Rhodians

“ The Rhodians got Caria and Lycia, with the exception of Telmissus which, heaven knows why, fell to the share of Eumenes. This was for a little republic an immense windfall, as these were fine rich countries, from which they might draw millions of our money: the taxes among the ancients were very heavy, and mostly on land, being a third of the whole produce. Revenues like these made the Rhodians very rich, and they spent them partly in armaments, and partly on the embellishment of their city, which, even without this, was already so beautiful. The Rhodians are a thoroughly respectable people ”

“ The sterile soil, the burning climate, and the squalid population, recalled sad thoughts of Rhodes, with its abundant harvests and odoriferous orange-groves, its fleets and armaments and prosperous commerce, and the palaces of its wealthy nobles. But L’Isle Adam had a greatness of soul that rose superior to circumstances, and at once set about constructing habitations for his knights and laying the foundation of a hospital—not forgetting, at the same time, to provide for his poor Rhodians, and to concert measures for the amelioration of the condition of the inhabitants themselves. ”

“ At the outset of the war the Roman people had ascertained on trustworthy evidence that the Rhodians had been forming secret designs in conjunction with Perseus against the Republic, and if there had been any doubt as to this before, the language of the envoys had now reduced it to a certainty. Dishonest dealing, even if at the beginning it has been somewhat cautious, generally betrays itself in the long run. The Rhodians were now acting as arbitrators of peace and war over the whole world; the Romans were to take up and lay down their arms at the beck and nod of Rhodes ”

“ In presence of the Rhodians, the ambassadors added, that “they were confident of a continuation of peace, for it was by the advice of Marcius and Atilius that they were sent to Rome. But if the Romans should commence their hostilities, contrary to treaty, it would then be the business of the Rhodians to labour, with all their power and all their interest, for the re-establishment of peace; and that, if they should effect nothing by their mediation, they ought then to take such measures as would prevent the dominion of the whole world from coming into the hands of one nation only. ”

“ The letter and the address of the envoys received a favourable hearing, but they did not avail to make the Rhodians change their minds; the influence and authority of the better citizens prevailed. The answer which they decided to give was to the effect that the Rhodians wanted peace; if there was war, the king need not expect or ask for anything from them, since he was trying to break up the long-standing friendship between them and the Romans, a friendship which was the fruit of many valuable services rendered in both peace and war. ”

“ When their countrymen could no longer suffer this, they had sent other ambassadors into Macedonia, to Perseus, to announce to him that it was the wish of the Rhodians that he should conclude a peace with the Romans, and had sent them to Rome with the same message. The Rhodians would afterwards consider what measures they should judge proper to be taken against either party that should prevent an end being put to the war.” I am convinced that no person, even at the present time, can hear or read such expressions without indignation ”

“ It is related of the Rhodians that their maritime affairs were in a flourishing state, not only from the time of the foundation of the present city, but that many years before the institution of the Olympic festival, they sailed to a great distance from their own country for the protection of sailors. They sailed as far as Spain, and there founded Rhodus, which the people of Marseilles afterwards occupied; they founded Parthenope139 among the Opici, and Elpiæ in Daunia, with the assistance of Coans. Some authors relate, that after their return from Troy they colonized the Gymnasian islands. ”

“ The Romans have it in their power to judge the Rhodians to be public enemies, we too can pass some judgment on ourselves; we shall never judge ourselves to be your enemies, nor will we commit a single hostile act, even if we have to suffer everything that you can inflict upon us. ”

“ 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 ”

“ The reply made to the Rhodians was to the effect that they would neither be declared enemies nor allowed to remain as allies. The leaders of the deputation were Philocrates and Astymedes. Some of the delegates decided to accompany Philocrates back to Rhodes with the report of the proceedings, others elected to remain in Rome with Astymedes so that they could find out what was going on and inform their countrymen. ”

“ The Rhodians, however, were well satisfied with the rule of the Order. The knights, although belonging to the Catholic Church, had allowed the natives of the Island, who were of the Greek faith, perfect freedom in the exercise of their religion, and their rule, generally, had been fair and just. The wealth and prosperity of the Island had increased enormously since their establishment there, and the population had no inclination whatever to change their rule for that of the Turks. ”

“ For the fact was that the republic of Rhodes had been administered with such consummate statesmanship, that, though it had for nearly a hundred and forty years been engaged in conjunction with Rome in actions of the greatest importance and glory, it had never yet made an alliance with her. Nor ought I to omit stating the reason of this policy of the Rhodians. They wished that no ruler or prince should be entirely without hope of gaining their support or alliance; and they therefore did not choose to bind or hamper themselves beforehand with oaths and treaties ”

“ He also fitted out a fleet, for which he possessed the most ample resources, having taken the Phœnician coast from the Ægyptians, and being likewise master of Cilicia and Pamphylia. In Greece the Ætolians were on his side; but the Rhodians were decidedly against him, as they were allies of the Egyptians, and though not actually leagued with the Romans, yet on terms of such good understanding with them, that it came nearly to the same thing. ”

“ After the Rhodians had landed at the larger harbour with their well-equipped fleet, she ordered the people on the wall to cheer them and to promise that they would deliver up the town. Then, when they had passed inside the wall, leaving their fleet empty, Artemisia suddenly made a canal which led to the sea, brought her fleet thus out of the smaller harbour, and so sailed into the larger. Disembarking her soldiers, she towed the empty fleet of the Rhodians out to sea. So the Rhod­ians were surrounded without means of retreat, and were slain in the very forum. ”

