COLOSSUS, a statue of enormous or gigantic size. The most eminent of this kind was the colossus of Rhodes, one of the wonders of the world, a brazen statue of Apollo, so high, that ships passed with full sails betwixt its legs. It was the work manship of Chares, a disciple of Lysippus, who spent twelve years in making it : it was at length overthrown by an earth quake, B. C.224. after having stood about sixty-six years. Its height was a hundred and five feet : there were few people who could encompass its thumb, which is said to have been a fathom in circumference, and its ringers were larger than most sta tues. It was hollow, and in its cavities were large stones employed by the artifi cer to 'counterbalance its weight, and ren der it steady on its pedestal.
On occasion of the damage which the city of Rhodes sustained by the above mentioned earthquake, the inhabitants sent ambassadors to all the princes and states of Greek origin, in order to solicit assistance for repairing it ; and they ob tained large sums, particularly from the kings of Egypt, Macedon, Syria, Pontus, and Bythinia, which amounted to a sum five times exceeding the damages which they had suffered. But instead of setting up the Colossus again, for which purpose the greatest part of it was given, they pretended that the oracle of Delphos had forbidden it, and converted the mo ney to other uses. Accordingly the Co
lossus lay neglected on the ground for the space of 894 years, at the expiration of which period, or about the year of our Lord 653, or 672, Moawyas, the 6th caliph or emperor of the Saracens, made himself master of Rhodes, and afterwards sold their statue, reduced to fragments, to a Jewish merchant, who loaded 900 camels with the metal, so that, allowing 800 pounds weight for each load, the brass of the Colossus, after the diminution which it had sustained by rust, and pro bably by theft, amounted to 720 thousand pounds weight. The basis that support ed it was of a triangular figure : its ex tremities were sustained by sixty pillars of marble. There was a winding stair case to go up to the top of it ; from whence one might discover Syria, and the ships that went to Egypt, in a great looking-glass, that was hung about the neck of the statue. This enormous sta tue was not the only one that attracted attention in the city of Rhodes. Pliny reckons 100 other colossuses not so large, which rose majestically in its different quarters.