-bows, slings and catapultas, with other engines for shooting, in order to gall the workmen of the city employed in raising and repairing the walls of the port.

The Rhodians, seeing the besiegers turn all their efforts towards that quarter, were not less industrious to defend it; in order to accomplish which design, they raised two machines upon an adjoining eminence, and formed three others, which they placed in large ships of burden at the mouth of the little haven. A body of archers and slingers was likewise posted on each side of these situations, with a prodigious quantity of stones, darts, and arrows of all kinds. The same orders were also given with respect to the ships of burden in the great port.

When Demetrius was advancing with his ships and all his armament to begin the attack on the ports, such a violent tempest arose as rendered it impossible for him to accomplish any of his designs that day; but the sea growing calm about night, he took advantage of the darkness, and advanced without being perceived by the enemy to the great harbour: he made himself master of a neighbouring eminence, about five hundred paces from the wall, and posted thereon four hundred soldiers, who fortified themselves immediately with strong palisades.

The next morning Demetrius caused his batteries to advance with sound of trumpets and the shouts of his whole army, and they at first produced all the effect he proposed from them. A great number of the besieged were slain in this attack, and several breaches were opened in the mole which covered the port: but they were of little advantage to the besiegers, who were always repulsed by the Rhodians; and after a loss nearly equal on both sides, Demetrius was obliged to retire from the port, with his ships and machines, to be out of the reach of the enemy’s arrows.

The besieged, who had learned to their cost what advantage might be taken of the night, caused several fire-ships to sail out of the port during the darkness, in order to burn the tortoises and wooden towers which the enemy had erected: but as, unfortunately, they were not able to force the floating barricado which sheltered them, they were obliged to return into port. The Rhodians lost some of their fire-ships in this expedition, but the mariners saved themselves by swimming.

The next day, the prince ordered a general attack to be made upon the port and the walls of the place, with the sound of trumpets and the shouts of the whole army, thinking by those means to spread terror among the besieged; but they were so far from being intimidated, that they sustained the attack with incredible vigour, and displayed the same intrepidity for the eight days that it continued: actions of astonishing bravery were performed on both sides during that interval.

Demetrius, taking advantage of the eminence which his troops had seized, gave orders for erecting upon it a battery of several engines, which discharged great stones of a hundred and fifty pounds in weight against the walls and towers, the latter of which tottered with the repeated shocks, and several breaches were soon made in the walls. The troops of Demetrius advanced with spirit to seize the mole which defended the entrance into the port; but as this post was of the utmost importance, the Rhodians spared no pains to repulse the besiegers, who had already made a considerable progress. This they at last effected by a shower of stones and arrows, which they discharged upon their enemies with so much rapidity, and for such a length of time, that the latter were obliged to retire in confusion, after losing a great number of their men.

The ardour of the besiegers was not at all diminished by this repulse, indeed, they appeared more animated than ever against the Rhodians. They began the scalade by the land and sea at the same time, and employed the besieged so effectually, that they scarcely knew to what quarter to run for the defence of the place. The attack was carried on with the utmost fury on all sides, and the besieged defended themselves with the greatest intrepidity. Numbers were thrown from the ladders to the earth, and miserably bruised; several even of the principal officers got to the top of the wall, where they were covered with wounds and taken prisoners; so that Demetrius, notwithstanding all his valour, thought it necessary to retreat, in order to repair his engines, which, with the vessels that bore them, were almost entirely destroyed.

After the prince’s retreat, immediate care was taken to bury the dead; the beaks of the ships, with the other spoils that had been taken from the enemy, were carried to the temples, and the workmen were indefatigable in repairing the breaches of the walls. Demetrius having employed seven days in refitting his ships and repairing his engines, set sail again with a fleet as formidable as the first, and steered with a fair wind directly for the port, which he was most anxious to gain, as he conceived it impracticable to reduce the place till he had made himself master of that. Upon his arrival, he caused a vast quantity of lighted torches, flaming straw, and arrows to be discharged, in order to set fire to the vessels that were riding there, while his engines battered the mole without intermission. The besieged, who expected attacks of this nature, exerted themselves with so much vigour and activity, that they soon extinguished the flames which had seized the vessels.

