First, geographical location
Pergamon (or Pergamum) is an ancient city in northeastern Asia Minor, about 25 km from the Aegean Sea, located between the Serinus and Kartius rivers, in today's Perga, Izmir Province, Turkey. The city is of great strategic value, perched on a hill at the southern end of a branch of the Pydathos Mountain, at an altitude of more than 350 meters, overlooking the Caicos Plain, and is the gateway from Pergamum to the Aegean coast. Because of its prominent strategic location, Pergamum was known as a military stronghold until the Hellenistic era. During the Hellenistic period it became the capital of the Kingdom of Pergamum. During the Roman period, the city was the first capital of the Asian provinces, but was eventually replaced by Ephesus. Today, Pergamum is an important archaeological site and is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
The geographical location of Pergamum
2. Early history
As early as Mycenaean times, Pergamum was part of its southern territory known as Mysia Major or Pergamene. At the beginning of the 12th century BC, Misia was incorporated into the Kingdom of Phrygia. Subsequently, Pergamum came under Lydian control, and in 546 BC was conquered by Cyrus and incorporated into Persian rule.
Cyrus the Great conquered Asia Minor to the west
In 334 BC, Alexander the Great crossed the Granikos River (or Granicus River) in direct confrontation with the Persians, and the Persian Emperor Darius III was defeated by Alexander the Great, who conquered Asia Minor and handed Over Pergamum to his commander Barcinius.
Alexander went east to win the victory in Asia Minor
III. Kingdom of Pergamum
After Alexander's death in 323 BC, Lysimachus, in dividing up the vast empire, acquired a portion of Macedonia, Thracians, and Western Asia Minor, an area under his rule that was sometimes referred to as the Kingdom of Macedonia, the Kingdom of Thracians, or the Empire of Lisimachus, depending on the era and context. During the Successor War, Philatelos, a Pavlagonian who served Lisimachus, ruled the area for a long time, and he was responsible for guarding the wealth of Lysimachus stored in the area totaling 9,000 Taranton.
c. 300 BC; The orange part of the picture shows the area under the jurisdiction of Lisimachus
Reign of Phileteros
In 301 BC, Lisimachus handed over the administration of Pergamma to the vice-admiral Phileteros.
In 282 BC, Philethales was (probably) at odds with Lisimachus because of a court plot that had been revealed, and voluntarily defected to Seleucus I as a vassal of the Seleucid Empire.
In 281 BC, Lisimachus was defeated by the founder of the Seleucid Empire, Seleucus I, and Lisimachus himself was killed. Seleucus I himself was also murdered not long after, which was undoubtedly great news for Phileteros, because it meant that Asia Minor fell into a state of no authority in the short term.
After that, he ostensibly submitted to Seleucus, but in fact he supported the city of Pergamum and became a powerful local warlord, which was the beginning of the Atalid dynasty; It should be noted, however, that Philetalos was never officially called king, and that the official title of "king" was not until the fourth year of the reign of Attalus I, the third ruler of Pergamum (238 BC), from which the name of the Atalid/Attalus dynasty we now use is derived.
A portrait of Philetellos, a roman-era replica, is now in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, Italy
During his thirty-eight-year reign (including 301-282 BC), Philetellos did the following main things:
- The city of Pergamum was extensively renovated and expanded, not only the Acropolis was rebuilt, but also a huge palace and defense system were built.
- A large number of temples were built and donated, not only in the city of Pergamum, but also to all surrounding Hellenistic cities; He earned a reputation for generosity and piety, providing him with a considerable external foundation for the firm strengthening of his rule.
- Establish good relations with the surrounding city-states and slowly and effectively expand its influence in Asia Minor and the Aegean world.
- When conditions permitted, he actively sent troops to support the surrounding Hellenistic cities, such as Κύζικος to help the city's inhabitants fight against the invading Gallic Gauls.
As a result of these measures, by the time of Phileteros' death, Pergamum had become a local force to be reckoned with, and although incomparable with the behemoths of the Seleucid Empire and the Ptolemaic Dynasty, it had become a protagonist on the stage of Western Asia Minor.
