Editing Colossus of Rhodes (section)

==Destruction of the remains==
The ultimate fate of the remains of the statue is uncertain. Rhodes has two serious earthquakes per century, owing to its location on the seismically unstable [[Hellenic arc]]. [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] mentions in the ''[[Description of Greece|Descriptio Graeciae]]'', writing ca. 174, how the city was so devastated by an earthquake that the [[sibyl]] oracle foretelling its destruction was considered fulfilled.<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] |title=Descriptio Graeciae |at=II.vii.1, VIII.xliii.4}}</ref> This means the statue could not have survived for long if it had ever been repaired. By the 4th century [[Historiography of Christianization of the Roman Empire|Rhodes was Christianized]], so any further maintenance or rebuilding, if there ever was any before, on an ancient pagan statue is unlikely. The metal would probably have been used for coins and maybe also tools by the time of the [[Arab–Byzantine wars|Arab wars]], especially during earlier conflicts such as the [[Byzantine–Sasanian wars|Sasanian wars]].<ref name=Conrad-1996>{{cite journal |last=Conrad |first=L.I. |date= July 1996 |title= The Arabs and the Colossus |journal= Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society |volume= 6 |issue= 2 |pages=165–187 |doi=10.1017/S1356186300007173 |jstor=25183179 |s2cid= 163298319}}</ref>{{rp|style=ama|pp= 179–186}}

The onset of [[Early Caliphate navy|Islamic naval incursions]] against the [[Byzantine Empire]] gave rise to a dramatic account of what became of the Colossus. In 653, an Arab force under Muslim general [[Mu'awiya I]] raided Rhodes, and according to the ''Chronicle'' of [[Theophanes the Confessor]],<ref name="Constantine-VII-xx–xxi"/> the remains of the statue constituted part of the booty, being melted down and sold to a Jewish merchant of [[Edessa]] who loaded the bronze onto 900&nbsp;camels.<ref name=Clarendon-1997/> The same story is recorded by [[Bar Hebraeus]], writing in [[Syriac alphabet|Syriac]] in the 13th century in Edessa<ref name=Budge-1932/> (after the Arab pillage of Rhodes): "And a great number of men hauled on strong ropes which were tied around the brass Colossus which was in the city and pulled it down. And they weighed from it three thousand loads of [[Corinthian brass]], and they sold it to a certain Jew from Emesa" (the Syrian city of [[Homs]]).<ref name=Budge-1932>{{cite book |last=Budge |first=E.A. Wallis |year=1932 |title=The Chronography of Gregory Abu'l-Faraj |volume=I |page=98 |publisher=APA – Philo Pres |place=Amsterdam, NL }}</ref>

Ultimately, Theophanes is the sole source of this account, and all other sources can be traced to him.<ref name=Conrad-1996/>{{rp|style=ama|pp= 169–174}} As Theophanes' source was Syriac, it may have had vague information about a raid and attributed the statue's demise to it, not knowing much more. Or the Arab destruction and the purported sale to a Jew may have originated as a powerful metaphor for [[Daniel 2|Nebuchadnezzar's dream]] of the destruction of a great statue.<ref name=Conrad-1996/>{{rp|style=ama|pp= 165–187}}

Given the likely previous neglect of the remains and various opportunities for authorities to have repurposed the metal, as well as the fact that, Islamic incursions notwithstanding, the island remained an important Byzantine strategic point well into the ninth century, an Arabic raid is unlikely to have found much, if any, remaining metal to carry away. For these reasons, as well as the negative perception of the [[Early Muslim conquests|Arab conquests]], L.I. Conrad considers Theophanes' story of the dismantling of the statue as likely propaganda, like the destruction of the [[Library of Alexandria]].<ref name=Conrad-1996/>{{rp|style=ama|pp= 179–186}}