At the same time they caused three of their largest ships to sail out of the port, under the command of Exacestes, one of their bravest officers, with orders to attack the enemy, employ the utmost efforts to reach the vessels that carried the tortoises and wooden towers, and to charge them in such a manner with the beaks of their own, as might either sink them or disable them. These orders were executed with surprising expedition and address; and the three galleys, after they had broken through the floating barricado, drove their beaks with so much violence into the sides of the enemy’s barks, on which the machines were erected, that the water was immediately seen to enter through several openings. Two of them were already sunk, but the third was towed along by the galleys, and joined the main fleet; and, dangerous as it was to attack them in that situation, the Rhodians, through a blind and precipitate ardour, ventured to attempt it. But the inequality was too great to allow them to come off with success; Exacestes, with the officer who commanded under him, and some others, after having fought with all the bravery imaginable, were taken with the galley in which they were; the other two regained the port, after sustaining many dangers, and most of the men also arrived there by swimming.

Unfortunate as the last attack had proved to Demetrius, he was determined to undertake another; and in order to succeed in that design, he commanded a machine of a new invention to be built, of thrice the height and breadth of those he had lately lost. When this was completed, he caused it to be placed near the port, which he was resolved to force; but at the instant they were preparing to work it, a dreadful tempest arose at sea, and sunk it to the bottom, together with the vessels on which it had been raised.

The besieged, who were careful to improve all opportunities, employed the time afforded them by the tempest in regaining the eminence near the port, which the enemy had carried in the first assault, and where they afterwards fortified themselves. The Rhodians attacked it, and were repulsed several times; but the forces of Demetrius, who defended it, perceiving fresh troops continually pouring upon them, and that it was in vain for them to expect any relief, were obliged at last to surrender themselves prisoners, to the number of four hundred men.

This series of fortunate events was succeeded by the arrival of five hundred men from Cnessus, a city of Crete, to the assistance of the Rhodians, and also of five hundred more, whom Ptolemy sent from Egypt, most of them being Rhodians, who had enlisted themselves amongst the troops of that prince.

Demetrius being extremely mortified to see all his batteries on the side of the harbour rendered ineffectual, resolved to employ them by land, in order to carry the place by assault, or reduce it to the necessity of capitulating. He therefore prepared materials of every kind, and formed a machine called helepolis, which was larger than any that had ever been invented before. The basis on which it stood was square, and each of its sides was seventy-five feet wide. The machine itself was an assemblage of large square beams, riveted together with iron; and the whole mass rested upon eight wheels, that were made proportionable with the superstructure. The felloes of the wheels were three feet thick, and were strengthened with large iron plates. In order to facilitate and vary the movements of the helepolis, castors were placed under it, so that it could be moved in any direction. From each of the four angles a large column of wood was carried up to the height of about one hundred and fifty feet, inclining towards each other. The machine was composed of nine stories, whose dimensions gradually lessened in the ascent. The first story was supported by forty-three beams, and the last by no more than nine. Three sides of the machine were plated over with iron, to prevent its being damaged by the fires launched against it from the city. In the front of each story were little windows, whose form and dimensions corresponded with the nature of the arrows that were to be shot from the machine. Over each window was a kind of curtain made of leather, stuffed with wool: this was let down by a machine; and the intention of it was to break the violence of whatever might be discharged against it. Each story had two large staircases, one for the ascent of the men, and the other for their descent.

This machine was moved forward by three thousand four hundred of the most powerful men in the army; but the art with which it was built greatly facilitated the motion.

Demetrius likewise gave directions for the building of a great number of other machines, of different magnitudes and for various purposes; he also employed his seamen in levelling the ground over which his machines had to move, which was a hundred fathoms in length. The number of artisans and labourers employed on these works amounted to nearly thirty thousand men, which enabled them to be completed with astonishing rapidity.

The Rhodians were not indolent during these formidable preparations, but employed their time in raising a counter wall on the tract of ground where Demetrius intended to batter the walls of the city with the helepolis; and for this purpose they demolished the wall which surrounded the theatre, as also several neighbouring houses, and even some temples, having solemnly promised the gods to build magnificent structures for the celebration of their worship after the siege should be raised.

