Home > Pergamon
Pergamon or Pergamum (modern day Bergama in Turkey) was a Greek city, in northwestern Anatolia, 16 miles from the Aegean Sea, located on a promintory on the north side of the river Caicus (modern day Bakir ), that became an important kingdom during the Hellenistic period, under the Attalid dynasty, 282– 129 BC.The Attalids, the descendents of Attalus, the father of Philetaerus who came to power in 282 BC, were among the most loyal supporters of Rome among the Hellenistic successor states. For support against the Seleucids, the Attalids were rewarded with all the former Seleucid domains in Asia Minor. They ruled with intelligence and generosity. Many documents survive showing how the Attalids would support the growth of towns through sending in skilled artisans and by remitting taxes. They allowed the Greek cities in their domains to maintain nominal independence. They sent gifts to Greek cultural sites like Delphi, Delos, and Athens. They defeated the invading Celts. They remodeled the acropolis of Pergamum after the Acropolis in Athens. The Great Altar of Pergamon is in the Pergamon Museum of Berlin.
Pergamon had the second best library in the ancient world, after Alexandria. When the PtolemiesPtolemy one of Alexander the Great's generals, was appointed satrap of Egypt after Alexander's death in 323 BC. In 305 BC he declared himself King Ptolemy I, later known as "Soter" (saviour). The Egyptians soon accepted the Ptolemies as the successors to stopped exporting papyrusPapyrus is an early form of paper made from the stems of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus a wetland sedge that grows to 5 meters (15 ft) in height and was once abundant in the Nile River delta. Papyrus was first used in Ancient Egypt around 3000 BC, but, partly because of competitors and partly because of shortages, the Pergamenes invented a new substance to use in codicesA codex ( Latin for book plural codices is a handwritten book from late Antiquity or the Middle Ages. Although the Romans used the codex and similar precursors made of wood for taking notes and other informal writings, the first recorded use of the codex, called pergamum or parchmentParchment is a material for the pages of a book or codex, made from fine calf skin, sheep skin or goat skin. Parchment is named after the city Pergamon where it was first invented. One sort of parchment is vellum, a word that is used loosely to mean parch after the city. This was made of fine calfCalves are young animals. The term is mainly used for cattle, although whales and elephants also have calves. A cattle calf is a child of a cow and a bull. The plural is calves. Calf meat is called veal. Fine calf skin used for pages in early codexes is c skin, a predecessor of vellumVellum was originally a translucent or opaque material produced from calfskin that had been soaked, limed and unhaired, and then dried at normal temperature under tension, usually on a wooden device called a stretching frame. Today, however, vellum is gen and paperPaper is a thin, flat material produced by the compression of fibres. The fibers used are usually natural and based upon cellulose. The most common material is wood pulp from pulpwood (largely softwood) trees such as pines, but other vegetable fiber mater.
When Attalus III died without an heir in 133 BC he bequeathed Pergamum to Rome, in order to prevent a civil war.
In the first century AD, the Christian Church at Pergamon was one of the Seven Churches to which the Book of Revelation was addressed.
The present-day, Turkish name of the city is Bergama.
See also: Pergamon Museum, in Berlin, Germany. The Pergamon Press United Kingdom.
