Pergamum

Pergamon (Bergama)

A city in Mysia (northwestern Asia Minor), situated on a ridge fifteen miles from the Aegean Sea (on which it was served by the port of Elaea [Kazıkbaǧları]) at a strategic point commanding the rich agricultural valley of the river Caicus (Bakir Çayı), of which two tributaries, the Selinus (Bergama Çayı) and the Cetius (Kastel Çayı), flanked the habitation area on either side.

Pergamum began to be important under Philetaerus, a eunuch of Macedonian (?) and Paphlagonian parentage who, after serving under two of Alexander the Great's successors, deserted to a third, Seleucus I Nicator, with an enormous treasure (282) and ruled the town under Seleucid overlordship for nineteen years, gaining prestige from his resistance to Gaulish invaders whom he propelled onward to their future homes in the central part of Asia Minor. Eumenes I (263–241), with Ptolemaic help, threw off Seleucid sovereignty. Attalus I Soter (241–197), who assumed the title of king and gave the Attalid dynasty its name, won a famous victory over the Galatians (230), and cooperated with Rome in its second war against Philip V of Macedonia (200–197).

Eumenes II Soter (197–160/159) vigorously continued his predecessors' efforts to create a magnificent, highly cultured capital (of which the sculpture, in particular, influenced the entire Greek world), and exploited his country's resources of silver, grain, woollen textiles and parchment. He also secured large territorial gains from the Romans after their victory over the Seleucid Antiochus III the Great (190–9), but subsequently lost the favor of Rome; although his brother Attalus II Philadelphus (160/159–138) contrived to regain its good-will.

The last, eccentric, Attalid monarch, Attalus III Philometor (138–133), bequeathed his kingdom to the Romans, whereupon, putting down a formidable revolt by Aristonicus (133–130), they converted the whole territory into the province of Asia, thus transforming their own economy by its great wealth. The city Pergamum was declared free, but in 88 became, for a time, the headquarters of the hostile king Mithridates VI of Pontus. In 29 Octavian (the future Augustus) authorized the Pergamene Greeks to dedicate a temple to Rome and to himself, and Aristides (AD 117/129–81) employed glowing terms to describe the grandeur and cultural renaissance of the city (bracketed with the other two capitals of the province, Smyrna [İzmir] and Ephesus).

Pergamum owed much of this renown to its Asclepieum, the sanctuary and hospital of the god of healing, Asclepius (Aesculapius) the Savior, and associated deities. The early structures of this building, of which little remains, include halls and incubation rooms, where sick people expected the god to bring them healing dreams at night; while three adjoining springs provided medicinal waters. But most of the principal buildings date from the second century AD, when the reputation of the shrine attained unique heights. Its central feature, belonging to the reign of Hadrian (117–38), was the round temple of Asclepius, a smaller but resplendent version of the Roman Pantheon. This was adjoined by an even more elaborate circular `Pump Room,’ with six radiating apses and an intricate underground water system linked to the largest of a number of springs by a vaulted channel extending for a hundred yards. Approached by a Sacred Way and a monumental gateway (Propylaeum), the colonnaded precinct also contained consulting rooms, a library, a theater and a latrine with forty seats. The great physician of Pergamum, Galen (129–c 199), started his career in the Asclepieum as a doctor for gladiators.

Three miles to the northeast of the sanctuary towers the acropolis; it was here that Philetaerus constructed fortified barracks and an arsenal, in which stone catapult-balls have been found. Attalus I erected a great triumphal monument for his Galatian victories (of which the Dying Gaul survives in Rome's Capitoline Museum), and Eumenes II greatly enlarged the defended area. On the summit of the acropolis, built up into tiers of arcaded terraces, a royal palace was added to the barracks and arsenal. On a lower terrace stood a temple of Athena and the great Pergamene library, second only to its prototype at Alexandria (its books were made of the local product of parchment, instead of papyrus). Eighty feet below stood the huge Altar of Zeus, reconstructed, with its frieze of Gods and Giants, in the Staatliches Museum of East Berlin. Lower down again were the (Upper) Agora and a temple of Trajan; and below them the city's spectacular theater was constructed on the side of the hill. Its auditorium faced a long terrace supported by arches built into the rock. Beneath, occupying three levels in the Philetaireia quarter, was to be seen the largest gymnasium in the Greek world (several times altered and extended)—one of five gymnasia so far discovered in the city. Beside it are temples of Demeter and Hera, and (according to epigraphic evidence) a shrine known as the Diodoreion, after a benefactor of the early first century BC, Diodorus Pasparus. Excavations also indicate the existence of a dining room belonging to a Dionysiac association. A Lower Agora, too, has been unearthed, and the identification of Hellenistic houses has considerably increased our knowledge of Greek domestic architecture. Pergamum possessed a number of water conduits (now comprehensively surveyed), of which the Hellenistic Madradaǧ example shows the oldest and boldest construction. The largest aqueduct of the Aksu conduit was evidently destroyed by a powerful earthquake.

As a result of all these discoveries, it is now possible to draw a plan of the Hellenistic city as a whole. Moreover, local coinages throw much light on its appearance during the Principate, not only illustrating various aspects of the Asclepieum but also depicting a wide range of temples dedicated to the imperial cult and other worships, particularly under Caracalla (AD 211–17) who came for a cure. In addition to all these pagan cults, however, the city had already possessed a Christian bishop since the previous century, presiding over one of the seven earliest churches in Asia Minor; and after Constantine I the Great's conversion, a Christian altar was established in the temple of Asclepius, and a baptistery in the gateway to its precinct.

See map ofAsia Minor, Aegean Islands.