helepolis

As the Helepolis was pushed towards the city, the Rhodians managed to dislodge some of the metal plates, and Demetrius ordered it withdrawn from battle to protect it from being burned. Following the failure of the siege, the Helepolis along with the other siege engines were abandoned, and the people of Rhodes melted down their metal plating and sold abandoned weapons, using the materials and money to build a statue of their patron god, Helios, the Colossus of Rhodes, which became known as one of the ancient Seven Wonders of the World. Vitruvius offers an alternative version, in which the Rhodians begged Diognetus, once the town architect of Rhodes, to find a way to capture the Helepolis. By cover of night, he had the Rhodians knock a hole through the city wall to channel large amounts of water, mud and sewage onto the area where the Helepolis was expected to attack the following day. Diognetus was successful; the tower was brought forth to the anticipated attack position and became irretrievably stuck in the mire. Once the siege was lifted, the Rhodians sold Demetrius's abandoned siege engines and used the money to erect the enormous Colossus of Rhodes.

Demetrius again used a similar machine in 292 BC against the Thebans in the siege of Thebes and captured the city the following year. In subsequent ages, siege engineers continued to use the name helepolis for moving towers which carried battering rams, as well as for machines for throwing spears and heavy stones. The Byzantines much later used the term helepolis to describe a very different siege engine; the traction trebuchet and later still, the counterweight trebuchet. The first recorded use of this terminology was by Theophylact Simocatta, in describing the siege of Tiflis in the Byzantine–Sassanid War of 602–628.