Philateros died in 263 BC, and he had no heirs, because it is said that when he was a baby, he was once carried into the crowd by a nurse and squeezed there because he hugged him too tightly. So he had to adopt his brother's son, his own nephew, and later Emenis I as his heir.
The four Drakema coins issued by Eumenes I are represented by his uncle and the actual founder of the kingdom, Philateros, on the obverse, and Athena on the back
Eumenis I became independent
During the 22-year reign of Eumenes I, Pergamum continued to expand and develop during this period. In 261 BC, Pergamum, with the support of the Ptolemaic dynasty, rebelled against seleucid rule and successfully defeated the seleucid king Antiochus I at the time, ending Pergamuma's history as a Seleucid vassal and officially achieving independence. In the following decades, Eumenis basically adopted a foreign strategy of gradual expansion, and gradually brought many towns in Western Asia Minor into rule. This phase of expansion was also dominated by peaceful means, and seleucus also maintained peace with Pergama for a long time after 261 BC, which provided greater possibilities for the rise of Pergamum. At the same time, the Gauls entrenched in Galatia were always one of the troubled headaches for the Greek city-states of Asia Minor; Pergamum paid a high tribute to the Gauls to be spared from plunder by the Gauls, and a similar fate fell on almost all the inhabitants of Asia Minor.
Attalus I became king
This passivity was broken by Eumenes I's successor, Attalus I; Attalus I was not the biological son of Eumenes I, but an adopted cousin. The Attalus I was the most famous ruler in the entire history of the Kingdom of Pergamum, and during his 44-year reign he managed to transform Pergam from an obscure city-state into one of the great powers of the eastern Mediterranean world through a series of brilliant strategic maneuvers.
Attalus I
The first major thing Attalus I did after his ascension to the throne was to reject the tribute demands of the Galatian Gauls (a branch of the Celts, as the people of the time collectively referred to them), and without fear, he posed a posture of fighting the Gauls to the death. The Gauls did send troops to retaliate, the two sides fought at the source of the Battle of the Caecus River, the Gallic people were defeated, and Attalus I became famous in the war, not only adding a title of "savior" to his head, but also officially claiming the throne soon after, marking the official beginning of Pergamum as a "kingdom". This victory also left behind a famous work of art for posterity, the Dying Gauls, depicting the Gaul/Galatians defeated by Attalus.
The Dying Gauls, a Roman-era imitation; It is now in the Capitoline Museum in Rome
A few years later, the Galatians allied themselves with Antiochus Ieras, the younger brother of the then King Seleucus II of Seleucus, and together they invaded Pergamum, failing one after another. Attalus' first victory at Aphrodites, followed by a second major victory at Phrygia, led to the Galatians withdrawing from the battle, leaving Attalus with only Antiochus Ieras. Antiochus then moved to Bithynia, hoping to seek assistance from his father-in-law, Chiaelas, then King of Bithynia, but this did not turn the tide of the war. In 228 BC, Attalus and Antiochus's armies were decisive in the Battle of the Harpasus, with Pergamum winning a decisive victory, driving the Seleucid forces out of Western Asia Minor and seizing control of all the lands north of the Torrus Mountains from the Seleucid Empire shortly thereafter.
Seleucid Empire will not give up when this is a big defeat, Seleucus III has repeatedly tried to recover the lost land, and he even personally led his army across the Torus Mountains in the hope of boosting morale, but instead he was murdered by his subordinates in 223 BC. After Seleucus III's death, the general Akeves, who had followed him, supported Antiochus III to the throne of Seleucus, while he himself continued to lead an army against Pergam's newly conquered territories in Asia Minor; Akeves proved to be an extremely good general, and in less than two years he reached the city of Pergamum and recovered all the lost territory of Seleucus in Asia Minor.
