Siege of Rhodes (305-304 BC): Demetrius the Besieger Fails

The Siege of Rhodes was a year-long attack on the island city of Rhodes by Demetrius, son of Antigonus I, in 305–304 BC. Demetrius brought a great fleet, tens of thousands of soldiers and the largest siege engines yet seen, including the giant tower called the Helepolis. The Rhodians held out, made an honourable peace, and used the proceeds from his abandoned equipment to build the Colossus of Rhodes.

Background: a neutral trading city

By the late 4th century BC, Rhodes was one of the richest ports in the eastern Mediterranean. The city, founded in 408/407 BC by the union of three older towns on the island, controlled important sea routes between the Aegean, Egypt and the Levant.

During the Wars of the Diadochi, Rhodes tried to stay neutral. Much of its trade, especially in grain, was with Egypt, ruled by Ptolemy I Soter. When Antigonus I and his son Demetrius, at war with Ptolemy, demanded that Rhodes join them and provide ships, the Rhodians refused. In 305 BC Antigonus sent Demetrius to take the city.

The besieging force

Diodorus, the main source, says Demetrius arrived with about 200 warships, more than 170 transports carrying close to 40,000 soldiers, cavalry, and a large number of pirates and private vessels hoping for loot. The fleet filled the sea between Rhodes and the mainland.

The Rhodians had far fewer men. Diodorus mentions about 6,000 citizens able to fight and around 1,000 resident foreigners. The city also armed slaves who were willing to fight, promising them freedom and citizenship, and voted honours for the families of the fallen.

Demetrius was about 32 years old and already famous. In 307 BC he had freed Athens from Cassander’s governor, and in 306 BC he had won a crushing naval victory over Ptolemy at Salamis in Cyprus. His father expected Rhodes to fall quickly and to provide a naval base for the coming war against Egypt.

The harbour attacks

Demetrius first attacked from the sea. He built floating siege towers and covered artillery platforms on ships lashed together, aiming to capture the harbour moles. His forces seized part of the defences, but Rhodian counter-attacks, fire ships and a storm that wrecked some of his floating engines drove them back.

The Rhodians also attacked his supply ships at sea. Their skill as sailors meant that, despite the blockade, grain and reinforcements continued to arrive from Ptolemy, Cassander and Lysimachus.

The struggle was fierce on both sides. Diodorus reports that the Rhodian assembly refused proposals to pull down the statues of Antigonus and Demetrius in the city, arguing that this would look ungrateful and harm any future peace. Prisoners were exchanged under agreed ransom terms, a sign that both sides expected the war to end in negotiation.

The Helepolis

Failing at sea, Demetrius turned to the land walls. There he deployed the Helepolis, or “taker of cities”, designed by the engineer Epimachus of Athens.

Ancient writers describe a tower of nine storeys on a square base; Plutarch gives sides of 48 cubits and a height of 66 cubits, which suggests a height of very roughly 30–40 metres. It was clad in iron plates on three sides to resist fire, had shuttered openings for catapults on each floor, and was moved forward on large wheels by 3,400 men, according to Diodorus. Vitruvius, writing much later, gives different measurements. Demetrius also used huge battering rams protected by sheds.

The Rhodians responded with intense artillery fire at night, knocking off iron plates and threatening to set the tower alight, so it had to be withdrawn. They also built a second wall behind the threatened section. Vitruvius tells a story that the engineer Diognetus flooded the ground in front of the wall so the Helepolis sank in the mud; this account is not found in Diodorus and may be a later embellishment.

The peace of 304 BC

After about a year, Demetrius was under pressure. Antigonus wanted him back in Greece, where Cassander was threatening Athens, and envoys from Athens and other Greek states urged a settlement.

The peace allowed Rhodes to remain independent and keep its own revenues, without a garrison. The city agreed to be an ally of Antigonus and Demetrius except in wars against Ptolemy, and handed over 100 hostages. In practice, Rhodes had won.

Rhodes kept its side of the agreement and stayed loyal to Ptolemy. Pausanias later wrote that the Rhodians gave Ptolemy the title Soter, “Saviour”, in gratitude for his help. Ancient sources also report that they consulted the oracle of Ammon before honouring him with a sacred precinct, the Ptolemaieion, in their city.

The Colossus

According to Pliny the Elder, the Rhodians sold the siege equipment left behind by Demetrius for 300 talents. With this money they commissioned a giant bronze statue of their patron god Helios, the Colossus of Rhodes, by the sculptor Chares of Lindos. It was completed around 280 BC and stood about 33 metres tall, but fell in an earthquake around 226 BC.

The exact form and position of the Colossus are not known. The popular image of a statue straddling the harbour entrance is a medieval and early modern invention; the bronze figure almost certainly stood on land, and its remains lay where they fell for centuries.

Key people

• Demetrius Poliorcetes (c. 337–283 BC): Son of Antigonus, commander of the siege, later king of Macedonia.
• Antigonus I Monophthalmus (c. 382–301 BC): Demetrius’ father, then the most powerful of Alexander’s successors.
• Ptolemy I Soter (c. 367–282 BC): Ruler of Egypt and Rhodes’ most important supporter.
• Epimachus of Athens: Engineer who designed the Helepolis.
• Chares of Lindos: Sculptor of the Colossus, paid for from the sale of the siege engines.

Timeline

• 408/407 BC: The city of Rhodes is founded.
• 306 BC: Demetrius defeats Ptolemy’s fleet at Salamis in Cyprus; Antigonus and Demetrius take the royal title.
• 305 BC, summer: Demetrius arrives at Rhodes and begins the siege.
• 305 BC: Attacks on the harbour fail.
• 305–304 BC: The Helepolis is used against the land walls.
• 304 BC: Peace is agreed and Demetrius withdraws.
• c. 280 BC: The Colossus of Rhodes is completed.
• c. 226 BC: The Colossus collapses in an earthquake.

Consequences

The siege made Rhodes famous for its courage and independence. In the following century it became a leading naval power in the Aegean, policing piracy and acting as a commercial hub, until its power declined in the 2nd century BC after a dispute with Rome.

For Demetrius, the siege gave him his nickname “the Besieger”, despite its failure. It showed both the remarkable advances of Hellenistic siege engineering and its limits against a determined, well-supplied city. Plutarch and Pliny the Elder also record that Demetrius took care to spare a famous painting by Protogenes, an episode later remembered as a mark of respect for art.

The siege also influenced later military writers. Accounts of the Helepolis and of Demetrius’ rams and floating batteries were copied and discussed by Greek and Roman engineers, and the episode became a standard example of what massive siege machinery could, and could not, achieve.

Why it matters

The Siege of Rhodes is one of the best-documented sieges of the ancient world and a high point of Hellenistic military engineering. Its outcome kept Rhodes free to become a major trading power, and it led directly to one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.