When they learnt that the enemy had quitted the sea, they sent out nine of their best ships of war, divided into three squadrons, commanded by three of their best officers. These returned with a rich prize of some galleys and several smaller vessels, with a great number of prisoners. They had likewise seized a galley richly laden, in which were large quantities of tapestry and other furniture, with a variety of rich robes, sent by Phila as a present to her husband Demetrius, accompanied with letters from her own hand. The Rhodians sent the whole, even the letters, to Ptolemy, which exceedingly exasperated Demetrius. In this proceeding, says Plutarch, they did not imitate the polite conduct of the Athenians, who, having once seized some of the couriers of Philip, with whom they were at war, opened all the packets but those of Olympias, which they sent to Philip with the seals unbroken. There are some rules of decency and honour which ought to be inviolably observed, even with enemies.

While the ships of the republic were employed in taking the above-named prizes, a great commotion arose in Rhodes respecting the statues of Antigonus and Demetrius, which had been erected to their honour in the city, and till the present war had been held in much respect. Some of the citizens, in a public meeting, expressed a wish to have the statues of princes who had brought so much trouble upon them destroyed; but the people, who were, for a wonder, more moderate on this occasion than their chiefs, would not allow that purpose to be executed. This was prudent and judicious in the Rhodians; much importance was attached to statues in ancient times, and in case the city should be taken, Demetrius would be better pleased to find his and his father’s statues still respected.

Demetrius, having tried several mines without effect, from their being all discovered by the watchful activity of the besieged, gave orders and made preparation for a general assault, and the helepolis was moved to a situation whence the city might be battered with most effect. Each story of this formidable building was furnished with catapultas and balistas proportioned in their size to the dimensions of the place. It was likewise supported and fortified, on two of its sides, by four small machines called tortoises, each of which had a covered gallery, to secure those who should either enter the helepolis, or issue out of it to execute orders. On the two other sides was a battering-ram of a prodigious size, consisting of a piece of timber thirty fathoms in length, armed with iron terminating in a point, and as strong as the beak of a galley. These engines were mounted on wheels, and were driven forward to batter the walls during the attack, with incredible force, by nearly a thousand men.

When everything was ready, Demetrius ordered the trumpets to sound and the general assault to be given on all sides, both by sea and land. In the heat of the attack, and when the walls were already shaken by the battering-rams, ambassadors arrived from the Cnidians, earnestly soliciting Demetrius to suspend the assault, and giving him hopes that they should prevail upon the Rhodians to consent to an honourable capitulation. A suspension of arms was accordingly granted, but the Rhodians refusing to capitulate on the conditions proposed to them, the attack was renewed with so much fury, and all the machines co-operated so effectually, that a large tower, built with square stones, and the wall that flanked it, were battered down. The besieged fought with the utmost bravery in the breach, and repulsed their enemies.

In this conjuncture the vessels which Ptolemy had freighted with three hundred thousand measures of corn and different kinds of pulse, for the Rhodians, arrived very seasonably in the port, notwithstanding all the efforts of the enemy’s ships which cruised in the neighbourhood to intercept them. A few days after this relief, two other small fleets sailed into the port, one of which was sent by Cassander, with one hundred thousand bushels of barley; the other came from Lysimachus, with four hundred thousand bushels of wheat, and as much barley. This seasonable and abundant supply, which was received when the city began to feel the want of provisions, inspired the besieged with new courage, and they resolved not to surrender till the last extremity.

Whilst in this state of renewed spirits, they attempted to fire the enemy’s machines, and with this view, a numerous body of soldiers marched out of the city towards midnight, with torches and flaming brands. These troops advanced to the batteries, and set them on fire, whilst clouds of arrows were poured from the walls to annoy those who endeavoured to extinguish the flames. The besiegers lost great numbers of men on this occasion, from being incapable in the night to see or avoid the volleys of arrows discharged upon them. Several plates of iron happening to fall from the helepolis during the action, the Rhodians advanced with the hopes of setting it on fire; but, as the troops within quenched it with water as fast as the flames were kindled, they could not effect their design. Demetrius, however, alarmed for his machines, caused them to be removed to a distance. Being curious to know what number of machines the besieged had employed in casting arrows, Demetrius caused all that had been shot from the place in the course of that night to be collected; and when they were counted and a proper computation made, he found that the inhabitants must have more than eight hundred engines of different dimensions, for discharging fires, and about fifteen hundred for arrows. He was struck with consternation at the number, as he had never thought the city could have made such formidable preparations. He buried his dead, gave strict charge with respect to the care of the wounded, and promptly repaired his injured machines.