Attalus suffered a big blow, and all the previous victories against the Galatians and Antiochus Yalas seemed to disappear in an instant, and the First World War returned to the pre-liberation period. Akeves did not intend to exterminate Pergamum——, after successfully recovering the lost territory and suppressing Attalus, Akeves established himself as king in Asia Minor, broke away from Seleucid control, and truce with Pergamum.
In the years that followed, Pergamum maintained a period of delicate peace with Akeves, until in 218 BC, when Akeves personally crossed the Torus Mountains to attack Sergey in Pisidia, and Attalus felt that the time had come to resist, so he recaptured the previously lost territory with the help of some Thracian Gauls. After succeeding in capturing Serguey in 217 BC, Akeves quickly returned to deal with Attalus, but Attalus was prepared this time, and he formed an alliance with the Seleucid king Antiochus III against Akeves, which left Akeves with his back and forced to retreat to his capital, Sardis. Antiochus III crossed the Torus Mountains in 216 BC and besieged Sardis for two years, finally breaking through the city in 214 BC; Akeves continued to hold on to the fortress in the city, but was soon tricked out of the fortress by seleucid troops disguised as rescue troops and executed. Antiochus III then, after a round of effortless conquest, quickly recovered all of Seleucus's lost territories in Asia Minor; Although Attalus was able to preserve its strength, hopes of expanding eastward were dashed.
After this, Attalus turned his attention to the West; At this time, the Macedonian king Philip V was a man of considerable talent, and wanted to take advantage of the inability of the Roman Republic and the Carthaginians to strengthen his own power, which was obviously in conflict with the national interests of Pergamum, and the contradictions between the two sides were inevitable. Pergamum formed a strategic alliance with Macedonia's rival, the Aetolian League in central Greece, in 219 BC, and funded the construction of various defensive fortresses and outposts for the Aetoria, much to Macedonia's displeasure.
Philip V's alliance with the Carthaginians, who had just beaten the Romans to the teeth at the Battle of Canney, in 215 BC, put pressure on the Romans to find reliable allies in the eastern Mediterranean to balance the growing ambitions of Macedonia. In 214 BC, the First Macedonian War broke out, and Illyria on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea was the main battlefield. In 211 BC, Rome formally formed a strategic alliance with the Atopian Alliance, and Pergamum, which was already an ally of the Atopian Alliance, naturally joined the Roman camp and became an important ally of Rome in the East; Attalus himself was elected as one of the two ruling commanders of the Aetoria League, further strengthening the multi-party alliance.
In the spring of 209 BC, Philip V led an army to attack the Greek mainland, and Attalus, one of the leaders of the alliance, naturally went to fight, but he chose the wrong commander, and was initially sent to the front line of Pirias was defeated and demoralized. By the summer of that year, Roman reinforcements, led by the acting consul Publius Sulpicius Galba Maximus, had reached Greece and joined the fighting. In 208 BC, the Romans and their Greek allies made several attempts to break the stalemate, but all failed, and their attempt to join forces with the Pergamese Navy to attack Limnos was thwarted. The Aetoria League tried to retreat at this time, but was firmly rejected by the Romans.
For the next two or three years, the two sides continued to engage in a tug-of-war in the North Aegean Sea, each with its own victory and defeat. Attalos' Pergamian army successfully sacked the Macedonian-controlled city of Opos, but on its way back it was raided by the Macedonian army, and Attalus almost died on the spot, and his troops suffered heavy losses. After the war, Attalus was forced to return to Pergamum, but soon discovered that his neighbor Bitinia had joined the Macedonian side through marriage, and was conspiring with Macedonia to attack Pergamum; Worse news was yet to come—the Romans, believing that the strategic goal of containing Philip V had been achieved, were anxious to withdraw from the Macedonian War in order to concentrate on Carthage, so they slipped away alone without a single greeting.
The abandoned Aetoria League was unable to fight Macedonia alone, so in 206 BC it took the initiative to make peace; The two sides formally signed a treaty in 205 BC to end the First Macedonian War. As a member of the Roman League, Pergamum, apart from retaining control of several islands in the Aegean Sea, achieved little tangible results, and the only considerable diplomatic success was a close alliance with the rising Roman Republic, and the Romans did take good care of Pergamum, and relations between the two sides continued to heat up in the years after the First Macedonian War.
