a statue of enormous or gigantic size. The most eminent of this kind was the Colossus of Rhodes, a statue of Apollo, so high that ships passed with full sails betwixt its legs. It was the workmanship of Chares, a disciple of Lysippus, who spent 12 years in making it: it was at length overthrown by an earthquake, after having stood 1360 years. Its height was six score and six feet: there were few people who could fathom its thumb, &c. When the Saracens became possessed of the island, the statue was found prostrate on the ground: they sold it to a Jew, who loaded 900 camels with the brass.

The basis that supported it was a triangular figure; its extremities were sustained with 63 pillars of marble. There was a winding staircase to go up to the top of it, from whence one might discover Syria, and the ships that went into Egypt, in a great looking glass, that was hung about the neck of the statue. Among the antiquities of Rome, there are seven famous colossuses; two of Jupiter, as many of Apollo, one of Nero, one of Domitian, and one of the Sun.