Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/729

 RHODIORUM REGIO. -vels in Lycia, i. pp. 166, 181.) The town had a temple of Asclepius, and its citizens are not called, as Stephanus Bvz. asserts, 'Po5j67s, but 'PoSiairo- Arrai or 'Po5io7roA?Ta(, whence it appears that Pliny (v. 28) correctly calls the town Ehodiopolis. A plan of the numerous remains of this town is given by Spratt, accordinij to whom it was not surrounded by walls: the theatre stands nearly in the centre, and is small, havint;; a diameter of only 136 feet; but many of the seats remain, and the basement of the proscenium is perfect. In the front of it is a terrace, with seats along the parapet. Eemains of churches show that the place was •inhabited in Christian times. There are also traces of an aqueduct. The town being situated on a lofty eminence, commands an extensive southern prospect. [L. S.] RHODIO'RUM REGIO. [Peraea.] EHO'DIUS ('P($5ios), a river of Troas, having its sources in Mount Ida, a little above the town of Astyra; it flows in a north-western direction, and after passing by Astyra and Cremaste, discharges itself into the Hellespont between Dardanus and Abydus. (Horn. II. xii. 20, xs. 215; Hesiod, Theog.'MX; Strab. xii. p. 554, xiii. pp. 595, 603; Plin. v. 33.) Strabo (xiii. p. 595) states that some regarded the Ehodius as a tributary of the Aesepus; but they must have been mistaken, as the river is mentioned on the coins of Dardanus. (Sestini, Geog. Numis. p. 39.) Pliny (J. c.) states that this ancient river no longer existed; and some modern writers identify it with the Pydius mentioned by Thucydides (viii. 106; comp. Hesych. and Phavorin. s. v. Xlv^iov). Ricliter (JWallfahrten, p. 457) describes its present condition as that of a brook flowing into the Dar- danelles by many mouths and marshes. [L. S.] RHO'DOPE ('PoSdTrrj, Herod, vi. 49 ; Thuc. ii. 96 ; Polyb. xxxiv. 19; Strab. iv. p. 208, vii. pp. 313, 329', 331 ; Mela, ii. 2. § 2; Plin. iii. 29, iv. 5. s. 17 ; Amm. Marc. xxi. 10. § 3; Malchus, ap. Exc. de Leg. Rom. p. 90), a mountain chain forming the W. con- tinuation of Ilaemus, and the frontier between Thrace and Macedonia, of which little more is known than the name. On its desolate lieights, the lurking places of the fierce Satrae, was the great sanctuary and oracle of the Thracian Dionysus. As the Stry- mon took its sources in Rhodope (Strab. viii. p. 331) the high ridges round Diipnitza and Ghiustendil must be assigned to Rhodope, which may roughly be said to belong to the central of the three continuous chains, which under the name of the Despoto Dagh branches out to the S. of the Balkan (Haemus) at about 23° E. long. [E. B. J.] RHODU'NTIA ("PoSowTia: Eth.'VoMvTios'),a. fortress on Mt. Callidromus, defending one of the passes to Thermopylae. (Strab. ix. p. 428 ; Liv. xxxvi. 16, 19; Steph. B. s.v. Leake, Northern Greece, vol. ii. pp. 10, 62, 64.) RHODUS CPdSos: Eth. '?6Zios: Rhodes), one of the chief islands of the Aegean, or more properly of that part of the Aegean which is called the Carpathian .sea, about 9 or 10 miles from the coast ol Caria. In the earliest times it is said to have borne the names of Ophiussa (Steph. B. s. v. 'Po5os), Stadia, Telchinis (Strab. xvi. p. 653), Asteria, Aethraea, Trinacria, Corynibia, Poieessa, Atabyria, Macaria, and Oloii.ssa. (Plin. v. 36.) It extends from south to north, ar.d is 920 stadia in circum- ference (Strab. xiv. p. 605), or, according to Pliny, 125 Roman miles, though others reduced it to 103. The island is traversed from north to south by a RHODUS. 713 chain of mountains, the liighest point of which was called Atabyris or Atabyrion, and the towns were all situated on the coast. Mount Atabyris is 4560 feet above the level of the sea, and on the top of it stood a temple of Zeus Atabyrius. Rhodes was believed to have at one time risen out of the sea, and the Telchines, its most ancient inhabitants, are said to have immigrated from Crete. (Pind. Objmp. vii. 23, &c.; Plin. ii. 87; Aristid. Orat. xHii. p. 653, ed. Dind.; Strab. I.e.; Diod. v. 55.) The Telchines, about whom many fabulous stories are related, are said to have been nine in number, and their sister Halia or Amphitrite became by Poseidon the mother of six sons and one daughter, Rhodos, from which in the end the island received the name it still bears. Others, however, with better reason, derive the name Rhodus from poSov, a ro.se, for the rose appears as a symbol on coins of the island, so that Rhodns vi-ould be " the i.sland of Roses." (Ei'khel, vol. ii. p. 602; Sestini, A^«/m. Vet. p. 382.) These most ancient and fabu- lous Telchines are said to have perished or been driven from the island during an inundation, and Helios then created a new race of inhabitants, who were called after him Hehadae; they were seven in number, and became ancestors of seven tribes, which partly peopled Rhodus itself and partly emigrated to Lesbos, Cos, Caria, and Egypt. The Heliadae are said to have greatly distinguished themselves by the progress they made in the sciences of astronomy and navigation. (Pind. I. c. 160, &c.; Diod. v. 56; Conon, Narrat. 47; Strab. xiv. p. 654.) After this various immigrations from foreign countries are mentioned: Egyptians under Danaus, Phoenicians under Cadmus, Thessalians and Carians, are each said to have furnished their contingent to the popu- lation of Rhodes. Whatever we may think of these alleged immigrations, they can have but little af- fected the national character of the Rhodians, which in fact did not become fixed until a branch of the Doric race took possession of the island, after which event the Doric character of its inhabitants became thoroughly established. Some Dorians or Heracleidae appear to have been settled there as early as the Trojan War, for the Heracleid Tlepolemus is de- scribed as having sailed to Troy with nine ships. (/;. ii. 653; Diod. iv. 58, v. 59; Apollod. ii. 8. § 2.) After the Trojan War Aethaemenes, a Heracleid from Argos, led other settlers to Rhodus. (Strab, xiv. p 653; Diod. xv. 59; Apollod. iii. 2. § 1 ; comp. Thuc. vii. 57 ; Aristid. Orat. xliv. p. 839.) After this time the Rhodians quietly developed the resources of their island, and rose to great prosperity and affluence. The three most ancient towns of the island were LiNDUs, Iai.ysus, and Camiuus, which were be- lieved to have been founded by three grandsons of the Heliad Ochimus bearing the .same names, or, according to others, by the Heracleid Tlepo- lemus. (Diod. iv. 58, v. 57.) These tiircc towns, together with Cos.Cnidus, and Halicarnassus, formed what was called the Doric he.apolis, which had its common sanctu.ary on the Triojiian headland on the coast of Caria, Apollo being the tutelary deity of the confederation. (Herod, i. 144.) Tho rapid progress made i)y the RJKxiian towns at a comparatively early jieriod is sulliciently attested by their colonies in tiie distant countries of the west. Thus they founded settlements in the Balearic islands, Rhode on tho coast of Spain, Parthenope, Salapia, Siris, and Sybaris in Italy, and Gcla in