It's no
accident
that
Rhodes
is among
the most
visited
of the
Greek
islands.
Not only
is its
east
coast
lined
with
numerous
sandy
beaches,
but the
capital's
nucleus
is a
beautiful
and
remarkably
preserved
medieval
city,
the
legacy
of the
crusading
Knights
of St
John who
used the
island
as their
main
base
from
1309
until
1522.
Unfortunately
this
showpiece
is
jammed
to
capacity
with
over a
million
tourists
in a
good
year, as
against
about
111,000
permanent
inhabitants
(including
many
foreigners).
Of
transient
visitors,
Germans,
Brits,
Swedes,
Italians
and
Danes
predominate
in that
order,
though
they
tend to
arrive
in
different
months
of the
year.
Blessed
with an
equable
climate
and
strategic
position,
Rhodes
was
important
from
earliest
times
despite
a lack
of good
harbours.
The best
natural
port
spawned
the
ancient
town of
Lindos
which,
together
with the
other
city-states
Kameiros
and
Ialyssos,
united
in 408
BC to
found
the new
capital
of
Rhodes
at the
northern
tip of
the
island.
At
various
moments
the
cities
allied
themselves
with
Alexander,
the
Persians,
Athenians
or
Spartans
as
prevailing
conditions
suited
them,
generally
escaping
retribution
for
backing
the
wrong
side by
a
combination
of
seafaring
audacity,
sycophancy
and
burgeoning
wealth
as a
trade
centre.
Following
the
failed
siege of
Demetrios
Polyorketes
in 305
BC,
Rhodes
prospered
even
more,
displacing
Athens
as the
major
venue
for
rhetoric
and the
arts in
the east
Mediterranean.
The town,
which
lies
underneath
virtually
all of
the
modern
city,
was laid
out by
one
Hippodamus
in the
grid
layout
much in
vogue at
the
time,
with
planned
residential
and
commercial
quarters.
Its
perimeter
walls
totalled
nearly
15km,
enclosing
nearly
double
the area
of the
present
town,
and the
Hellenistic
population
was said
to
exceed
100,000
- a
staggering
figure
for late
antiquity,
as
against
50,631
at the
last
modern
census.
Decline
set in
when
Rhodes
became
involved
in the
Roman
civil
wars,
and
Cassius
sacked
the city;
by late
imperial
times,
it was a
backwater,
a status
confirmed
by
numerous
barbarian
raids
during
the
Byzantine
period.
The
Byzantines
were
compelled
to cede
the
island
to the
Genoese,
who in
turn
surrendered
it to
the
Knights
of St
John.
The
second
great
siege of
Rhodes,
during
1522-23,
saw
Ottoman
Sultan
Süleyman
the
Magnificent
oust the
stubborn
knights,
who
retreated
to
Malta;
the town
once
again
lapsed
into
relative
obscurity,
though
heavily
colonized
and
garrisoned,
until
its
seizure
by the
Italians
in 1912
