Pergamum

The City

The first records of Greek Pergamum date back to the early 400s BC. The city is a natural fortress, and sits fortuitously overlooking the rich plain of the river Caicus. Pergamum was the capital city of the Attalid kingdom. It was willed to Rome, though declared a free city by the will of Attalus III. It was stripped of its freedom when it supported Mithridates VI over the Roman legions. The city escaped great abuse at the hands of Roman soldiers and businessmen, however, thanks to the intervention of one of its citizens, Diodorus Pasparos, for whom a cult was founded in the city. When the province of Asia was first organized under the Roman Republic, Pergamum became its capitol.

During the principate, Pergamum's position as the most powerful city in Asia was quickly stripped away by the up-and-coming city of Ephesus. Nonetheless, Pergamum controlled an expansive conventus, presumably stretching from the mouth of the Caicus valley at Elaea and its source at Stratonicea. The city was also the host of a developed ruler cult, including the temple of Trajan. This momument, brand new in the 2nd Century AD, was not the only one of its kind: Hadrian's Asclepieum and the temple of Zeus Philios name just a few, and suggest that while by the 2nd Century Pergamum might have been second best, it was still very powerful and prestigious.

The Text

Revelation 2:12-17 - The Letter of Christ to the Church in Pergamum