Philip V, who had not tasted the sweetness of the First Macedonian War, soon turned his gaze to the East, hoping to try his luck in Asia Minor. So in 201 BC, he launched a surprise attack on the East Aegean Sea, quickly conquered the island of Samos and took control of a Ptolemaic Egyptian fleet anchored there, which greatly increased in strength; He then sent an army to attack the island of Chios, which made Attalus very nervous: once the Macedonians took control of the island of Chios, they could effortlessly seal the mouth of Pergamum. Attalus then allied itself with Rhodes, Byzantium, and Kizikus, which were also hostile to Macedonia, and a major naval battle broke out off the island of Chios.
In this battle, the Macedonians sent about 200 large and small warships against less than 100 on the Confederate side, but the heroic command of Theophilix of Rhodes repelled the Macedonian attack, and the final result was a small victory, resulting in heavy losses to the Macedonian fleet. Attalus was rather embarrassed in this battle; He was first isolated in the rebellion, and was personally pursued by Philip V, so he abandoned the ship and came ashore, but he was still unable to get rid of the pursuing soldiers, and in a hurry, he had to scatter all the royal treasures he carried with him on the deck to distract the Macedonians. Sure enough, the pursuers stopped to loot the spoils of war, and Attalus was able to escape.
After the defeat at the Battle of Chios, Philip V decided to lead an army directly to pergamum, although he could not conquer the main city, but still caused a lot of losses to the countryside and temples around the city. After this war, Attalus decided to seek foreign aid to avenge, so he and the Rhodesians filed a complaint against Macedonia against the Romans who had just won the Second Punic War, but the Roman Senate had no intention of joining another war at this time.
Aegean situation in 200 BC; The light green one is Pergamum, the light purple one is the Atopian League, the orange one is Macedonia, the bright yellow one is the Seleucid Empire, and the dark green one is the Roman Republic
In 200 BC, Philip V directly led an attack on Attica, threatening Athens and provoking the Second Macedonian War. Athens immediately turned to Pergamum for help, and Attalus rushed to Athens with his fleet, but he knew in his heart that if he did not manage to drag the Romans into the war, the result would probably still be a bamboo basket. Fortunately, the aforementioned Sulquipius Galpa, who was once again promoted to Roman consul and advocated rome's declaration of war on Macedonia, successfully persuaded the Senate that the great war between East and West was about to break out again.
In 199 BC, the combined forces of Rome and Pergamum attacked Macedonia from both land and sea, and although they gained a lot in naval warfare, they suffered heavy losses in land warfare and suffered heavy losses in Casandria; Pergamum also clashed with the Aetolians for their non-observance of the covenant of alliance, and Attalos returned to Pergamum that winter. By the spring of the following year, the war resumed, and this year the Allied offensive was unusually smooth, not only quickly controlling the entire island of Eupia, but also successfully persuading Macedonia's ally in Greece to jump back and join the Roman side, so that the originally anxious land war situation quickly began to turn around.
Attalos himself suddenly fainted during a mobilization speech to the Viotians in 197 BC and was sent back to Pergamum for treatment, where he died shortly thereafter. Around the time of his death, the Roman allies achieved a crucial land victory at the Battle of Cynoscephalae, severely damaging the main Macedonian army, Philip V fled north, and soon after re-signed a peace treaty with the Confederates; The legendary life of the "savior" Attalus came to an end at the same time as the Second Macedonian War.
Eumenes II
After the death of Attalus I, his son Eumenes II (reigned 197-159 BC) succeeded him as king. Eumenes II was also a monarch with a long reign of 38 years; His approach was largely a continuation of his father's style, cooperating with rome, which was growing in power, and resolutely curbing the expansion of the Macedonian, Bithynia, and Seleucid empires on the other.
