Pergamon: Citadel of the Gods
(Archaeological Record, Literary Description) Helmut Koester (editor)
Number of quotes: 22
Book ID: 176 Page: 140
Section: 5C
Based on historical and art historical/archaeological reasons, scholars almost unanimously dated the construction of the Great Altar at Pergamon to the reign of the Attalid Eumenes II (b. ca. 221, r. 197-159 BCE). In this connection, the latest discussion depends upon two different time factors, each using archaeological and historical criteria to support its arguments.
Quote ID: 3887
Time Periods: 0
Book ID: 176 Page: 141
Section: 5C
The end of the construction work on the never completed altar has been linked either to the death of Eumenes II (159 BCE) or to the raid of king Prusias II of Bithynia (156 BCE). Regarding the time of construction of the altar, it also seems important to me that one can place this project within a larger framework. According to a well-known text by the Greek geographer Strabo, Eumenes II and his brother saw to it that Pergamon, the citadel on the hill, became a residential city, beautified with dedicatory offerings and libraries.
Quote ID: 3888
Time Periods: 0
Book ID: 176 Page: 142/143
Section: 5C
The Great Altar was, without a doubt, not only artistically the most important marble building in Pergamon in pre-Roman times but also the largest in dimension. Owing to its exposed location on a terrace below the actual citadel, its visibility from a distance, and its axial alignment to the Athena temple, the building represents the central monument in the expansion of the city under Eumenian rule.A common factor of the altar and other marble buildings of the Eumenian period (such as the temple of Dionysos on the theater terrace and the Ionic temple near the Upper Gymnasium) is their unfinished state of construction.
Nor does the premature termination of the work seem to have been based on political actions. Eumenes’ brother and successor, Attalos II, had ample opportunity to build further marble buildings, such as a palace next to the Sanctuary of Athena and the Temple of Hera above the gymnasium. One can only assume, therefore, that after the death of Eumenes II, the interest in continuing the projects, which probably also carried the inscription of his name, no longer existed. Attalos II had different priorities.
It is heavily disputed whether the aforementioned throne of Satan refers to the local imperial cult, the famous Asklepieion, the powerful Jewish congregation, or, finally, the Great Altar. But if one considers that the imperial cult, the Asklepios priesthood, and the Jewish diaspora were as important to the other addresses of apocalyptic messages - - for example, the Ephesians - - as these categories were to the people of Pergamon, it remains very likely that the Great Altar is the text’s referent, since at that time, prior to the construction of the Trajaneum, the throne-like monumental altar was still the dominant site above the city.
Quote ID: 3889
Time Periods: 0
Book ID: 176 Page: 144/143
Section: 5C
One can, however, only step on solid ground with the mention of a great altar in the liber memorialis of Lucius Ampelius. (“At Pergamon is a great marble altar, forty feet high, with remarkable sculptures; it is surrounded by a gigantomachy as well.”)The predominant opinion seems to be that Ampelius used good and rare information for the first chapters (up to chapter 9). These sources almost certainly included the periegetes (traveller’s guide-books) of Greek authors either from Roman times or even the second century BCE. In this case, we would have a quasi-contemporary source regarding the altar.
Quote ID: 3890
Time Periods: 02
Book ID: 176 Page: 147
Section: 5C
The area on the southern slope of the acropolis below the venerable sanctuary of the city goddess Athena had already held a building before the erecting of the Great Altar. Remains of an apsidal structure (which most probably served cultic purposes) inside the altar’s foundation, and the walls of a Hellenistic house were unearthed in the course of the first excavations.
Quote ID: 3891
Time Periods: 0
Book ID: 176 Page: 153
Section: 5C
The frieze represented the legend of Telephos, the hero-founder of Pergamon and mythical ancestor of the royal house.
Quote ID: 3892
Time Periods: 0
Book ID: 176 Page: 159
Section: 5C
The attempt to reconstruct the altar of Pergamon from its numerous remains clearly shows, then, that this is an exceptionally complex structure. Its appearance melded different ideas derived from architecturally lavish altars and monumental funerary buildings to form a unique monument of a dynasty that self-confidently conceived of itself as the political pioneer of Hellenism. In this altar, idea and execution represent in their totality a climax of Hellenistic culture in Asia Minor.
Quote ID: 3893
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 176 Page: 173
Section: 5C
Although the date, founder, purpose, and significance of the Great Altar in Pergamon are all uncertain and continue to provoke debate, work on it probably began around 170 BCE during the reign of Eumenes II and reached completion in the early 150s under his successor, Attalos II. It is likely that the altar was dedicated to Zeus and Athena, since they are in equal proportions the two most prominent deities on the eastern part of the outer frieze.
Quote ID: 3894
Time Periods: 0
Book ID: 176 Page: 182
Section: 5C
A key feature is her adornment with the pomegranate. Thus the theme of the north frieze may be interpreted as “life and death.” The old age of the Graiai alludes to death; the Fates dispense the lot of death; the Hesperides and their snake guard the apples of immortality.
Quote ID: 3895
Time Periods: 0
Book ID: 176 Page: 183
Section: 5C
Since Telephos was the mythical founder of the city and ancestor of Pergamene rulers.
