RHODES, an Island and famous City of the Archipelago, being an hundred thousand Paces in Compass. Its ancient Name was Asteria, Ophiusa, and Etheria. The Name of Rodes, which in Greek signifies a Rose, came either from the Nymph Rhodia, who was beloved by Apollo, and changed into a Rose ; or rather, from the great Quantity and Beauty of the Roses that are to be seen there. This City is chiefly famous for its Brazen Colossus, which was one hundred and five Feet high, and was made by Chares of Lyndus : It continued perfect only fifty-six Years, being thrown down by an Earthquake, under the Reign of Ptolemy III. surnamed Euergetes, King of Egypt, who began to reign in the Year of the World 3758, before the Vulgar Era 244. The Saracens entirely broke it to Pieces, under the Reign of Constans II. and ‘tis said, they loaded nine hundred Camels with the Brass that it afforded : It was twelve Years in making, and three hundred Talents were laid out upon it. ‘Tis said, this Colossus was so large, that no1 one could grasp its Thumb with his Arms. The Inside of this great Mass was filled up with large Stones, that being thus made heavy, the Winds and Tempests might not have Power to overset it. It was set up in the Harbour of Rhodes, having its two Legs extended, and fix’d upon two Pedestals, so that when Ships came into the Harbour, they might easily pass between. Suidas, Glycas, Zomar. Eustath.Some pretend, that the Rhodians were the Colossians, to whom St. Paul address’d one of his Epistles: But this Opinion is very ill founded. See COLOSSIANS. When St. Paul went to Jerusalem, in the Year of Christ 58, he went from Miletus to Coos, Acts xxi. 1.from Coos to the Isle of Rhodes, and from thence to Patara in Lycia.
The Septuagint, in Gen. x. 4. put the Rhodians among the Children of Javan. They, probably, read Rhodanim, instead of Dodanim, in the Hebrew2. The Samaritan Text reads also Rhodanim in the same Place; and the Hebrew reads it also in the First Book of the Chronicles. Eusebius, St. Jerom, and Isidore, follow the Septuagint, and think the Isle of Rhodes to have been peopled by the Rhodanim, or the Posterity of Javan. Bochart does not reject that Reading that exhibits Rhodanim; but he maintains, that this Word cannot signify the Rhodians in this Place, who are too modern to have been planted there by any immediate Son of Javan: He thinks that, in this Place, Moses rather intended to mark out the People of the Gauls, which are upon the Mediterranean, towards the Mouth of the Rhone, near Marseilles, where we find a Canton call’d Rhodanusia, and a City of the same Name.
Also the Septuagint, upon Ezekiel,3 have translated the Children of the Rhodians, instead of the Children of Dedan, as it is read in the Hebrew. Probably, they read the Children of Redan, or Rodan; but in Gen. x. 7. they read Dedan, as the Hebrew. In the Hebrew Text nothing is easier than to confound the Daleth and the Resh. If the Text of Genesis did not determine us to Dedan, we might admit the Rhodians in this Passage of Ezekiel; for, in the Time of this Prophet, it is very probable that this Island was well-peopled.
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