“ This year the Cretans sent Antiphatas, son of Telamnestus of Gortyn, with envoys to the Achaeans asking for help,The Achaeans decline to help either Rhodes or Crete, and the Rhodians sent Theophanes with a similar mission. The Congress of the Achaeans was that year at Corinth: and on each body of ambassadors pleading their respective causes, the assembled people were more inclined towards the Rhodians, from respect to the reputation of although inclined to support Rhodes. their state, and the general character of their policy and statesmen. ”

“ The ancient Greeks believed that the sun drove in a chariot across the sky; hence the Rhodians, who worshipped the sun as their chief deity, annually dedicated a chariot and four horses to him, and flung them into the sea for his use. ”

“ The people of Abydos would not even admit his envoys and closed their gates against the king. The siege of this place detained Philip for a considerable time, and if Attalus and the Rhodians had shown the smallest energy they might have saved the place. Attalus sent only 300 men to assist in the defence and the Rhodians despatched one quadrireme out of their fleet which was lying at anchor off Tenedos. ”

“ So the Rhodians, taking in tow some of their vessels, and having destroyed others by charging them, sailed away to Chios.
7. In the battle with Attalus Philip had had destroyed a ten-banked, a nine-banked, a seven-banked,B.C. 201. The losses in the battle. and a six-banked ship, ten other decked vessels, three triemioliae, twenty-five galleys and their crews. In the battle with the Rhodians ten decked vessels and about forty galleys. ”

“ Was it, perhaps, the marvellous, translucent atmosphere, or was it the blue intensity of the dreaming kopjes, ornamented ever and anon by gleaming white battlements of granite, where the sun blazed down on giant boulders, or was it the unfathomable, mysterious, syren-like allurement of the country, that, without effort, without thought, steeped the senses in an irresistible fascination? Why does Rhodesia fascinate? Why does she call men back again and again to her manifold discomforts and unnerving disappointments, to her pests and glare, to her bully beef and unwashed Kaffirs? ”

“ Get him to talk to you about the natives; about their habits and legends and customs. There isn't a man in Rhodesia knows more, and there isn't one they trust more absolutely. He is down in this district now on their behalf, and before he set foot here they knew all about him. Natives a hundred miles apart communicate that sort of thing to each other. Every kraal here knew perfectly that he was stern and rigid, but absolutely just. If he once says a thing he stands by it, even if he gets into trouble at headquarters, which isn't so very unusual. ”

“ In this far Rhodesia, how strange that she, the product of the most modern and presumably enlightened age, should linger there amidst these broken walls, and feel strange kinship and fascination about those old people in that remote age; should stretch a hand out to them, as it were, across the centuries, with this feeling that their thoughts had been even as her thoughts, and that the passing of the ages could never eradicate the essential likeness of one people to another in those old eternal questions of whence and why and wherefore. ”

“ There had been so much "Rhodesia" of late. Everyone seemed bitten with a kind of silly craze for the place. Now it was gold; now it was land; now it was union or no union; now it was annexation and "twenty pieces of silver"; such a lot of fuss about some square miles of wilderness, containing odd outcrops of gold-bearing reef.
"There is nothing worth seeing in Rhodesia, except the Victoria Falls," he asserted; "and you can run up there and see all you want to and get back in a week!" And still he looked enquiringly at Meryl.
"We want to see the people," she said, half turning. ”

“ The Rhodes impress is everywhere. Now I had arrived at the cap-stone of it all, the domain that bears his name and which he added to the British Empire.
Less than two hours after the immigration inspector had given me the once-over on the frontier I was in Bulawayo, metropolis of Rhodesia, which sprawls over the veldt just like a bustling Kansas community spreads out over the prairie. It is definitely American in energy and atmosphere. Save for the near-naked blacks you could almost imagine yourself in Idaho or Montana back in the days when our West was young. ”

“ What better can I do in the world than to help my beloved South to maintain and extend her social order in which the negro, a mere animal, does the work for which he is fitted and to which he was appointed by the Creator, and the white man, created by God in His own image, is left unhampered to develop his own God-given talents and so produce such splendid results? But I am lonely, my dear one, and I long always for the presence and the companionship of the mate God made for me. Rhoda, darling, do not be cruel any longer! ”

“ The velvety darkness of a southern night, with its sense of rich, luscious, breathing intensity, lay over that romantic spot in Southern Rhodesia where the grey walls of the Zimbabwe ruins, with a sublime, imperturbable indifference, continue to baffle the ingenuity and ravish the curiosity of all who would read their story. Scientists, archæologists, tourists come and go, but the stern old walls, guarded by the sentinel hills, give back no answer to eager questioning, eager delving, eager surmise. ”

“ The peaceful loveliness soothed his spirit because he loved it, but in her it awakened a vague, swift ache. She felt somehow that he had a right to love the country, because he had made it his and given it of his best; that, for all his presumable poverty in many things, he was yet so rich in what he had achieved, and in what he had won for himself of interest and usefulness. While for her?... She was an alien, a mere tourist, a looker-on; the daughter of a millionaire who came to Rhodesia for wealth, and gave—how little in return! ”

“ But Rhodesia remains a thriving part of the British Empire and the dream of the founder is realized.
[Pg 122] III
Rhodesia produces much more than trouble for the Chartered Company. She is pre-eminently a land of ranches and farms. Here you get still another parallel with the United States because it is no uncommon thing to find a farm of 50,000 acres or more.
I doubt if any other new region in the world contains a finer or sturdier manhood than Rhodesia. Like the land itself it is a stronghold of youth. ”