Rhodes

Sources from old books

1635. Historia mundi: or Mercator's atlas. London. by Gerhard Mercator.

RHODES· (Book Rhodes)

THERE remaineth in this Table the Iland of Rhodes. This as Pliny witnesseth was heretofore called Ophtusa, Asteria, Aethraea, Trin••hia, Corimbia, A•abiria, and Macarta. It is distant from the con∣tinent of Asia 20. miles. The compasse of it is 140. miles. It hath a temperate and gentle Ayre: and it was consecrate to the Sunne, because there is no day wherein the Sunne doth not shine upon it. The soyle is fruitfull, and the Meddowes fertile, and it hath great store of fruit Trees, of which many are alwayes greene. It hath now but one strong Citty of the same name, which is situate in the Easterne part of the Iland, partly on a steepe Hill, and partly on the Sea Coast. It hath a faire and safe Haven, and it is well fortified with a double Wall, thirteene high Towers, five Castles, and other Forts and Bulwarkes. And it hath an University which heretofore was as famous as that at Massils, Athens, Alexandria, and •arsus: and it had a brazen Colossus of the Sunne, which was seventy Cubits high, which after it had stood 56. yeeres, it was throwne downe by an Earthquake, and when it lay on the ground it was a wonderfull sight to behold. For a man of a good stature could not fathome or embrace his Thumb. And the Fingers were greater than most Sta∣tues, and when it was broke, his Belly did gape like a great Cave. This Colossus was making twelve yeeres, and three hundred Talents of Brasse went to the making of it, and within there were great stones layd, that might make the worke stand firme. The Sultan la∣ded 700. Camels with the Brasse of this Statue.

1693. A geographical dictionary representing the present and ancient names by Edmund Bohun.

Rhodes, Rhodus, a celebrated Island in the Mediterranean Sea; upon the Coast of the Lesser Asia, near its South-West Point; over against Caria: having Cyprus to the East, Egypt to the South, and Candia to the West. Of old it had very many names; and is now called by the most remarkable of them. About an hundred and thirty Miles in compass; or as others say, an hundred and ten. The principal Place in it is Rhodes: an Archbishop's See; seated upon an insensible Ascent of a Hill, near the North-East part of the Island; and environed with divers other little Hills, full of Springs and Fruits: it sprung out of the Ruins of Jalissi, an ancient City near it. It has a delicate Harbor to the East and North; form'd by two strong Moles approaching each other demicircularly, so as to leave a Passage betwixt them for no more than a single Vessel: and of old much famed for a vast Coloss, (or Statue of Brass of the Sun) made by Chares, a Lydian, a Scholar of Lysippus of Sicyon; seventy Cubits high: which stood a-stride over the Mouth of this Harbor, upon two Rocks; so that the Ships failed between his Legs; and this was then thought one of the seven Wonders of the World. The Brass of this Statue in 654, (one thousand four hundred and sixty one years after it was built), when Muhavia the Saracen Sultan of Egypt had conquered the Island, was carried to Alexandria in Egypt by the Saracens, upon the backs of seventy two Camels: having, it is said, been thrown down in an Earthquake: which verifies the Prediction of the Oracle long before, That Rhodes should be lost, when that Colossus broke. This Island is seated twenty Miles from the nearest Coast of Asia to the South; one hundred and thirty four from Crete or Candy to the North-East; and five hundred from Constantinople to the South: of a most fertile Soil, and so serene and pleasant an Air, that as the Ancients dedicated both it and the Colossus to the Sun, because not a day passes without the full displaying of his beams here; so many of the chief Romans chose it for the place of their Retreat. First peopled by Dodanim, the Son of Javan (Grandchild of Japhet), before he peopled Greece. After these, the Empire of this Island passed to the Phaenicians; who made the Inhabitants so very expert in Navigation, that for some Ages they gave Law to the World, and were Sovereigns of the Sea: their Constitutions and Judgments in Affairs concerning the Sea being withal so just, as to become incorporated afterwards into the Roman Pandects. Their fear of the Macedonians made them sue to the Romans for Protection; whom they served very effectually to the Ruin of the former: after which they helped on the Ruin of Antiochus; and withstood the flattering Fortune of Mithridates King of Pontus, till at last the Roman Greatness became undisputable by this small Island; and under Vespasian they were made a Roman Province. It continued under the Greek Empire, (to which it fell in the Division) till 652: when it was conquered by Muhavia, the Saracen Sultan of Egypt. It returned under the Greeks again during the Civil Wars of the Saracens; and in 1124. was taken by the Venetians. The Greeks recovered it under John Ducas, about 1227. About 1283. it fell together with the Lesser Asia, under the Turks. In 1310. the Knights of S. John of Jerusalem (when Jerusalem and all the Holy Land was lost from the Christians) retook it, after a Siege of four years under Fulk Villares, Great Master of that Order. The Turks, 'ere it could be re-fortified, again besieged it: in which Conjuncture, Amadaeus IV. Duke of Savoy bravely succoured it; and to eternalize the Memory of his Victory, changed the Eagles, the Arms of his Predecessors; into the Silver Cross of the Order of the Knights; with these four Letters F. E. R. T. to signifie, Fortitudo Ejus Rhodum Tenuit. After this it was one of the Bulwarks of Christendom against the Turks. Mahomet II. the Great, attempted the Reduction of it in 1457. Again in 1480, with 100000 Men, and the greatest Art and Obstinacy ima¦ginable for 3 Months, but without Success: in commemoration whereof, Peter d'Aubusson, the then Grand Master, built the Church of S. Maria della Victoria; with a Chappel to the Honour of S. Pantaleon here; it being upon his day that the Turks in their last Assault were defeated. Nor had Solyman II. the Magnificent, had any better Success in 1522; if he had not met one Andrea Amarato a discontented Traitor, a Portuguese; (discontented at the Elevation of another to the dignity of Grand Master before him) within the place; who was Chancellor of the Order, and betrayed their Counsels to that Prince: who yet spent six Months before it, and lost an infinite number of Men. And Amarato, his Treason being (before the Surrender) discovered, had his Head cut off on Oct. 30. Mr. Knolls in his Turkish History, p. 391, has well described the Situation of the principal City in this Island. Bellonius saith, it was seated in a Plain; fenced with double Walls, thirteen Towers, and five Bastions; of great Strength and Beauty. The Turks have to this day so great a Veneration for the Valor of those Knights of S. John of Jerusalem, that they preserve (saith he) their Houses as they left them; with all the Arms, Paintings, Statues and Inscriptions; and the Walls of the City are put into the same state they were before the Siege. From hence these Knights passed to Sicily; and in 1530. obtained from Charles V. the Isle of Malta. Two small Bays accompany the Harbour on the North and South sides. The former is lock'd up by a Mole, which enters into the Sea above 300 Paces; bearing a Fort, called The Tower of S. Nicholas; built by the Order in 1464, and worthy of remembrance, for its withstanding the repeated furious Assaults of the Turks in the Siege in 1480. Long. 58. 00. Lat. 37. 50. //Paris Meridian was used in the book