ABSTRACT
Pergamon, now called Bergama and located in western Turkey, represented an ebullient cultural and business center in early Christian times. Pergamon, Ephesus, Antioch (in Turkey), and Carthage (in Tunisia) constituted a unique group of cities o f more than 250,000 inhabitants. They were surpassed by Alexandria in Egypt with 700,000 people and Rome with nearly 500,000 citizens.1 Athens, the uniquely developed city state, had a population of less than 200,000 at this point.
