supplies of provisions: at one time he sent them 300,000 measures of corn; a few days afterwards Cassandra sent them 100,000 bushels of barley, and Lysimachus 400,000 bushels of corn, and as many of barley: these supplies, the valour of the inhabitants, and the ill success of some new and immense engines, on which Demetrius had mainly depended, at length induced him to raise the siege and make peace with the Rhodians. The Rhodians endeavoured to make up for the time they had lost, and the money they had expended, during their war with Antiochus, by applying themselves entirely to navigation and commerce; so that, according to Polybius, they became masters of the sea, and the most opulent and flourishing state of those times. The next war in which they were engaged was occasioned entirely by their attention and regard to their commercial interests. We have already slightly noticed this war; but in this place it will be proper to go more into detail respecting it. The people of Byzantium determined to lay a toll on all ships that traded to the Euxine, in order to defray an annual tribute which they were obliged to pay to the Greeks. As one of the most important and lucrative branches of the commerce of Rhodes was to the countries lying on this sea, they were much aggrieved by this toll, and endeavoured to persuade the Byzantines to take it off, but in vain. Under these circumstances, they, in conjunction with Prusias, king of Bythinia, declared war against the Byzantines; and while their ally took Hieron, which seems to have been a great mart of the Byzantines, and the resort of most of the merchants trading to these parts, the Rhodians, with a powerful fleet, ravaged their coasts, and seized all their ships trading to the Euxine. The war was at length terminated under the mediation of the king of the Thracian Gauls; the Byzantines agreeing to take off the toll. Their success in this war was counterbalanced by a dreadful earthquake, which threw down the Colossus, destroyed the arsenal, and damaged part of the walls and city. As the Rhodians, however, were much esteemed by most of their neighbours, who found their prosperity intimately connected with the prosperity of Rhodes, they soon recovered from these calamities and losses. Hiero, king of Syracuse, gave them 100 talents, and exempted them from all duties and taxes. Ptolemy gave them also the like sum, besides one million measures of wheat, and timber, etc. requisite for building fifty ships. Antiochus exempted all their vessels, which traded to his ports, from every kind of tax and duty. They received from other princes presents or privileges of equal importance and value; so that, in a very short time, they recovered their former opulence and trade, and rebuilt their walls, etc.