Nearly three centuries after the disaster, Pliny saw the pieces of the Colossus still lying where it fell: “And even as it lies there prostrate,” he reports, “it stirs to wonder. Few men can clasp its thumb with their arms; the fingers alone are greater than most statues; vast caverns yawn in its shattered limbs; within one sees blocks of stone by whose weight the builder established it.”
The Colossus
cost about $500,000, which was obtained from the sale of the engines of war presented to the Rhodians by a man named Demetrios Poliorketes, after they had made him give up the siege of their city, 303 B.C.
There were several thousand statues in Rhodes but none so large as the Colossus, which is said to have weighed 720,900 pounds. The famous Laocoön and the Farnese Bull were both modelled in Rhodes. In Roman time Rhodes was thought the fairest city in the world and is described by historians as superior to all other cities of its era, for the beauty and convenience of its ports, streets, walls and public edifices, all of which were profusely adorned with works of art. Among the students in its university were Brutus, Cassius, Cæsar and Cicero, and the first Greek grammar, the one which became the model of Greek and Latin grammars, was written in this city, so you find that Rhodes has played a very important part in the world. But the island of Rhodes is no more a powerful state; it is now a possession of Turkey, and is ruled by a pasha, who holds office for life, governing also the adjoining islands belonging to Turkey, and collects the revenues. We will have interesting news from time to time from this same island, for one of the newspapers has stated that a Danish scientific expedition will go to discover all that remains of the Colossus of Rhodes. You must be on the lookout, therefore, to know how much they find of the statue and how the pieces look; then you will wish to compare your Colossus of Rhodes with the facts stated and any pictures which may be published on the subject to see how closely your Apollo resembles the original “Wonder” of the world.
Cardboard Pharos of Alexandria