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When Demetrius was besieging the Rhodians 1 he seized in one of the suburbs a painting of the [p. 77] artist Protogenes in which he portrayed Ialysus. The Rhodians sent a herald to him and besought him to spare the painting. He replied that he would sooner destroy the statues and portraits of his father than that painting. 2 And coming to terms with the Rhodians, he left his great siege-engine, the Citytaker, 3 with them to serve as a token of his prowess and of their courage. 4
1 In 305-304 B.C.
2 The painting was seen by Cicero (Orator, 2 (5)) at Rhodes; later it was carried to Rome and placed in the temple of Peace (Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxxv. 36 (102)).
3 This engine is described by Diodorus, xx. 48, and Plutarch, Life of Demetrius, chap. xxi. (898 B).
4 The story is told by Plutarch in his Life of Demetrius, chap. xxii. (898 E); Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxxv. 36 (105); and Aulus Gellius, xv. 31.
Plutarch. Moralia. with an English Translation by. Frank Cole Babbitt. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1931. 3.
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