Strabo's description, occupied a large space in relation to the rest of the city, and, like those of Carthage and Halicarnassus, were probably screened from observation by high walls and roofs. Any curious interloper found within these forbidden precincts at Rhodes or at Carthage was liable to the punishment of death.
Aristides, in describing the harbours, specially praises their convenience in reference to the prevailing winds. They are so disposed, he says, as if for the express purpose of receiving the ships of Ionia, Caria, Cyi^rus, and Egypt. Towering above these harbours stood the famous bronze Colossus, which, from its position on the shore, was probably intended to serve as a sea-mark and a lighthouse. So vast a surface of polished metal reflecting the bright sky of Rhodes, must have been visible from a great distance at sea, and must have been to the Rhodian mariner an object as familiar as the statue of Athene Promachos was to those who sailed past the Attic Sunium.
Such was the character of Rhodes as far as can be gathered from the scanty notices in ancient authors. Vague and incomplete as these notices are, they suggest to us an idea of the ancient city far more definite than can be obtained by a visit to its site, of which the main features are so obliterated that the few vestiges which remain can only be detected after long study.
It will be convenient, before putting together these scanty remains of ancient Rhodes, to give a short description of the city built by the Knights,
