II. HISTORY
R. appears in the history of the Mediterranean already in the age of Aegean civilization. The rough necropolises attest to the Mycenaean type, and the pottery bears the characteristic decoration of that of Cnidus. A later Dorian colonization is indicated by the close relationship between the Rhodian dialect and the Arcadian; according to Homer, the Heraclid line descended from Argos to colonize R. The Rhodians appear at the beginning of the historical age in close commercial relations with the various countries of the eastern Mediterranean, especially with Egypt and Cyrenaica. In the 7th century BC, colonists from R. founded Gela in Sicily.
In the Greco-Persian Wars, the Rhodians placed their fleet at the disposal of the Great King: in 480 BC they fought at Salamis with the Persian fleet. The formation of the Athenian maritime confederation forced the Rhodians to adhere to it, but later economic disputes drove them away. Against Athenian hostility, the inhabitants of the three main centers on the island around 408 BC united and founded the city of R., which they equipped with a great artificial harbor; with the decline of Athens, the new port became the principal emporium of the eastern Mediterranean. The struggles among the Greek cities in the 4th century determined the prosperity of R. for about two centuries. The Rhodian fleets, with great care, kept the seas clear of pirates and ensured the freedom of communications with Syria, Egypt, and Greece; Rhodian coinage was highly prized throughout the Levant for the quality of its alloy and its stable value. At R., maritime trade gave rise to customs (Lex Rhodia) that became a reliable text and later influenced Roman law. Commercial concerns led the Rhodians to pursue a policy of balance amid the conflicts of the 4th century. After the Battle of the Granicus, the Rhodians submitted to Alexander. After his death, amid the struggles among the Diadochi and later among the Hellenistic monarchies, R. sought to maintain neutrality, supporting the Ptolemies of Egypt and the Seleucids of Syria against the kings of Macedonia: in 305 BC they repulsed the siege of Demetrius Poliorcetes. The 3rd century BC was perhaps the period of the greatest flourishing of Rhodian civilization. Artists and men of letters flocked to R. as to the city most suited to their activities; its schools had illustrious masters in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC. In the 3rd century BC, at the entrance to the harbor, there was erected that colossal statue of the Sun, 33 meters high, which remained famous in antiquity though it collapsed in an earthquake around 225 BC; its ruins existed until the Arab conquest. At the end of the 3rd century BC, the political crisis of R. began. The Rhodian Republic prudently decided to rely on Roman power, which skillfully exploited Rhodian friendship and initially favored it, but when the Rhodians seemed inclined to continue their balancing act between Rome and Macedonia, Rome abandoned its dangerous allies and favored the port of Delos instead. R., however, long remained renowned among the wealthy classes of Rome, the *clara Rhodos*, where one had to go to perfect one’s education.
In the civil wars of the 1st century BC, R. resumed its old policy: it supported Pompey against Caesar, then Antony against Octavian. The declaration of autonomy and freedom granted to it by Antony was later revoked by Claudius; Nero restored it, and Vespasian revoked it again. R. was repeatedly devastated by earthquakes; after the last one in AD 155, it never recovered.
The history of the island in the medieval age begins with the repeated attempts of the Arab governors of Syria to seize it: in 654, in 807, etc. The island formed part of a special provincial governorship. The Crusades highlighted the island’s importance: a Venetian fleet wintered in R. in 1099; in 1123, the Venetians, in conflict with the basileus John II Comnenus, sacked II. The port became a stopover for Italian mariners. After the Fourth Crusade and the dismemberment of the Byzantine Empire, the Byzantine governor Leo Gabalas created an independent lordship there, but later the authority of the basileus of Nicaea was recognized. In 1256, Michael VIII Palaeologus occupied the island, but neither he nor his successor Andronicus II were able to make their possession effective; meanwhile, merchants and pirates from Genoa, Greece, and Turkey repeatedly found refuge in R. In 1306, the Grand Master of the Order of St. John, desiring to leave the Order’s temporary seat in Cyprus, accepted the proposal of the Genoese Vignolo de Vignoli to conquer the island of R., and an expedition set out from Limassol on June 22, 1306, capturing Kastellorizo, then landing on the island. The occupation proceeded slowly, but once practical difficulties were overcome, the Order considered itself the owner of R. The central organization of the Order, for its military activities as well as for the construction of walls and castles on the island, drew on the funds of the commanderies and the knights of the West; financial and commercial dealings were conducted through the great Florentine banks—the Bardi, the Peruzzi, and the Acciaioli, and in the 15th century through the Medici.
