traded to the Euxine,
in order to defray an annual tribute which they were obliged to pay to the
Greeks. As one of the most important and lucrative branches of the commerce
of Rhodes was to the countries lying on this sea, they were much aggrieved
by this toll, and endeavoured to persuade the Byzantines to take it off,
but in vain. Under these circumstances, they, in conjunction with Prusias,
king of Bythinia, declared war against the Byzantines; and while their ally
took Hieron, which seems to have been a great mart of the Byzantines, and
the resort of most of the merchants trading to these parts, the Rhodians,
with a powerful fleet, ravaged their coasts, and seized all their ships
trading to the Euxine. The war was at length terminated under the mediation
of the king of the Thracian Gauls; the Byzantines agreeing to take off the
toll.

Their success in this war was counterbalanced by a dreadful earthquake,
which threw down the Colossus, destroyed the arsenal, and damaged part of
the walls and city. As the Rhodians, however, were much esteemed by most of
their neighbours, who found their prosperity intimately connected with the
prosperity of Rhodes, they soon recovered from these calamities and losses.
Hiero, king of Syracuse, gave them 100 talents, and exempted them from all
duties and taxes. Ptolemy gave them also the like sum, besides one million
measures of wheat, and timber, etc. requisite for building fifty ships.
Antiochus exempted all their vessels, which traded to his ports, from every
kind of tax and duty. They received from other princes presents or
privileges of equal importance and value; so that, in a very short time,
they recovered their former opulence and trade, and rebuilt their walls,
etc.

Their alliance with Attalus, king of Pergamus, involved them in a war with
Philip king of Macedonia, and was the cause of their forming an alliance
with the Romans. In this war the Rhodian fleet, in conjunction with the
fleets of their allies, gained several victories over the fleet of Philip.
The latter was at length obliged to sue to the Romans for peace, and they,
in fixing the terms, included the Rhodians, to whom were ceded Stratonice,
and the greater part of Caria. In the meantime Antiochus and the Romans had
commenced hostilities, and the Rhodians were again involved in them: almost
at their very commencement, their fleet was surprized by a stratagem of
Antiochus's admiral, and of thirty ships of war of wh