The besieged took advantage of the temporary absence of the machines to fortify themselves against a fresh attack. To this purpose, they opened a wide and deep ditch behind the breach, to obstruct the passage of the enemy into the city; after which, they raised a substantial wall, in the form of a crescent, along the ditch, which would create still more trouble.

Alive to every expedient, they at the same time detached a squadron of their best sailing ships, which captured a great number of vessels laden with provisions for Demetrius’s army. This supply was soon followed by a numerous fleet of small vessels, freighted with corn and other necessaries, sent them by Ptolemy, with fifteen hundred men commanded by Antigonus of Macedonia.

Demetrius, having repaired his machines, caused them all to advance towards the city, when a second embassy arrived from the Athenians, and some other states of Greece, on the same subject as the former, but with as little success. The king, whose imagination was fruitful in expedients, ordered fifteen hundred of his best troops, under the command of Alcimus and Mancius, to enter the breach at midnight, and force the intrenchments behind it. They were then to possess themselves of the parts near the theatre, where, if they could but once make themselves masters, they could maintain their ground. In order to facilitate the execution of so important and dangerous an expedition, and amuse the enemy with false attacks, he at the same time caused all the trumpets to sound a charge, and the city to be attacked on all sides, both by sea and land, that the besieged, finding employment in all parts, the fifteen hundred men might have an opportunity of forcing the intrenchments which covered the breach, and afterwards of seizing all the advantageous posts about the theatre. This feint had all the success the prince expected from it. The troops having shouted from all quarters, as if they were advancing to a general assault, the detachment commanded by Alcimus entered the breach, and made such a vigorous attack upon those who defended the ditch and the crescent which covered it, that, after they had killed a great number of their enemies and thrown the rest into confusion, they seized the posts adjacent to the theatre, where they maintained themselves.

The alarm was very great in the city, and all the chiefs who commanded there despatched orders to their officers and soldiers, forbidding them to quit their posts or make the least movement whatever. After which, they placed themselves at the head of a chosen body of their own troops, and of those newly arrived from Egypt, and with them poured upon the detachment which had advanced as far as the theatre; but the obscurity of the night rendered it impracticable to dislodge them from the posts they had seized; and the day no sooner appeared, than a universal cry of the besiegers was heard from all quarters, by which they endeavoured to animate those who had entered the place, and inspire them with a resolution to maintain their ground, where they might soon expect succours. This dreadful cry drew floods of tears and dismal groans from the populace, women and children, who concluded all to be inevitably lost. The battle, however, was contested with great vigour near the theatre; and the Macedonians defended their posts with an intrepidity that astonished their enemies, till at last, the Rhodians prevailing by their numbers and perpetual supplies of fresh troops, the detachment, after having seen Alcimus and Mancius slain on the spot, were obliged to submit to superior force, and abandon an advantage it was no longer possible to maintain. Great numbers of them fell on the spot, and the rest were taken prisoners.

The ardour of Demetrius was rather augmented than abated by this check, and he was making the necessary dispositions for a new assault, when he received letters from his father, Antigonus, by which he was directed to take all possible measures for the conclusion of a peace with the Rhodians. He then wanted some plausible pretext for suspending the siege, and chance furnished him with it. At that very instant, deputies from Ætolia arrived in the camp, to solicit him anew to grant a peace to the Rhodians, to which they found him not so averse as before.

If what Vegetius relates of the helepolis be true,—and, indeed, with a small variation, Vitruvius seems to confirm it,—it might possibly be another motive that contributed not a little to dispose Demetrius to a peace. He was preparing to advance his helepolis against the city, when a Rhodian engineer contrived an expedient to render it utterly useless: he opened a mine under the walls of the city, and continued it to the way over which the tower was to pass toward the walls the next day. The besiegers, not expecting a stratagem of that nature, moved the tower on to the place undermined, which being incapable of supporting so enormous a load, sunk in under the machine, which buried itself so deep in the earth, that it was impossible to draw it out again. This was one inconvenience to which all these formidable machines were obnoxious; and the two authors cited declare that the accident determined Demetrius to raise the siege; and it is at least very probable that it contributed not a little to his taking that resolution.