During the reign of Eumenes II, Pergamum became one of the few important cities in the entire Eastern Mediterranean world; His greatest contribution during his reign was undoubtedly the construction of the massive Pergamum Library (probably from his father' interest), which at one point became one of the largest libraries in the classical world, comparable to the Library of Alexandria. He also funded the reproduction of the statue of Athena in the Parthenon.
During the reign of Eumenes II, Egypt banned pergamum from competing with it in cultural undertakings and monopolized papyrus. In the Pergamum region (present-day Turkey), sheepskin was depiled, skinned, beaten, and cleaned to make parchment paper, which was used instead of papyrus. Parchment is resistant to water, wear-resistant, and easy to preserve, so it has been favored by a large number of medieval literati and inkers. The Greek word for "Pergamon" in Pergama later evolved into parchment in English, and the Pergamese region slowly developed into one of the economic and cultural centers of the Hellenistic region. It is said that the collection of books reached 200,000 at its peak.
After Rome's victory in the Second Macedonian War, rome and the Seleucid Empire under Antiochus III became the last two great powers capable of determining the fate of the Mediterranean world, so the two sides were in a state of cold war from 196 BC to 192 BC; During this period, many Greeks, including the Aetoria League, began to worry and resent the Romans' stay in Greece, a sentiment that was keenly captured by Antiochus III, who had been preparing for the attack, and at this time he also had an additional general with rich experience in fighting the Romans, Hannibal, and the war between Seleucus and Rome was inevitable and finally broke out in 192 BC. (A war against the Spartan king Nabis also broke out in 195 BC, in which Pergamum was involved, and will not be described here.)
The course of the war itself was very complicated, and in order to save space, I will only talk about the content related to Pergamum - several large battles that broke out in the early stages of the war were basically fought by the Romans alone against the Seleucid army, and Pergamum did not directly participate in the war except for material support, until the Battle of Magnesia in Lydia in 190 BC, When The Battle of Magnesia, Pergamum officially sent troops to the battle, and as soon as he left the station, he won a great victory, defeated the Seleucid army and retreated all the way.
After this battle, Seleucus's front in Asia Minor collapsed completely, and the rest was basically the work of sweeping away the remnants of the enemy, until in 188 BC, Rome and Seleucus concluded the Treaty of Apamea, officially ending the war that determined the ownership of the Mediterranean world. While the victory of this war was significant to Rome, it had more immediate benefits for Pergamum – the treaty stipulated that the seleucid Empire's territory north of the Torus Mountains would be vested in Pergamum, and the ownership of the regions of Phrygia, Lydia, Pisidia, and Pamphilia, which had been fought between the two countries for decades, was finalized; In 188 BC, Pergamum reached its territorial peak.
Pergamuma (dark, light blue) and Rhodes (dark, light green) before and after the signing of the Apamean Peace Treaty, 188 BC
After the end of the Romco-Seleucid War, Pergamum sided firmly with Rome after several subsequent wars, including the Third Macedonian War, which took place from 171 to 168 BC, in which Rome won a decisive victory, ending the rule of the Kingdom of Macedonia and dividing its territory into four vassal republics under Roman control; After the war, the Dominance of the Roman Republic over Greece was almost impossible, and the eyes of the Romans would slowly shift to the farther east.
After the Third Macedonian War, Eumenes II gradually lost the trust of the Romans, who began to suspect that he was actually conspiring with the last Macedonian king, Perseus, to deceive Rome; The Romans had hoped that Eumenes II's younger brother, later Attalus II, would stage a coup d'état to overthrow his brother, but this was never possible from the beginning— his relationship with Eumenes II was always harmonious, and the Φιλάδελφοςς literally translated as "brother lover", so he rejected the benefits offered by the Romans. It was not until the death of Eumenes II in 159 BC, when his son was too young to govern, that Attalus II came to power as regent of Pergamum.
