Similar gifts were made by Prusias and Mithridates as well as by the other Asiatic princelets of the time, Lysanias, Olympichus, and Limnaeus.
As for towns which contributed, each according to its means, it would be difficult to enumerate them.
So that when one looks at the comparatively recent date of the foundation of the city of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rhodes&groupId=931&placeId=1665">Rhodes</a> and its small beginnings one is very much surprised at the rapid increase of public and private wealth which has taken place in so short a time;
but when one considers its advantageous position and the large influx from abroad of all required to supplement its own resources, one is no longer surprised, but thinks that the wealth of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rhodes&groupId=931&placeId=1665">Rhodes</a> fall short rather of what it should be.
I have said so much on this subject to illustrate in the first place the dignity with which the Rhodians conduct their public affairs — for in this respect they are worthy of all praise and imitation — and secondly the stinginess of the kings of the present day and the meanness of our states and cities, so that a king who gives away four or five talents may not fancy he has done anything very great and expect the same honour and the same affection from the Greeks that former kings enjoyed;
and secondly in order that cities, taking into consideration the value of the gifts formerly bestowed on them, may not now forget themselves so far as to lavish their greatest and most splendid distinctions for the sake of a few mean and paltry benefits,
but may endeavour to maintain the principle of estimating everything at its true value — a principle peculiarly distinctive of the Greek nation.
Walbank Commentary