Diodorus on the Siege of Rhodes

In 305, Antigonus Monophthalmus, one of the Diadochi (successors of Alexander the Great), sent out his son Demetrius to capture the city and island of Rhodes. It controlled the entrance to the Aegean Sea, and its capture was necessary if Antigonus wanted to liberate Greece and conquer Macedonia.

Diodorus of Sicily tells about the siege in his World History 20.81 and 20.100. The translation was made by M.M. Austin.

Book
20
Chapter
81
100
Section
1
2
3
4

The Siege of Rhodes

[20.81.1] After this year Euxenippus became archon at Athensnote ... During his year of office war broke out between the Rhodians and Antigonus for more or less the following reasons.

[20.81.2] The city of Rhodes had a powerful navy and enjoyed the finest government in Greece, and so was an object of competition between the dynasts and kings, as each sought to win it over to his friendship. Seeing ahead where its advantage lay, it concluded friendship with each of the protagonists separately and took no part in the wars the dynasts fought against each other.note

[20.81.3] And so it happened that it was honored by each of them with royal presents, and prospered greatly by remaining at peace for a long time. It had reached such a peak of power that it took up on its own, on behalf of the Greeks, the war against the pirates and cleared the sea of that scourge. Alexander, the most powerful man in human memory, honored it above all cities, deposited there his will concerning the whole kingdomnote and in general admired it and enhanced its preeminence.

[20.81.4] The Rhodians, then, by establishing friendship with all the dynasts, kept themselves immune from any justifiable complaint, but their sympathies inclined most towards Ptolemy. For it so happened that they derived the majority of their revenues from the merchants sailing to Egypt and that in general their city was sustained by that kingdom.

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