Most travellers to Rhodes, the largest of the Dodecanese Islands, visit the Old Town of Rhodes and the ancient town of Lindos with its acropolis dating from the 6th-Century BC. It may come as a surprise to learn that Lindos is around 500 years older than Rhodes Town and that Lindos was instrumental, along with two other city states on Rhodes – Kameiros and Ialyssos, in the founding of Rhodes Town, which became the capital of the island in 408BCE.
These four city states then allied themselves with the strongest military and political powers of the times. This nimble diplomacy lead to burgeoning wealth and importance as evidenced by the building of the Colossus of Rhodes in 304BCE. One of the seven wonders of the ancient world, this massive statue stood for approximately 80 years before being toppled by an earthquake. Economic decline set in when Rhodes became involved in the break-up of the 1st Roman triumvirate when the island was sacked by Cassius Longinus in 43BCE. During the next thousand years, Rhodes was passed from the Byzantines to the Genoese, who then handed over control to the Knights of St John in 1309. The Knights used Rhodes as their main base until ousted by the Ottoman Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent in a long siege between 1522 – 1523. As part of the Ottoman Empire, Rhodes fell into obscurity once again until the island was seized by the Italians in 1912.
Julian Worker Fiction Writing 