The Bronze God of Rhodes

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I am Chares of Lindos, who built the Colossus of Rhodes. Stranger, as you look upon this mighty eidolon of glowing bronze, you may think: Happy Chares! As long as that great statue stands, the glory of his name will remain green.

But will it? Time buries all. Who now knows the name of him who built the gigantic pyramid of King Souphis, which rises in gleaming majesty from the desert sands above the Nile?

Nor is the question solely one of my personal credit. My statue also honors the people of Rhodes for their heroic resistance to the forces of lawless greed and tyrannical power. It honors them for proving that, in this world of sprawling empires and royal rapacity, the spirit of free, self-governing Hellenes, living under laws that they themselves have made, still lives.

With the ever-widening spread of letters and libraries in the world, it has become the fashion for men of mark to set down their personal recollections. Therefore, lest the honor due my city-state and my statue wither like an anemone in the summer sun, I shall write an account of the deadly struggle that led up to the construction of the Colossus. Perhaps when, as the Chaldeans prophesy, Rhodes shall have sunk back into the sea which gave her birth, this memoir shall still be copied by scribbling slaves, and the glory of Chares the Lindian and of the city which he adorned shall live on in the minds of men.

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