Quote ID: 3896
Time Periods: 0
Book ID: 176 Page: 239
Section: 5C
In summary then, the view of the temple from Rome as reflected in this inscription is somewhat limited. In response to issues raised by the Pergamenes themselves, this inscription mentions the temple in passing, but focuses mainly on the contests associated with it -- especially emphasizing that they are triumphal and on an equal footing with the Roman and Augustus games. If this were the only evidence available about the temple, no one would think very much about it. Fortunately, this is not the case.
Quote ID: 3898
Time Periods: 0
Book ID: 176 Page: 255
Section: 4B
More important, however, was his contribution to the renewed of the city’s Asklepios cult. Apparently Domitian’s young male favorite, Earinus, was born in Pergamon and seems to have been a devotee of the god. Indeed, in their court poetry both Martial and Statius include references to the dedication of a lock of Earinus’s hair to Asklepios of Pergamon. Statius even speaks with poetic hyperbole of Venus having snatched the youth while he was playing before the altar of Asklepios, and having brought him in her winged chariot to Domitian’s palace. Probably as a result of Earinus’s widely publicized attachment to the Asklepieion of Pergamon (whether apparent or real) and the emperor’s attachment to Earinus, the sanctuary began an extended period of prominence and renown among those in provincial and imperial high society. As Christian Habicht notes, it was during Domitian’s reign, after an interlude of nearly a century, that city coins again began to feature the image of Asklepios.
Quote ID: 3899
Time Periods: 34
Book ID: 176 Page: 257
Section: 2B2
On the other hand, the restoration and expansion of the Capitolium was also undertaken to provide a temple of sufficient grandeur that the decidedly partisan Roman deity of old - - Jupiter Capitolinus - - could more readily assume identification with the ecumenical and far more ideologically adaptable divinity Zeus Olympios. Likewise, Domitian’s institution of the Capitoline games in direct imitation of the ancient Olympic games is another symbolic attempt to suggest that if Zeus ruled from Mt. Olympus, his vicegerent ruled from Rome, the new center of the civilized world.
Quote ID: 3900
Time Periods: 234
Book ID: 176 Page: 299
Section: 5C
One may use drawings to get an idea of the temple of Athena, the oldest sanctuary in Pergamon, while the Imperial age’s great edifice, the Trajaneum, underwent partial reconstruction in recent years. Together with the reconstruction of Pergamon’s representation center with its centerpiece, the Great Altar.
Quote ID: 3901
Time Periods: 07
Book ID: 176 Page: 332
Section: 4B
Love of honor, when not taken to excess, {7} was generally placed alongside love of homeland among the virtues of nobility, the expectation of aristocracy. Benefaction was synonymous with both. The cities of the Greek East under Roman rule were built on such strivings for status.
Quote ID: 3902
Time Periods: 0123
Book ID: 176 Page: 332
Section: 4B
Footnote 7 Notably in Plutarch, when seen as self-serving, Greek word means greedy for honors and is synonymous with obstinate ambition Greek word, a passion and disease of the soul (so Mor. 502A). In his treatise “On Tranquility of Mind” Plutarch similarly decries the excessive striving for status that produces discontentment. The passage also gives a thumbnail sketch of the status ladder for those from the Greek East, whether “Chians, Galatians, Bithynians,” that runs “those who are not content with whatever portion of either repute or power among their own fellow countrymen has fallen to their lot, but weep because they do not wear the patrician shoe; yet if they do so, they weep because they are not yet Roman praetors; if they are praetors, because they are not consuls; and if consuls, because they were not the first announced, but later” (Mor. 470C)
Quote ID: 3903
Time Periods: 12
Book ID: 176 Page: 333
Section: 4B
200 AD- Thus the higher classes of Roman society, now enormously increased in numbers, represented, not the aristocracy of Rome or of Italy, but the aristocracy of the Empire, the wealthiest and the best educated sections of the city population throughout the Roman world.”
Quote ID: 3904
Time Periods: 23
Book ID: 176 Page: 374
Section: 5C
The first coins indicating a certain form of alliance or agreement were minted jointly by the cities of Pergamon and Sardis during the reign of Augustus. They lack the inscription homonoia, but the fact that they bear the names of two cities makes them an early form of alliance coins.
Quote ID: 3908
Time Periods: 0
Book ID: 176 Page: 375
Section: 5C
Many sources -- literature, inscriptions, and coins -- reflect the relationship of the three leading cities of Asia Minor: Pergamon, Ephesos, and Smyrna.
Quote ID: 3909
Time Periods: 0
Book ID: 176 Page: 378
Section: 5C
In this coin series Ephesos took the center position, since the title “first of Asia” gave it that right. To honor Pergamon and Smyrna equally, Ephesos produced two series of coins: one with Nemesis representing Smyrna on the left, and another with Asklepios representing Pergamon on the left.
Quote ID: 3910
Time Periods: 03
Book ID: 176 Page: 379
Section: 5C
On the reverse is part of the foundation myth of Pergamon: Herakles sits in a rock with his club beside him and grasps Auge’s hand with his right (they were the mythical parents of Telephos, one of the founders of Pergamon).
Quote ID: 3911
Time Periods: 0
Book ID: 176 Page: 400
Section: 5C
The upper classes, which throughout antiquity had erected and maintained the technical and economic structures of the city, had ceased to carry out their responsibilities in maintaining and improving the public facilities and had left the public buildings to decay. Even the Asklepieion, once the city’s main attraction and source of income, was dilapidated.
Quote ID: 3913
Time Periods: ?
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