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Pergamum, Turkey, 300AD

Pergamum, Ancient Greece



Pergamon was a rich and powerful ancient Greek city in Mysia. During the Hellenistic period, it became the capital of the Kingdom of Pergamon in 281–133 BC under the Attalid dynasty, who transformed it into one of the major cultural centres of the Greek world. Many remains of its monuments can still be seen and especially the masterpiece of the Pergamon Altar. Pergamon was the northernmost of the seven churches of Asia cited in the New Testament Book of Revelation.

The city is centered on a 335-metre-high (1,099 ft) mesa of andesite, which formed its acropolis. This mesa falls away sharply on the north, west, and east sides, but three natural terraces on the south side provide a route up to the top.

Settlement of Pergamon can be detected as far back as the late 8th century BC. Pergamon was captured by the Persians and is first mentioned in Greek sources when the march of the Ten Thousand under Xenophon's command ended at Pergamon in 400/399 BC. The attack was unsuccesful and Pergamon remained as part of the Persian empire until Alexander the Great retook the area around 330 BC.

Lysimachus, King of Thrace, took possession in 301 BC, and the town was enlarged by his lieutenant Philetaerus. In 281 BC the kingdom of Thrace collapsed and Philetaerus became an independent ruler, founding the Attalid dynasty. His family ruled Pergamon from 281 until 133 BC. The Attalids became some of the most loyal supporters of Rome in the Hellenistic world. Attalus I allied with Rome against Philip V of Macedon, during the first and second Macedonian Wars. In the Roman–Seleucid War, Pergamon joined the Romans' coalition against Antiochus III, and was rewarded with almost all the former Seleucid domains in Asia Minor at the Peace of Apamea in 188 BC.

Under the Attalids, Pergamon reached its apex and was rebuilt on a monumental scale. The Attalids' goal was to create a second Athens, a cultural and artistic hub of the Greek world. They remodeled their Acropolis after the Acropolis in Athens, and the Library of Pergamon was renowned as second only to the Library of Alexandria. Pergamon was also a flourishing center for the production of parchment, whose name is a corruption of pergamenos, meaning "from Pergamon".

When Attalus III died without an heir in 133 BC, he bequeathed the whole of Pergamon to Rome. This was challenged by Aristonicus, who claimed to be Attalus III's brother and led an armed uprising against the Romans. For a period he enjoyed success, defeating and killing the Roman consul P. Licinius Crassus and his army, but he was defeated in 129 BC.

Under Roman rule, Pergamon continued to flourish, and by the middle of the 2nd century Pergamon was one of the largest cities in the empire, with around 200,000 inhabitants. Galen, the most famous physician of antiquity aside from Hippocrates, was born at Pergamon and received his early training here.

The economic strength of Pergamon remained for another 300 years, until the city was almost completely destroyed in an earthquake in 262AD, shortly thereafter the city was badly sacked by the invading Goths, the survivors abandoned the city and it was reduced to a small village.

In late antiquity, it experienced a limited economic recovery but never regained the height of its past. When Emperor Theodore IIvisited Pergamon in 1250, he was shown the house of Galen, but noted that the theatre had been mostly destroyed and except for the walls, the monuments of the Attalids and the Romans were only plundered ruins by his time.

Centuries later the Ottomans founded the new city of Bergama which now lies in present-day Turkey, south east of the ancient city of Pergamon.