The Siege of Rhodes: When Demetrius Built a City-Killer

In 305 BCE, Demetrius Poliorcetes — son of Antigonus, king of Asia — laid siege to the island city of Rhodes with an army of 40,000 men and the largest siege engine ever built: the Helepolis, a nine-story bronze-plated tower on wheels. This episode follows the year-long siege through the eyes of the Rhodians, whose engineers fought fire with innovation, flooding the ground to bog down the tower and launching counter-mines. We explore how the siege ended not with a conquest but a negotiated peace, and how the Rhodians melted down the abandoned siege equipment to fund the Colossus of Rhodes. Along the way, we meet the forgotten figures: the Rhodian admiral Ameinias, the shipbuilders who broke Demetrius' blockade, and the fortress city that became a model for Hellenistic military architecture. A story of grit, ingenuity, and the limits of overwhelming force. #Rhodes #DemetriusPoliorcetes #Helepolis #SiegeOfRhodes #HellenisticAge #AntigonidDynasty #ColossusOfRhodes #Ameinias #MacedonianSiegeCraft #HellenisticWarfare #Diadochi #AncientEngineering #History #FexingoHistory #MilitaryHistory #NavalHistory #Fortification #AncientGreece Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo