The
Advice Of Hannibal, When An Exile At The Court Of Antiochus, Likewise Led
To The Disastrous War Of That Monarch With The Same People; And By The
Advice Of Hannibal Also, Prusias, King Of Bythinia, Was Engaged In
Hostilities With Them.
This king seems to have paid considerable attention
to naval and commercial affairs, for both of which, indeed, his territories
were admirably suited.
In conjunction with the Rhodians, he made war
against the inhabitants of Byzantium, and obliged them to remit the tax
which they had been accustomed to levy on all vessels that sailed to or
from the Euxine Sea, The maritime war between this sovereign and the
Romans, who were at this time in alliance with Eumenes, king of Pergamus,
offers nothing deserving our notice, except a stratagem executed by
Hannibal. In order to compensate for the inferiority of Prusias' fleet,
Hannibal ordered a great many serpents to be collected; these were put into
pots, which, during the engagement, were thrown into the enemy's ships. The
alarm and consternation occasioned by this novel and unexpected mode of
warfare, threw his opponents into disorder, and compelled them to save
themselves by flight.
The conquest of all the islands on the coast of Greece, from Epirus to Cape
Malea, by the Romans, was the result of a naval war, in which they engaged
with the Etolians, a people who, at this time, were so powerful at sea, and
so much addicted to piracy, as to have drawn upon themselves the jealousy
and the vengeance of the Romans. This extension of their dominions was
followed by a successful war with the Istrians, which made them masters of
all the western parts of the Mediterranean Sea; and by an equally
successful war with Nabis, the tyrant of Sparta, who was compelled to
deliver up his fleet to them, as well as all the sea-ports of consequence
on the coast of Sparta.
The Rhodians hitherto had been generally in alliance with the Romans; but
differences arose between them during the war between the latter and
Perseus, king of Macedon.
The island of Rhodes was remarkably well situated for maritime commerce;
and its inhabitants did not fail to reap all the advantages in this respect
which nature had so kindly bestowed on them. It appears from Homer, that in
his time there were three cities in the island; but during the
Peloponnesian war, the greater part of the inhabitants, having formed the
resolution to settle in one place, built the city of Rhodes, after the
designs of the same Athenian architect, who built the Piraeus. This city was
situated on the east coast of the island, at the foot of a hill, in the
form of an amphitheatre: it possessed a very convenient and safe harbour,
at the entrance of which there were two rocks; and on these, which were
fifty feet asunder, the famous Colossus was placed. The arsenals of Rhodes
were filled with every thing requisite for the defence of the city, or the
equipment of a large fleet: its walls, which were extremely high, were
defended by towers: its houses were built of stone: in short, the whole
city presented a striking picture of wealth, magnificence, and beauty, for
which it was not less indebted to art and commerce than to nature.
Before the era of the Olympiads, the Rhodians applied themselves to
maritime affairs: for many years they seem to have been masters of the
Mediterranean Sea; and their code of maritime laws became the standard with
all the maritime nations of antiquity, by which all controversies regarding
maritime affairs were regulated. There is great doubt among the learned,
whether what still exist as the fragments of these laws are genuine: we
know, however, that the Romans had a law which they called Lex Rhodia;
according to some, this contained the regulations of the Rhodians
concerning naval affairs; according to others, however, only one clause of
the law, _de jactu_, about throwing goods overboard in a storm, was
borrowed from the Rhodians.
Besides the commerce in which they themselves were engaged, the constant
arrival of ships from Egypt to Greece, and from Greece to Egypt, the island
being situated exactly in the passage between these countries, contributed
much to their wealth. As this encreased, they formed settlements and
colonies in many places; at Parthenope and Salapia, in Italy; Agrigentum
and Geta, in Sicily; Rhodes, on the coast of Spain, near the foot of the
Pyrenees, &c. They were particularly celebrated for and attentive to the
construction of their vessels; aiming principally at lightness and speed,
the discipline observed on board of them, and the skill and ability of
their captains and pilots. All these things were under the direct
management and controul of magistrates, appointed for the express purpose,
who were excessively attentive and even rigid in the execution of their
duty. Whoever entered certain places in the arsenals without permission,
was punished with death.
A few of the most remarkable events in the maritime history of Rhodes,
prior to their dispute with the Romans, call for some general and cursory
notice. 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.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 71 of 268
Words from 71547 to 72560
of 273188
