Macedon was at an end. Nor did
Cassander give up the Greek cities; so Demetrius was sent to force him to
do so. There was little attempt to resist him; and the Athenians were in
such delight that they called him the Saviour, named a month after him,
lodged him in the Parthenon itself, and caused his image to be carried in
processions among those of the gods themselves. He took so many towns
that his name in history is Poliorketes, or the City-taker, and then he
was sent to gain the isle of Cyprus from Ptolemy. The fleet of
Alexandria was thought the best in the world, but Demetrius defeated it
entirely in the year 306, and in their joy the soldiers called him and
his father both kings, and they put on the diadem of the Shahs of Persia,
making their capital the city they had founded on the Orontes, and
calling it Antigoneia.

Cassander, Ptolemy, Lysimachus, and Seleucus all likewise called
themselves kings. And still the war went on. Demetrius was sent against
the island of Rhodes, which belonged to Ptolemy, and besieged the city a
whole year, but could not take it, and was obliged to make peace with the
islanders at last, and to give them all the machines he had used in the
siege. These they sold for 300 talents, and used the money to make an
enormous brazen statue of Apollo, to stand with one foot on each side of
the entrance of the harbour. Ships in full sail could pass under it, and
few men could grasp its thumb with their arms. It was called the
Colossus of Rhodes, and was counted as the seventh wonder of the world,
the others being the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, the Tomb of Mausolus,
the Lighthouse of Messina, the Walls of Babylon, the Labyrinth of Crete,
and the Pyramids of Egypt. They also consecrated a grove to Ptolemy for
the assistance he had given to them.

Demetrius then went to Greece, and tried to overthrow Cassander, but the
other kings joined against him, and he was obliged to go home, for
Seleucus was threatening Antigoneia. Antigonus and Demetrius collected
their forces, and fought a great battle at Ipsus, where Seleucus brought
trained elephants from India, which had lately begun to be used in
battle, and were found to frighten horses so as to render them quite
unmanageable. Demetrius, however, thought he had gained the victory, but
he rushed on too fast, and left his father unsupported, so that poor old
Antigonus, who was eighty years of age, was shut in by the troops of
Seleucus and ki