The Rhodians, on their part, were as desirous of an accommodation as himself, provided it could be effected on reasonable terms. Ptolemy, in promising them fresh succours much more considerable than the former, had earnestly exhorted them not to lose a favourable opportunity, if it should offer itself. Besides which, they were sensible of the extreme necessity of putting an end to a siege which must prove fatal at last. This consideration induced them to listen with pleasure to the proposals made them, and the treaty was concluded soon after, upon the following terms: That the republic of Rhodes and all its citizens should retain the enjoyment of their rights, privileges, and liberty, without being subjected to any power whatever. The alliance they had had with Antigonus was to be confirmed and renewed, with an obligation to take up arms for him in any war in which he should be engaged, provided it was not against Ptolemy. The city was also to deliver a hundred hostages, to be chosen by Demetrius, for the effectual performance of the stipulated articles. When these hostages were given, the army decamped from before Rhodes, after having besieged it a year.

Demetrius, upon being reconciled with the Rhodians, was desirous, before his departure, to give them a proof of his good feeling, and accordingly made them a present of all the machines of war he had employed in that siege. Considering that Rhodes was an island, and that these cumbersome, unwieldy engines could not have been taken away without great difficulty, we moderns are inclined to think there was not much generosity in the gift; but the result proves we are wrong. The machines were sold for three hundred talents (about three hundred thousand crowns), which the Rhodians employed, with an additional sum of their own, in constructing the famous Colossus, which was reputed one of the seven wonders of the world. It was a statue of the sun, of so stupendous a size, that ships in full sail passed between its legs; the height of it was seventy cubits, or one hundred and five feet, and few men could clasp its thumb within their arms. It was the work of Chares of Lindus, and employed him for the space of twelve years. Sixty-six years after its erection, it was thrown down by an earthquake.

The Rhodians expressed their gratitude to Ptolemy in a most extravagant manner: they planted a grove, built a temple in it to his glory, and paid him divine honours under the title of Sotor, the Saviour, by which he is distinguished in history from the other Ptolemies, kings of Egypt.

We cannot leave Rhodes, without a remark or two upon the love Demetrius bore to the arts, and the height to which they appear to have been cultivated in that island.

Rhodes, at the time of the siege, was the residence of a celebrated painter named Protogenes, a native of Caunus, a city of Caria, which was then subject to the Rhodians. The apartment in which he painted was in the suburbs when Demetrius first besieged the city; but neither the presence of the enemy, nor the noise of arms, which perpetually rung in his ears, could induce him to quit his habitation or discontinue his work. Demetrius was surprised at his firmness and persistency, and asked him the cause of it. “It is,” replied the painter, “because I am sensible you have declared war against the Rhodians, and not against the arts.” Nor was he deceived in this opinion; for Demetrius actually showed himself their protector. He planted a guard round his house, that the artist might enjoy tranquillity, or, at least, be secure from danger; he frequently went to see him work, and was boundless in his admiration of his application and skill.

The masterpiece of this painter was Jalysus, an historical piece of a fabulous hero of that name, whom the Rhodians acknowledged as their founder. Protogenes devoted seven years to this picture. When Apelles first saw it, he was so astonished and delighted that he seemed struck dumb: he at length, however, broke out into the warmest commendation: “Prodigious work, indeed! admirable performance! It has not, however, the graces I give my works, and which have raised their reputation to the skies.” Pliny says that whilst Protogenes was working at this picture, he practised the most rigid abstinence, in order that the delicacy of his taste and imagination might not be affected by his diet. This picture was carried to Rome, and consecrated in the Temple of Peace, where it remained in the time of Pliny; but it was destroyed at last by fire. Pliny, indeed, pretends that Rhodes was saved by this picture, because, as it hung in the only quarter by which it was possible for Demetrius to take the city, he rather chose to abandon his conquest than expose so precious a monument of art to the danger of being consumed by the flames. This would appear to be carrying his love of painting to a surprising length; but the incidents we are told of the enthusiastic worship of the Greeks for refinement and taste, if they do not convince us of their own identical truth, at least prove to us the extent to which that love must have been felt by a people who could even invent such.

One of the figures of the picture was a dog, much admired by good judges, and which had cost the painter great pains, without his being able to express his idea to his own satisfaction, though pleased with the rest of the work. His wish was to represent the dog panting, and with his mouth foaming, as after a long chase; and yet, with all his skill, he could not content himself: art was more visible than it ought to be. He was desirous that the foam should not appear to be painted, but actually flowing from the mouth of the dog. He frequently retouched it, and suffered a degree of torture from his anxiety to express the simple effects of nature which he had in his mind. All his attempts were in vain, till, in a fit of rage, and with an imprecation, he threw the sponge he was accustomed to wipe his palette with at the picture—and chance accomplished what art had not been able to execute.

