ABSTRACT
Pergamum, modern Bergama in North Western Turkey, was one of the greatest and most splendid cities of the Roman world. At the end of the third century BCE, a local dynast, Philetaerus, had managed to establish his rule over the region of Mysia, its neighbour to the North, and began a lavish palace complex on the summit of the acropolis that dominates the broad valley of the Caicus. There followed almost two centuries of decline in both prosperity and status, and it was not until the middle of the first century CE that Pergamum, like many other Greek cities, began to experience a strong revival. The population expanded—Galen gives the number of adult inhabitants, including slaves, as 120,000—and buildings grew up beyond the walls on the steamy plain by the river and on the neighbouring hillsides.
