The Largest Siege Tower Ever Built — and the City That Beat It (Rhodes, 305 BC)

In 305 BC, Demetrius the Besieger rolled the largest war machine in history toward the walls of Rhodes: the Helepolis, the "Taker of Cities" — nine stories of iron-plated timber, bristling with catapults, moved by more than three thousand men. He had two hundred warships, a vast army, and the most advanced siege technology on earth. He came to make an example of a wealthy trading city that had refused to join his war. This is the story of the year-long siege that followed — the giant tower, the crescent wall built inside the walls, the flooded ground that bogged the great machine, the night the enemy broke into the city itself, and the twist no one saw coming: the defeated Besieger left his war machines behind, and the Rhodians sold them to build the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. Engineering can breach a wall. It cannot conquer a will. Sources: Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica, Book 20 (the siege of Rhodes, the Helepolis, Demetrius Poliorcetes, the Rhodian defense) — the principal ancient account Ancient tradition on the Colossus of Rhodes (Chares of Lindos) and the funding of its construction from the abandoned siege equipment Ancient tradition on the title "Soter" granted to Ptolemy I by the Rhodians Modern scholarship on the Wars of the Diadochi and Hellenistic siege warfare Pronunciation guide (for narration): Helepolis — "heh-LEH-poh-lis" · Poliorcetes — "pol-ee-or-SEE-teez" · Demetrius — "deh-MEE-tree-us" · Diadochi — "dy-AD-oh-kai" · Antigonus — "an-TIG-oh-nus" · Ptolemy — "TOL-eh-mee" · Rhodes — "rohdz" · Diodorus Siculus — "dy-oh-DOR-us SIK-yoo-lus" · Chares of Lindos — "KAH-reez of LIN-dos".