Statue of Attalus II, located in present-day Antalya, Turkey
Although Rome's relations with Pergamum were rifted in the late reign of Eumenes II, Attalus II was able to repair them through his diplomatic wisdom, and the two countries soon returned to a close strategic alliance. In 156 BC, war broke out between Pergamum and Bitinia, and the Romans decisively provided assistance to help Attalus achieve victory two years later; In 152 BC, Pergamum participated in a political conspiracy supported by Rome, the Ptolemaic dynasty and Cappadocia to overthrow the Seleucid king Demetrius I, further leading to the decline of the Seleucid Empire; In 149 BC, Attalus II simply supported Nicomedes II, the son of King Prucias II of Bithynia, in overthrowing and executing his father, thus resolving the long-standing conflict with Bithynia.
Attalus used his diplomatic skills to greatly improve the international environment in Which Pergamum lived, such as his success in making friends with the young King Ariarate V of Cappadocia in Athens, and later Pergamum was able to expand its territory with the help of Ariarat V and establish a city in Pisidia that is still famous today, Antalya.
Attalus III
Attalus II reigned for 21 years and died in 138 BC; He was succeeded to the throne by his nephew, his brother's son, Attalus III. The Mediterranean world at the time of Attalus III's ascension to power was already a chess game under the control of the Roman Republic; Eight years ago, in 146 BC, the Romans accomplished two pioneering works at the same time: first, the complete destruction of Carthage; Second, full control of Greece. Anyone who knows the times can see that Rome at this time was undoubtedly the sole hegemony of the Mediterranean world.
Against this backdrop, Attalus III had no interest in governing and administering the country, and according to Livy's History of Rome, he devoted much of his time to the study of botany and medicine, and paid little attention to political affairs. However, his reign was also short compared to several of his predecessors, and he died of illness only five years later in 133 BC; In his will, he expressed his desire to give the entire kingdom of Pergamum as a gift to the Roman Republic, and the news reached Rome and immediately caused an uproar.
In 133 BC, the year tiberius Gracchus was elected a fiduciary and began to carry out reforms, he naturally did not let go of this pie that fell from the sky, and immediately urged the Senate to accept the arrangement and distribute the treasury property of Pergamum to all the Roman citizens, and to extract a part of the property to provide financial support for the Lex Sempronia Agraria that he had just introduced. This proposal was naturally rejected by the Senate without hesitation. This incident further exacerbated the contradiction between Grand Graggu and the Senate, and caused some members of the Senate to suspect that Grand Graggu's real intention was to take the opportunity to claim the king to subvert the republican system, which also laid the groundwork for the two sides to officially tear their faces.
Back in Pergamum, Attalus III's decision was not supported by all the Pergamians, and a considerable part of the population feared that they would be exploited and oppressed by the Romans when they joined Rome. At this time, an unidentified man named Aristonic appeared, who, before the Romans could formally take over Pergamum, declared himself the illegitimate son of Eumenes II, and established himself as King of Pergamum, taking the title eumenes III, to fight the Romans to the end. But he soon found that he could hardly find any external supporters, neither Cappadocia nor Bitinia was willing to oppose Rome, and the Greeks did not believe that he was capable of liberating Greece, so he had to find a way from the inside to free all the slaves in the city to obtain the greatest popular support.
Eumenes III
The Romans sent an army to Pergamum in 131 BC to quell the rebellion, but Aristonnik succeeded in defeating the Romans and killing the expedition's consul, Publius Licinius CrassusUs Dives Mucianus. Naturally, the Romans did not give up, and in 129 BC sent troops to quell the rebellion for the second time, and successfully defeated and captured Aristonic under the leadership of the consul Marcus Perperna; The latter was brought back to Rome and hanged after a triumphal style. At this point, The history of Pergamum as an independent kingdom came to an end.
Fourth, the years to come
After the incorporation of the kingdom into Rome, Pergamum remained one of the most important cities in western Anatolia. Allegedly, in 41 BC, the Roman soldier and statesman Mark Antony gave all the books in the Pergam library to Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt. Both Trajan and Augustus had temples nearby. Restorations were carried out during the reign of Caracalla. Originally a temple made of local andesite rocks, it was completely converted to marble during the Roman period. Thus, the overall complex seen later is the effect of centuries of superposition. With the later transformation of Rome's capital in Asia Minor to the Ifo, The importance of Pergamum gradually weakened and it was reduced to ruins.
