The text discusses the remarkable colossus of the Sun at Rhodes, created by Chares of Lindos, a student of Lysippos. It explains the construction and later destruction of the statue by an earthquake, highlighting its enormous size and the awe it inspired even in its fallen state. The statue remained undisturbed for centuries until it was finally sold by a Saracen Caliph to a Jewish merchant.
Theory
The hand, yet no hurricane could overthrow it. It is said that the artist anticipated this inconvenience by placing a column at a short distance from the statue, on the side where the wind needed to be mainly broken. The size and difficulty of moving it prevented Fab. Verrucosius from touching it when he transported Hercules from the same place, which is now at the Capitol.
The most admired of all the colossi was the one of the Sun at Rhodes; it was made by Chares of Lindos, a student of Lysippos; this figure was seventy cubits high. It was overturned fifty-six years later by an earthquake: yet fallen as it is, one cannot help but admire it. Few men could clasp its thumb; its fingers are larger than most statues: the gaps in its broken limbs resemble the opening of vast caves. Inside are stones of extreme size, which weighed it down on its base. It is said it took twelve years to make, and cost 300 talents (1), which was the price of the supplies that King Demetrius left in front of the city when he lifted the siege, weary of its length. Pliny, book XXXIV, chapter VII, section xviii.
This colossus remained fallen as it was without being touched, for 894 years, at the end of which, in the year of Jesus Christ 672, Moawias, the sixth Caliph or Emperor of the Saracens, having taken Rhodes, sold it to a Jewish Merchant, who was in charge of it for nine hundred
(1) One million four hundred and ten thousand pounds.
Translation Notes:
"cubits" - an ancient unit of length based on the forearm from elbow to fingertip. "talents" - units of currency in ancient times, often referring to large sums.