The policy of the Grand Masters repeatedly aimed to make R. a true principality, without ever succeeding; moreover, the knights preferred to reside in the houses of the West, where they lived more freely, rather than in R., in the convent, where life, though attended by many comforts, was regulated and disciplined. Nevertheless, during the two centuries of their residence in R., the knights displayed notable military activity against the Muslims, either through their own expeditions in the seas and on the coasts of Egypt and Syria or by participating in allied expeditions that greatly troubled the Muslims.
Pope Clement VI would have liked the Order to abandon R. and transfer to Smyrna in order to wage war more effectively against the Turks. The knights refused. Attacks on R. were repeatedly attempted, as in 1440 and 1444. When Mehmed II had conquered Constantinople, he began to turn his attention to the knights of R. Only in 1479, however, was he able to prepare a great expedition against the island: in the autumn of that year, the first landings took place, and in May 1480 a fleet of 160 ships with 100,000 men arrived at R. Grand Master Pierre d’Aubusson had strengthened the defenses. The number of knights present in the convent had been increased from 335 to 450.
The siege lasted from May 23 to August 17, 1480. The assaults were numerous, but in the end the Turkish generals, despairing of success, abandoned the enterprise. The Turkish sultan Bayezid and the sultan of Egypt agreed to peace treaties and commercial accords. Grand Master Fabrizio del Carretto (1513–21) devoted great care to the fortification works of R., calling to the island Italian architects, including the Vicentine Basilio della Scola.
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**Fig. 1. Window of a house on the Street of the Knights (15th century) - Rhodes.**
In 1521 the new Sultan Süleyman decided to launch a full-scale attack on Rhodes. Grand Master Philippe Villiers de l'Isle-Adam immediately began urgent preparations for resistance, but neither Emperor Charles V, nor Leo X, nor Adrian VI were able to provide the Order with the prompt support it required. Süleyman’s army, which began landing in June 1522, commenced the siege on 28 July. Reports spoke of 200,000 men; for the defence of Rhodes there were about 600 knights, and with mercenaries, Genoese and Venetian sailors, no more than 7,000 men in total. After the assault of 17 December, in which the Turks succeeded in gaining a foothold within the city’s defensive system, the Grand Master resolved to negotiate surrender. On 20 December Süleyman presented his terms: the knights were to leave Rhodes within twelve days; the inhabitants were given three years to depart the island. On 24 December the first Turkish troops entered the city; on Christmas Day the Grand Master went to pay homage to the Sultan, and on 1 January he departed Rhodes with the 150 surviving knights and 5,000 Rhodians who preferred exile. Rhodes remained a province of the Turkish Empire until the Italo-Turkish War of 1911–12. On 5 May 1912 an Italian occupation force under General Ameglio landed on the island, and on 17 May compelled the Turkish garrison to surrender. The Treaty of London (1915) acknowledged Italy’s sovereignty over the island, as did the Treaty of Peace of Lausanne (1923). The Italian occupation marked for the island a phase of restoration after four centuries of neglect, and it ended with the British conquest of 1942. After the Second World War Italy was obliged to cede Rhodes and the Dodecanese to Greece.
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Francesco Comasso
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**III. THE ARCHDIOCESE OF RHODES** – Rhodes was already a bishopric by the late third century and by the seventh century had become a metropolitan see with eleven suffragan dioceses, reduced to ten by the tenth century. The Latin archbishopric was founded in 1328 and lasted until 1546, comprising the sees of Milo, Naxos, Karpathos, Chios, Tinos and Mykonos.
Under Turkish rule (1522–1912) the number of Catholics was small; their spiritual care was entrusted permanently to the Franciscans from 1719 to the present day. The Holy See erected an apostolic prefecture in 1897 and raised it to the dignity of an archbishopric in 1928. After the end of the Second World War, when Rhodes and the Dodecanese (q.v.) were incorporated into Greece, the Greek authorities unfortunately took possession of the Catholic cathedral, seat of the Latin archbishop.
At the Council of Florence the Greek metropolitan Nathanael and the Latin archbishop Andrew Chrysoperges of Rhodes were present; the latter, of the Order of Preachers, a Greek by birth and a convert, earned great merit for the cause of union as a theological expert at the Council and as a papal legate for the execution of the Council in the East. See plate LIX.
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