This painter is censured for being too difficult to be pleased, and for retouching his pictures too frequently. It is certain, that although Apelles almost considered him as his master, and allowed him a number of excellent qualities, yet he condemned in him the defect of not being able to lay down the pencil and consider his work finished. “We ought,” says Cicero, “to know how far we should go: and Apelles justly censured some painters for not knowing when to have done.”

THIRD SIEGE, A.D. 1521.

Rhodes, like the rest of Greece, submitted to the empire of the Romans, and, when that had been annihilated by the barbarians, it passed under the yoke of the all-conquering Mahometans. In 1308, Foulques de Villard, grand master of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, formed the project of conquering this island, in order to make it the head-quarters of his order. Seconded by several of the sovereigns of Europe, he landed on the isle, beat the Saracens and the Greeks in several encounters, and, after four years of fatigue and danger, made himself master of Rhodes. The knights placed the isle in a formidable state of defence, and, under their auspices, it became happy and flourishing. These precautions were quite necessary, for Greeks, Saracens, and Turks were continually attempting to gain footing in this beautiful place. Mahomet the Second, the great conqueror of Constantinople, wished to besiege it; but his generals were beaten, and he himself died, while proceeding on this expedition. The glory of taking Rhodes was reserved for Soliman the Second, whose troops approached the isle in 1521. Villiers de l’Isle-Adam, grand master of the Knights of St. John, reigned there at that time: he was an intrepid, courageous, skilful captain, of great experience, and fertile in resources. He had, at most, six thousand warriors to oppose to two hundred thousand men. But, like their leader, these warriors were filled with the most heroic valour, and preferred death to slavery. Rhodes was invested, and the trenches were opened out of the reach of the cannon. When the Turks ventured nearer, and erected a battery, their works were speedily destroyed by the artillery of the place. The frequent sorties of the knights filled up their works. The discouragement became so general among the Turks, that Soliman was obliged to show himself to his troops, and animate their operations by his presence.

