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For nearly a century and a half, Pergamon was one of the great powers of the Greek world. Its kings defeated the Celtic raiders of Galatia, assembled a library that rivaled Alexandria's, built a spectacular series of temples and palaces, and brought the Romans into Asia Minor. The story of the city and kingdom of Pergamon begins as the whole Hellenistic epic began with the conquests of Alexander the Great. Alexander swept across Asia Minor, modern Turkey, in little more than a year, replacing Persian sat traps with his own governors. One of these men, Antigonist the Oneeyed, seized most of Asia after Alexander's death. He held the region until he fell still fighting at the ripe
old age of 81 at the battle of Ipsis. Western Asia Minor was then allotted to Lysmicus, another of Alexander's former generals. It was under Liysmicus that the city of Pergamon first came to prominence. It was first and foremost a spectacular natural citadel rising nearly a thousand ft above the surrounding plane. In the mid 4th century BC, a Persian sat trap had based himself in Pergamon during an unsuccessful rebellion. Later, Alexander's illegitimate son Heracles had taken refuge there. Lysmicus made Pergamon one of his chief strongholds in Asia Minor. He established a treasury in the city which eventually contained 9,000 talents, approximately half a million pounds of silver. To guard the
fortress and its treasure, appointed Philotirus, son of Adelus, a trusted lieutenant. We know little about Filitus. We know that his father was Greek, but his mother was not. We know that he was a unic and we know that he had a keen eye for political opportunity since he switched his allegiance to Salucus, ruler of Syria and Central Asia shortly before the battle in which Lysmicus lost his life and kingdom. When Salucus was assassinated the following year, Philitus ransomed the king's body, cremated it at Pergamon, and sent the ashes on to Antioch, confirming his loyalty to the Salyukid dynasty. For the next two decades, Philitus quietly built up the strength of his fftom centered on the fertile valley of the Kaiikus River. He built sanctuaries,
sent gifts to local Greek cities, and began to transform Pergamon into a monumental capital. Unable to have children of his own, he adopted his nephew, Ees, who succeeded him in 263 BC. Shortly afterward, Ees defeated Antiochus, his sucided overlord, in battle, winning a measure of independence. But it was only under Adalus I's adopted son and successor that Pergamon became the center of a kingdom. Early in his reign, Adalus won a spectacular or at least spectacularly well publicized victory over the Galatians Gauls who had recently settled in Asia Minor. This triumph gave Adalas the prestige she needed to claim the title of king. It also allowed him to pose as a defender of Asia's Greek cities and represent
Pergamon as the new Athens Bulgar against the barbarians. Over decades of warfare, King Adalus gained, lost, and finally recovered control over most of the Sukid territories in Asia Minor. He built a stoa at Delelfi, washed the island of Aena, and crucially established an alliance with the Roman Republic. The Roman alliance bore fruit during the reign of Atlas's successor, Ees II. When the Salucids under Antiochus III threatened to conquer his kingdom, Ees urged the Romans to intervene. This eventually the Romans did, driving the Saluceds beyond the Taurus mountains. In the aftermath, Ees successfully lobbyed the Senate for control over most of Asia Minor. Despite his expanded territory, Ees faced many challenges. One of his rivals, Pucius of
Bethnia, was advised by Hannibal, who won a naval victory by hurling pots filled with venomous snakes onto the decks of Pergamine ships. Humanes himself was severely injured by Macedonian assassins who rolled boulders down on the king as he rode through a mountain pass. Under Eum, the city of Pergamon became an imposing royal metropolis. The citadel received its definitive fortifications. A vast gymnasium complex was laid out on the lower slopes and the great altar of Zeus, the supreme achievement of Hellenistic art, rose in the shadow of the royal palaces. History enthusiasts everywhere have the same problem. You spend your evenings reading about Rome or the Reformation, but your shirt just has some faded band logo. Echos of Antiquity, today's
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Returning to our topic, Pergamon continued to flourish under Adalus II, Ees's brother and successor. Like Esalas pursued a policy of cultural diplomacy, building the huge stoa that now houses the museum in the Athenian Agura. He strengthened Pergamine rule in southern Asia Minor, founding the city of Adela, modern Antalya on the Mediterranean coast. And in every aspect of his foreign policy, he carefully maintained the alliance with Rome. The final king of Pergamon, Adelus III, was a strange and reclusive man said to have spent much of his time in his gardens cultivating the plants he used to concoct both medicines and poisons.
He wrote a treatise on agriculture that was quoted for centuries by Roman authorities. He appears, however, to have been more successful as an author than as a ruler. Unexpectedly, after a reign of only 5 years, Adalus III died. Lacking children or obvious heirs, he left his kingdom to the Roman people. Aristoonicus, the late king's half brother, immediately launched a revolt. From conviction or desperation, he promised freedom to every slave who joined him, calling his followers people of the sun after a utopian philosophical tract. But the Romans crushed his revolt and Aristonicus was strangled in Rome's mammortine prison.
Although Pergamon was never as rich or powerful as the Talmic and Saluced kingdoms, its legacy was equally enduring. Eager to associate themselves with the legitimizing power of Greek culture, the kings of Pergamon built up a library reputed to contain 200,000 volumes, second only to the collection in Alexandria. Many of these books were written on parchment, which came to be so closely associated with Pergamon that the Latin word for parchment was Pergamina. Peraman remained a cultural center for centuries. Galen, the Roman doctor whose works defined western and Arab medicine, was a native of the city. Pergeamine sculptures gave definitive shape to the emotional and expressive qualities of
Hellenistic art. The great altar of Zeus, now partially reconstructed in Berlin's Peraman Museum, epitomizes their achievement. The famous giganttomaki freeze depicts the primordial battle of the gods and giants on a scale unprecedented and never again achieved in Greek art. Pergamine sculpture impressed the Romans who commissioned copies of such masterpieces as the dying Gaul now in the capital museums. In some ways, Pergamont set the tone for the whole course of Roman art, not least by establishing the tradition of copying Greek masterpieces. During the Renaissance, the rediscovery of the famous Laquan group, almost certainly inspired by a Pergamine original, profoundly influenced Michelangelo, Raphael, and generations of later artists.
The most important legacy of Pergamon, however, was political. Before Adalus III bequeafd his kingdom to the Roman people, it was not guaranteed that the Romans would advance eastward beyond Greece. The king's bequest ensured that they would and that the kingdom of Pergamon would become the province of Asia, soon to be one of the wealthiest parts of the Roman world. Eventually, the former territories of Pergamon became the Byzantine heartland. For half a millennium, it was the fertile fields and tough peasant soldiers of Anatolia that staved off the collapse of the Eastern Roman Empire. And in that sense, just as Rome had once redeemed the kingdom of Pergamon, Pergamon finally saved Rome.
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