Modern perceptions of classical Greece are almost invariably based on Athens and Sparta, but there are perhaps few areas as consistently undervalued as the island of Rhodes. Although solidly part of the Greek world for as long as there has been one, Rhodes, located just off the coast of Asia Minor, was also from its earliest times a port opening to the civilizations of the Eastern Mediterranean, and Rhodes was involved in every significant moment in ancient Greek history. The island often played a key role in world events that far surpassed its small size and at one point even stood side by side with much larger kingdoms as one of the main powers in the Greek world.

In the Archaic and Classical periods, Rhodes often stood as a prime exemplar of the highs and lows of its fellow Greek cities, and as the largest island of the Dodecanese, Rhodes’ history is largely in line with that of the rest of those islands. Rhodes was first colonized by the Greeks of the Dorian tribe around the eighth century BCE, and it aligned with its fellow Dorian cities on the surrounding islands and the mainland of Asia Minor to form the so-called Doric Hexapolis. After the Ionian revolt near the end of the sixth century BCE, Rhodes, along with other islands, was in the path of the Persian fleet that crossed the Aegean to face off against the Greeks in the Persian Wars.

In the aftermath of the Persian Wars, along with the rest of the islands and with Greek Asia Minor, Rhodes was subsumed into the Athenian alliance, which would soon become the Athenian Empire. However, Athens would soon lose its power, and around the end of the Peloponnesian War against Sparta, its hold on its allies would wane.