it was this unprecedented and desperate geopolitical situation that led Rhodes to form a military alliance with king attalus I of pergamum – an unprecedented act for rhodian policy , as it was for attalid policy . second , somewhat later , the situation led the rhodians to reverse completely their previous stance of opposition to any large roman intervention in greek affairs , and rome to plead for just such intervention . we can even hazard a guess as to the specific circumstances that forced that rhodian decision to send an embassy to rome : for the initial stage of the war against Philip did not go well , leading to Philip's victory over the rhodian fleet off lade near miletus . long mode the attractive suggestion that was the rhodian defeat at lade , a defeat that appeared to establish Philip's naval dominance throughout the southeast aegeab , that saused the rhodian government in desperation to dispatch envoys to italy for help . the new information from the rhodian inscription from bargylia adds a new element to our understanding of rhodian calculations : for the inscription , which depicts Philip turning over a conquered Ptolemaic town the advancing army of Antiochus , shows that the rhodians knew in summer 201 just how closely phlilip and Antiochus III were now cooperating . it is true that the pergamene – rhodian war effort against Philip went better later on , that even though Philip