History

    Rhodes, Modern Greek Ródos, also spelled Ródhos, island (nísos), the largest of the Dodecanese (Modern Greek: Dodekánisa) group, southeastern Greece, and the most easterly in the Aegean Sea, separated by the Strait of Marmara from Turkey. It constitutes a dímos (municipality) within the South Aegean (Nótio Aigaío) periféreia (region). Rhodes (Ródos) city, on the northern tip of the island, is the largest city of the South Aegean periféreia. The island is traversed northwest-southeast by hills that reach 3,986 feet (1,215 metres) in the summit of Atáviros. The peak commands a view of the coast of Asia Minor, the Dodecanese archipelago, and, on clear days, the summit of Mount Ídi (Psíloreítis) on Crete (Kríti). In antiquity the island was infested with snakes, and the name may derive from erod, Phoenician for “snake.” Farmers still wear leather boots for protection from a surviving poisonous species. Winter temperatures average 50° F (10° C), and constant winds account for the many windmills on Rhodes. The valleys provide rich pasture, while the plains produce a variety of grains.
    Minoan remains at Ialysus are evidence of early Cretan influence. With the collapse of the Minoan civilization (c. 1500–1400 BCE), Rhodes became a powerful independent kingdom with a late Bronze Age culture. In historic times Rhodes was occupied by Dorians, mainly from Árgos, c. 1100–1000. The Rhodian cities of Lindus, Ialysus, and Camirus, along with Cos, Cnidus, and Halicarnassus, belonged to the Dorian Hexapolis (league of six cities) by which the Greeks protected themselves in Asia Minor. The Dorian cities of Rhodes traded throughout the Mediterranean and founded colonies in Italy, Sicily, Spain, and Asia Minor and dominated several Aegean islands.
    During the Classical period, Rhodian affiliations vacillated between Athens, Sparta, and Persia, in attempts to preserve a balance of power. Rhodes supported Rome during its war with Philip V of Macedonia, and its fleet participated in Rome’s war against Antiochus the Great of Syria. Roman competition in Asia Minor eroded Rhodian income, however, and the island steadily declined after Rome made Delos a free port c. 166. During the triumvirate of Antony, Octavian, and Lepidus (43 BCE), the conspirator Gaius Cassius plundered Rhodes for refusal to support him. Though it continued for another century as a free city it never recovered its former prosperity; in about 227 BCE a severe earthquake devastated the island.
    The history of Rhodes under Byzantine rule (after 395 CE) is uneventful. In 653–658 and 717–718 it was occupied by the Saracens, and the various Crusades used Rhodes as a port of staging and supply. After 1309 the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem (Knights Hospitallers) converted Rhodes into an almost impregnable fortress and built a powerful fleet for protection of the southern Mediterranean sea routes against the Turks. The Knights evacuated Rhodes in 1523 after an honourable capitulation, ending two centuries of defiance of the Turks. The island gradually declined as the result of pestilence, emigration, and harsh Turkish administration, suffering severely during the War of Greek Independence (1821–29). In 1912 Rhodes was taken from Turkey by Italy. Under the Allied peace treaty with Italy in 1947, the island was awarded to Greece.
    In the Classical age, Rhodes was famous as a centre of painting and sculpture and had a noted school of eclectic oratory at which the Romans Cato, Julius Caesar, and Lucretius were students. Rhodian sculptors were prolific. Among extant works is the Laocöon group executed by Polydorus, Athenodorus, and Agisandrus. The island has yielded an array of artifacts from the Mycenaean and later periods, but no Mycenaean palaces have been unearthed as in Crete and the Peloponnese (Pelopónnisos). Outstanding among the ruins of Lindus is the temple, or sanctuary, of Athena Lindia, which dates from the 5th to 3rd century BCE.
    The Italian occupation (1912–43) brought paved roads, public works construction, and considerable archaeological activity, including the restoration of ancient and medieval monuments. With Crete and Athens (Athína), Rhodes enjoys huge year-round tourism, which has brought great prosperity. The economy is supplemented by the production of red wine, grain, figs, pomegranates, and oranges. Pop. (2001) 115,334; (2011) 115,490.
    Dodecanese, Modern Greek Dodekánisa, group of islands in the Aegean Sea, off the southwestern coast of Turkey in southeastern Greece. The islands constituted a nomós (department) until 2011, when local government in Greece was reorganized and the islands were divided among four new perifereiakés enótites (regional units) in the South Aegean (Modern Greek: Nótio Aigaío) periféreia. The name Dodecanese means “12 islands.” The term has been applied at various times to groups differently composed and numbering more than 12. The main islands of the Dodecanese group, with their Italian names in parentheses, are: Kárpathos (Scarpanto), Pátmos (Patmo), Kásos (Caso), Astipálaia (Stampalia), Lipsoí (Lisso), Léros (Lero), Kálimnos (Calino), Nísuros (Nisiro), Tílos (Piscopi), Chálki (Calchi), Sými (Simi), Rhodes (Rodi), and Cos (Coo; Modern Greek: Kos) and the outlying Kastellórizo (Castelrosso). Their land area is 1,031 square miles (2,670 square km). (See also Astipálaia; Cos; Kálimnos; Kárpathos; Kastellórizo; Léros; Pátmos; Rhodes.)
    The islands’ substantial economic deficit has been cut gradually by increasing tourism. Except for Rhodes and Cos, the Dodecanese suffer from deforestation and poor drainage. Their crops—fruit, tobacco, olives, and wheat—have varied from marginal to enough to export, and the principal nonagricultural occupations of the islanders—fishing, shipping, sponge diving—are still underdeveloped. The islands have benefited, however, from the remarkable development of tourism in the principal islands of the group, particularly Rhodes.
    The islands were a part of the ancient Greek world, and Rhodes and Cos have long histories. In neither the Hellenistic nor the Roman Empire periods did the islands function as a single political or geographic unit. In the Byzantine Empire the theme (province) of the Dodecanese included the Cyclades islands as well.
    The Dodecanese group came to be fixed at 12 islands during their long period of Turkish administration, which began in the 16th century. The Turks recognized 12 of the islands, “the 12 Sporades,” as being entitled to special treatment since they had voluntarily submitted to Turkish rule. But the larger and richer islands of Rhodes and Cos had submitted involuntarily to Turkish rule and were given no special privileges. Turkish rule of the islands lasted until May 1912, when during the Italo-Turkish War Italian forces seized the islands—except Ikaría (which was occupied by Greek forces in November) and Kastellórizo (which remained Turkish).
    Secret treaties on the future of the islands, drawn up by the Allies during and after World War I, led to a dispute between Italy and Greece over which nation should have jurisdiction over the islands. In 1919 an agreement was reached whereby Italy would cede the Dodecanese to Greece with the exception of Rhodes, which was to have broad local autonomy. Subsequent Italian governments, however, unilaterally denounced the accord with Greece and refused to carry it out, and Italy used a special article in the Treaty of Sèvres (1920), whereby Turkey had ceded to Italy all rights and titles to the Dodecanese and Kastellórizo, to enforce its claim on the Dodecanese. Italian sovereignty over the islands was confirmed by the Treaty of Lausanne (1923).
    Italian rule over the Dodecanese was firm and efficient but never popular. Italian became the official language, and in 1925 the Dodecanesians were obliged to take Italian citizenship. In response to such restrictions, significant numbers of islanders migrated to the United States. The generation of islanders that remained under that regime was largely bilingual as a result. After World War II the islands temporarily came under British occupation, with Greek participation. The conference of foreign ministers in Paris agreed in 1946 that the islands should pass to Greece; they were formally ceded in 1947.