What had been written to him of the ill-behaviour of his soldiers, and what he learnt of their cowardice on his arrival, determined him to make them appear before him disarmed, and to surround them by the troops he had brought with him. “If I had,” said he, in a haughty, contemptuous tone, and casting terrible glances on all around him, “if I had to address soldiers, I would have permitted you to appear before me with your arms; but as I am reduced to the necessity of speaking to wretched slaves, more weak and more timid than women, it is not just that men so base should dishonour the marks of valour. I should like to know if, when you landed in the isle, you flattered yourselves that these crusaders would be still more cowardly than yourselves, and that they would servilely hold out their hands for the irons with which it would please you to load them? To undeceive you, please to learn that in the persons of these knights, we have to fight with the most intrepid among the Christians, and most thirsting for Mussulman blood. It is their courage which has excited ours; in attacking them, I have thought I had met with an enterprise and perils worthy of my valour. Is it to you, then, base and effeminate troops, that I am to look for a conquest; you who fly from an enemy before you have seen him, and who would already have deserted, if the sea which surrounds you had not presented an insurmountable obstacle? Before experiencing such a disgrace, I will inflict such severe justice upon all cowards, that their punishment shall restrain within their duty such as might be tempted to imitate them.” Scarcely had Soliman ceased to speak, than the soldiers drew their swords, as if to massacre those of their comrades who had excited the indignation of the Sultan. These unfortunate wretches, who saw death suspended over their heads, implored with loud cries the mercy of their sultan. Their commander, as agreed upon with him, supported their prayers. “Well,” said Soliman to Peri, the general, “I suspend, to your prayers, the punishment of the guilty; it remains for them to find pardon on the bastions and bulwarks of the enemy.” This mixture of severity and clemency affected all hearts; the greatest perils appeared to be beneath the valour of the soldiers who had been the most discouraged. Officers and soldiers, to efface the least traces of their murmurs, hastened to signalize themselves under the eye of their master; and that armed multitude, till that time to be little dreaded, became at length most formidable. The soldiers and pioneers pushed on the trenches without relaxation; they worked day and night; the grand master, finding them supported by large detachments, did not think it prudent to continue the sorties, in which he lost more by the death of one knight, than Soliman did by that of fifty janissaries. Thus the infidels, having nothing to fear but from the fire of the place, behaved with so much spirit that they carried their works up to the counterscarp; and, to render their lines more solid, they covered them without with posts and planks, bound well together. The batteries were then increased, and continued incessantly playing against the city, but without success, for their balls scarcely grazed the parapets of the walls. They were warned of this by a Jew, who served them as a spy in Rhodes. They immediately changed their batteries, which from that time fired more effectively. Seeing that the place might be said to be covered and buried under its fortifications, the Turks resolved to build two cavaliers of a greater height than its works, which should command the city and its boulevards. Soldiers and pioneers, by order of the general, brought, during several days, earth and stones, which they placed between the gates of Spain and Auvergne, opposite to the bastion of Italy. These two points lay open to the cannon of the place: thousands of men perished here; but such losses were deemed nothing. At length two seeming hills appeared to rise up, higher by twelve feet than the walls, and which completely commanded them. The German post was the first attacked. The Turks pointed their cannon towards the walls, and it was thought impossible they could stand against these destructive machines. The grand master went to the spot, and ordered the wall to be supported within by earth, beams, posts, and fascines; and, as the artillery placed over the gate of his palace, on an elevated spot, bore directly upon the infidels, the Christian cannoniers poured their shot upon them, and knocked to pieces their bastions and their parapets. New ones were obliged to be constructed; the cannon of the city battered them down immediately, whilst the Turkish artillery, on the contrary, badly served and pointed, fired over the walls, without doing any injury. Disheartened by the little effect produced by their batteries, the Sultan’s officers transported them against the tower of St. Nicholas. They played upon it with twelve guns; but they had the mortification to see their cannon dismounted and their batteries ruined by those of the tower. To guard against this effect of the skill of the Christian cannoniers, they resolved to fire only by night, and during the day they buried their cannon under the gabions in the sand: on the approach of darkness, they were placed upon the platform. More than five hundred balls were fired against the point of the wall looking towards the west, and brought it down into the ditch. The Turks congratulated themselves upon the success of this nocturnal battery, and felt certain of carrying the fort at the first assault; they were astonished, however, to see behind the ruins a new wall, terraced with its parapets, and bristling with artillery which prevented all approach to it. Soliman caused all the principal bastions of the place to be attacked, and the Ottoman cannon, which battered them day and night during a whole month, did them considerable damage. The numbers of knights and citizens in Rhodes began to diminish fast. They were in want of powder; the grand master caused some to be made, and hopes were entertained that this feeble succour would enable them to hold out for a long time against the Mahometan emperor. Up to this time, the war had only been carried on by artillery; and although that of the Turks, in the multitude of fiery mouths and abundance of powder, was very superior, they were not yet masters of an inch of ground in the bastions or advanced works of the place. The retirades and intrenchments dug by the knights, supplied the places of the battered-down walls. These new works could only be taken by assault; and to mount to it, it was necessary to attempt the descent of the ditch, or to fill it up. Soliman having an immense number of pioneers in his army, formed several detachments of them, with orders to throw earth and stones into the ditch. But the knights, by means of casemates, removed, by night, all the rubbish the Turks had brought during the day. Other Turkish pioneers were employed in digging mines in five different places, each one of which led to the bastion opposite to it. Some of these were detected by the vigilance of the famous De Martinengere, to whom is due the invaluable invention of discovering, by means of stretched skins, where mining is being carried on. The Turks had worked with so much address, that the different branches of these mines went from one to another, and all, to produce the greater effect, ended at the same place. Two of these mines sprang, one after the other, under the English bastion. Their explosion was so violent, that they threw down more than six toises of the wall, the ruins of which filled up the ditch. The breach was so large and so easy, that several battalions flew to the assault, with loud cries, sabre in hand. They at once gained the top of the bastion, and planted seven flags, and would have rendered themselves masters of it, if they had not met with a traverse behind it, which stopped them. The knights, recovered from the astonishment caused by the fearful noise of the exploded mine, rushed to the bastion, and charged the Turks with muskets, grenades, and stones.

