The failure in the siege of Rhodes over 2,300 years ago led to many components of the iron-clad wooden tower Helepolis being melted down to construct the Colossus of Rhodes.
At the end of the 4th century BC, following the death of Alexander the Great, the kingdom of Rhodes fostered close trade and cultural ties with Pharaoh Ptolemy I of Egypt, forming an alliance that controlled trade throughout the Aegean Sea. The king of Macedonia, Antigonus I, felt threatened by this alliance. He feared that Ptolemy I might use the island of Rhodes as a base to attack Macedonia, and that the Rhodians could supply ships and resources to the pharaoh.
Illustration of the siege of Rhodes. (Image: Amusing Planet).
Antigonus I decided to break this alliance. In 305 BC, he sent his son and future king of Macedonia, Demetrius, along with a large fleet to besiege Rhodes. The first objective was to secure the harbor of the island. Demetrius quickly built a harbor adjacent to the original one and constructed a mole to protect his maritime operations. Simultaneously, his army ravaged the island and established a large camp on land close to the city of Rhodes but still out of range of its defenses.
During the conflict, both sides employed various technical devices such as mines and different siege tools, most notably the massive siege tower of Demetrius known as Helepolis, or “The Taker of Cities.”
3D simulation and cross-section of the Helepolis tower (left) and a model of the tower at the Thessaloniki Science Center and Technology Museum, Greece. (Image: Gts-tg/Wikimedia/Evan Mason).
The Helepolis tower had a tapered shape rising to about 40 meters, made of wood and clad in iron plates. Inside, the tower was divided into multiple levels, where hundreds of soldiers awaited to attack the walls using catapults and battering rams. The front wall of the tower was equipped with multiple artillery ports and was protected by mechanically adjustable doors lined with fire-resistant materials like felt and seaweed. The entire tower, weighing 160 tons, was mounted on 8 wheels, each about 4.5 meters tall. It required 3,400 men working in shifts to push and position the tower in front of the city walls.
As a result, the forces of Rhodes fiercely attacked Helepolis, even destroying some of the iron plates surrounding the tower, exposing the vulnerable wooden structure. To protect Helepolis, Demetrius ordered the tower to be withdrawn. A year later, a relief force from Rhodes, consisting of several ships sent by Ptolemy, arrived. Demetrius and his army abandoned the siege, leaving most of their siege equipment behind.
A decade later, the Rhodians melted down all the weapons left by Demetrius’s army, including the iron plates from Helepolis, and sold the remaining parts of the tower. With the money and materials obtained, such as copper and iron, they erected the Colossus of Rhodes to commemorate their heroic struggle against their enemy. The colossal statue was constructed from an iron framework covered with bronze plates to form its skin, which was then filled with stones. The statue stood on a marble pedestal 15 meters high. By 280 BC, the statue was completed after 12 years of construction.
An 1790 illustration of the Colossus of Rhodes. (Image: Amusing Planet).
The Colossus of Rhodes only lasted 54 years. An earthquake struck Rhodes in 226 BC, causing the statue to break at the knees and collapse. The fragments of the statue were eventually collected and melted down when Rhodes fell into the hands of the Arabs in 653. The copper obtained was sold to a Jewish merchant who required over 900 camels to transport the entire amount.
Though no longer in existence, both the Helepolis tower and the Colossus of Rhodes leave a significant mark in modern culture. For instance, the design of the Statue of Liberty in New York was inspired by the Colossus of Rhodes, a structure considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