5. Archaeological excavation and reproduction
In the 1870s, the German engineer Karl Hermann laid a railway in western Anatolia and discovered the ruins of the ancient city. In 1878, the first research and excavation work was carried out in Pergamum. During the excavation, the German archaeological team transported a large number of exquisite architectural components back home, which are now in the Pergamum Museum in Berlin.
The Acropolis of Pergamum was built on an extremely steep hill, and the archaeological excavations have revealed three urban areas at different altitudes: the Upper (Acropolis), the Midtown and the Lower City, of which the Lower City on the west bank of the Serinus River was formed after the expansion of the Roman era (except for the Temple of Asclepius [The Healing God], which occupies a hill). In the Hellenistic era, the Upper Town and the Midtown District each had a gymnasium and a market square, which should meet the needs of different social classes. Unlike the Hellenistic new towns of the Alessandria and Antiochus, Pergamum continued the Athenian traditions of the classical era, offering a rich visual arts landscape. The most complete stadium preserved to date, the grand acropolis complex and the layout of the city that undulates along the hills. It concentrates religious, administrative, social and commercial functions.
Aerial view of the ruins
Map of the Acropolis of Pergamum (1882), from the University of Heidelberg excavations in 1880-1881
Map of the Acropolis of Pergamum
Pergamum in the Hellenistic era (Erskine 2005, p.207, fig 12.5)
Re-imaginary map of Pergamum, late 19th century
Imaginary view of the reconstruction of the Acropolis of Pergamum, Friedrich Tiez, 1882
Model of the ancient city of Pergamum
The altar of Zeus and Athena, built to commemorate the victory of King Attalus I, was rebuilt in the late 19th century according to G. Reilende
Statue of Athena in the Library of Pergamum, with the Temple of Zeus in the background. It is now in the collection with the Pergamum Museum in Berlin
The architecture of the library
The library was built by Ormes II in the heyday of Pergamum and is located at the northern end of the Acropolis. It is the only Greek-style library that archaeologists today have physical evidence of, and as such, it is the only library in the ancient world where we can draw conclusions from its architecture and the equipment used in it. It is now widely believed that the layout is roughly as follows: the main room places a huge statue of the deity, usually, a statue of Athena. The veranda of the main room, a side chamber or portico, constitutes the bottom of the bookshelf.
The enclosed cabinets are about 2 meters high, leaving room for the roof in the rest of the wall, allowing natural light to be poured in from the windows. This room can be used for debates, lectures, ceremonies and studies. Only a small part of the collection will be stored in this room. During the reign of Eumes II, auxiliary rooms were built from time to time to house the growing collection. These new rooms are not architectural masterpieces, but they are fully functional and can be used to accommodate a large number of volumes. The new room can also be used as a copy room and a writing room.
(Speculation based on Vitruvius's Ten Books of Architecture?) Space is left between the bookshelves and the building's façade, allowing air to circulate around the library of the larger central reading room. The reason for this is to prevent the library from becoming too humid in the warm climate of Anatolia. This is widely considered an early attempt at library preservation. Humidity has always been one of the library's biggest enemies. Rolled up papyrus and parchment were stored in enclosed cabinets to prevent dampness caused by foundations and large open windows. Soon after construction, windows needed to be built with awnings to shelter them from rain and dust outside, and glass windows began to be used at the end of the 1st century BC.
Library before excavation
Ruins of part of the building of the Library of Pergamum
Library of the Pegam Library
The site of the Pergamum Theater, which was designed according to a mountainous terrain, faces the ocean to the west. The fan angle of the auditorium is less than 180° (ancient Greek theaters are usually 190 to 200°), creating a dizzying visual effect. There are 80 rows of seats and can accommodate about 10,000 spectators.
Temple of Trajan
Medical area