The grand master, at the moment of the explosion of this volcano, was in a neighbouring church, imploring, at the foot of the altar, the aid of God. He judged, by the horrible noise he heard, that the explosion of the mine would be followed by an assault. He arose at the very moment the priests, to commence the office, were chanting this preliminary prayer—Deus, in adjutorium meum intende! (Lord, come to my help!) “I accept the augury,” cried the pious general; and turning towards some knights who accompanied him, “Come, my brothers,” said he, “let us change the sacrifice of our praises into that of our lives, and let us die, if it be necessary, in defence of our holy faith.” As he spoke, pike in hand, he advanced with a menacing air. He mounted the bastion, met the Turks, and struck down and killed all who came in his way or resisted him. He tore down the enemy’s ensigns, and regained the bastion in a moment. Mustapha, Soliman’s general, rallied the fugitives and led them back towards the enemy, by dint of blows as well as menaces. He marched forward himself with the greatest audacity. The combat was renewed, and the mÊlÉe became bloody. Steel and fire were equally employed on both parts; they slaughtered each other hand to hand, or at a distance, by musket-shots or sword-cuts. They even proceeded to struggle body to body, and the stronger or more adroit killed his enemy with dagger-thrusts. The Turks, at once exposed to arquebusses, stones, grenades, and fire-pots, at length abandoned the breach and turned their backs. In vain their chiefs, by menaces and promises, endeavour to reanimate their valour. They do not listen to him. All fly, all disperse, and Mustapha himself turns unwillingly from the foe, after having lost more than three thousand men. It was with such inveteracy that the superiority was contested up to the 24th of September, when Soliman issued the order for a general assault. At daybreak the Mahometans, divided into four bodies, or rather four armies, advanced on four sides boldly towards the breach, in spite of the thunders which poured from the place, in spite of a deluge of balls, arrows, darts, and stones. Nothing could stop them. The knights crowded to the point of conflict; they repulsed the assailants; they precipitated them from the walls; they overthrew the ladders. The infidels returned to the charge with more impetuosity than ever, but all their efforts were useless: the knights were invincible. The priests, monks, old men, and even the children, all insist upon taking their share of the peril, and at length repulse the enemy. The women do not yield in exertions to the pioneers, or in courage to the soldiers. Many lost their lives in defending their husbands. A Greek woman, exceedingly handsome, the mistress of an officer who commanded in a bastion, and who was just killed, frantic at the death of her lover, and resolved not to outlive him, after having tenderly embraced two young children she had had by him, and imprinted the sign of the cross upon their brow—“It is better, my children,” said she, with the tears streaming from her eyes, “it is better for you to die by my hands than by those of our pitiless enemies, or that you should be reserved for infamous pleasures, more cruel than death.” Frantic with grief and rage, she seized a knife, slaughtered them, and threw their bodies into the fire; then clothing herself in the garments of her lover, stained with his blood, with his sabre in her hand, she rushed to the breach, killed the first Turk who opposed her, wounded several others, and died fighting with the bravery of a hero. The ill success of so many assaults rendered Soliman furious. He ordered Mustapha to be shot with arrows, and several other captains would have undergone the same fate if they had not persuaded him that he might still succeed in his undertaking. Incessant combats and attacks were carried on up to the middle of winter. At length the Ottomans triumphed; Rhodes, almost entirely destroyed, had no means of resistance left. Most of the knights had been killed defending the fortifications. The grand master, Villiers de l’Isle-Adam, seeing with the deepest grief that all his resources were exhausted, felt that it would be madness to resist longer. He resolved to surrender; but his persuasion that he who makes the first proposals loses an advantage, made him positively determine to wait till the Turks should propose capitulation. His project succeeded. Deceived by the continued brave defence, the Turks were ignorant of the real state of the place, and offered the besiegers more honourable conditions than they might have expected. This famous isle, which had been for nearly three centuries the bulwark of Christianity, was wrested from the hands of its few surviving defenders, the wreck of a society of heroes. As soon as the capitulation was signed, Soliman entered the city for the purpose of expressing to l’Isle-Adam his admiration of his noble defence. After a long conversation the conqueror retired, saying, “Although I came here alone, do not imagine I was without an escort; I had the parole of the grand master and the faith of his knights, a security stronger than a whole army.” Soliman did not abuse his victory. He treated the grand master generously; he visited him, pitied him, and consoled him as that last of a race of heroes deserved.

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