Till The Foundation Of The City Of Rhodes, Which, As We Have
Already Stated, Took Place During The Peleponnesian War, There Is Scarcely
Any Thing To Attract Our Attention:
A short time before this, the
republican form of government was established, and the trade and navigation
of the Rhodians seem to have acquired a fresh impulse and spirit.
But their
enterprizes were soon checked by Artemisia, queen of Caria, gaining
possession of their city: this she effected by a stratagem. The Rhodians
invaded Caria with a design of gaining possession of Halicarnassus: by the
direction of the queen, the inhabitants made a signal that they
surrendered; the Rhodians suspecting no treachery, and delighted with their
apparent success, left their fleet to take possession of the town; in the
meantime, the queen brought her fleet from an adjoining creek, by means of
some canal or other inland communication, to the port where the Rhodian
vessels lay, and quietly took them. This disaster was the cause of another,
still more calamitous to the Rhodians; for Artemisia sailed with the
Rhodian ships to Rhodes, and the inhabitants, under the belief that their
fleet was returning victorious, permitted the enemy to land and to seize
the city. To what cause the Rhodions were indebted for the restoration of
their liberty and independence we are not informed; but it was owing,
either to the interference of the Athenians, or the death of Artemisia.
From the period of these events, which occurred about 350 years before
Christ, till the reign of Alexander the Great, the Rhodians enjoyed
profound and uninterrupted tranquillity; their commerce extended, and their
wealth encreased.
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