PERGAMUM THROUGH THE AGES

The name of Pergamum is first mentioned in Xenophon’s Anabasis (The Retreat of Ten Thousand), which tells us about the famous journey of Greek mercenaries visiting Pergamum in 399 BC
After Issus Battle, Alexander the Great married Persian Princess Barsine, from whom he got a son. Ancient sources tell that Barsine and her son came to Pergamum and were killed there.
King of Thrace, Lysimachus, one of the generals of Alexander the Great, kept a fantastic treasury of 9000 talents (1 talent nearly 7500 dollars, 9000 makes 67.500.000) on Pergamum Acropolis. When he was killed, governor Philetaerus refused to give money to his successors, and using that money, he laid the foundations of the Pergamum Kingdom.
Attalos I won a great Victory over the Galatians and got the title of “king and savior.”
Kings of Pergamum, Attalids, erected many monuments and statues in Pergamum to honor their outstanding victory over warlike Galatians.
While building their monumental city, Attalids built their splendid monuments on terraces, and many cities of the ancient world followed this very successful Pergamum city model.
Pergamum enjoyed its golden age when famous king Eumenes II made the city the center of art and culture in the Hellenistic Era.
Because of the book-collecting passion of the Attalids, the number of books in the Pergamum Library reached 200.000, and the fame of the Pergamum Library spread all over the ancient world.
The parchment, which replaced the papyrus in Pergamum, was known as Pergamum Paper in the ancient world.
Pergamum had a well-known school of sculpture, and the artist from Pergamum later established the legendary school of sculpture in Aphrodisias.
Forty sculptors worked on the carvings of Zeus’ Altar on the Acropolis.
Attalids brought their water from great distances using aqueducts and pipes. Madran water source was 42 kilometers from Pergamum, and the Soma water source was 55 kilometers from the city.
King Attalos II built a city on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey and named it Attalia.
Attalos II also built a stoa in Athens. This monument in Athens is one of the representatives of the golden age of the Pergamum Kingdom.
The last king Pergamum, Attalos III, bequeathed his kingdom to Roman Empire in 133 BC.
Pergamum, which became the first Metropolis, the capital of the Asian province of the Roman Empire, had a population reached 160.000 people during the Roman century.
Acropolis Theatre, built on the top of the Acropolis, is the steepest theatre in the ancient world, and it had a wooden and transportable stage.
Pergamum had the most extraordinary capacity of seats for games and performances. Acropolis Theatre had 10.000 seats, Roman Theatre in the lower city had 30.000 seats, an amphitheater in the lower city had 50.000 seats, and the stadium possibly 20.000 or 30.000 or seats.
The amphitheater, built for gladiator and animal fights, was also used for aquatic games and water ballet with its water-filled stage area. The people of Pergamum diverted a local river and filled the orchestra era with water for aquatic games.
During the Byzantine era, Serapis Temple, which Emperor Hadrian built for the Egyptian gods, became a Christian church. Local River Selinus representing the Nile, passed underneath the temple through the tunnels.
One of the Seven Churches of Revelation, Pergamum, received a letter from Christ through Saint John encouraging the early Christians.
Pergamum Asklepion, where the patients were treated through faith healing and medical treatments by medical doctors, was one of the most significant hospitals of the ancient world.
Eighteen centuries before Freud, psychotherapy healing through dreams was practiced in Pergamum Asklepion.
Galen, the most outstanding doctor and medical writer of Roman times, was born in Pergamum, and after his work in Pergamum, he went to Rome and became the physician of two Roman Emperors. Roman emperors Caracalla and Marcus Aurelius were treated in Bergama Asklepion.
Before he was crowned in 351, Emperor Julian studied philosophy in Pergamum.
Pergamum was destroyed by Persian and Arabic attacks in the 7th and 8th centuries.
Captured by Karesi Dynasty, Bergama joined the Ottoman Sultanate in 1336, and the city witnessed the construction of many monuments during this period.
Zeus Altar discovered in 1878, was taken to Germany with the permission of the ruling Sultan, who also paid for transportation expenses.
Atatürk, who visited Bergama in 1934, initiated the Bergama Festival, and Bergama was the first town to organize a festival in Turkey.