In 133 the Pergamenian realm, bequeathed to the Romans, was formed into a Roman province ; but the province was much smaller than the king- dom, for Phrygia Magna was given away to Mithridates, king of Pontus. Phrygia was re- claimed by the Senate after B.c. 120, when Mith- ridates died; but, though loosely attached to the province, it was not properly organized and definitely incorporated in Asia (as the new province was called) until the year B.C. 85-84 under the government of Sulla. From that time onwards the province had much the same extent as the old Pergamenian realm. The name Asia as applied to the province was apparently a Roman invention, but it was taken up by the Greek “ai ger and is used freely in the inscriptions of the great cities to indicate the Roman provincial unity with all the countries embraced in it (see ΕΎΡΙΑ, ASIA).
*See Frinkel, Inschriften von Pergamon, |. No. 249, an Inscription which confirms the real existence of this will against the scepticiem of several modern historians, See also Mommaen in Athen, Mitthetl, des Inst, 1899, p. 108,
750 PERGAMUS OR PERGAMUM
The four chief gods of Pergamum are mentioned in an oracle of about A.D. 167, which ordered the Pergamenians to seek relief from the φέρω pesti- fence by appealing to Zeus, maa a thena, and Asklepios.* All — frequently as types on the coins of the city. Zeus Soter and Athena Nike- phoros were especially honoured as having given victory over the Gauls in the olden time. The whole strength and skill of Pergamenian art was directed to glorify them as the patrons of Greek genius triumphing over barbarism. Asklepios was introduced from Epidauros, probably in a compara- tively racent historical period (perhaps in the 5th cent. B.C.). Dionysos was apparently a native Anatolian deity, worshipped with eerie and rites of 8 uliar society called Boukoloi or Ox-herds, who were the attendants of the ἄξιος ταῦρος, a mystic name of Dionysos. All these gor had ce ar ἢ places of worship. Zeus and
thena were more of Hellenic and artistic con- ceptions, Dionysos Kathegemon more peri re- ligious. Under the Roman empire, Asklepios the Saviour (Soter) became the most fashionable deity of Pergamum ; but he appears on coins as early as 159-138 and often in the Ist cent. B.c. As the god of the healing art, he had a temple and a sacred precinct to which flocked many invalids for medi treatment, which they received partly directly from the god (who revealed the method of cure in dreams when the sufferers slept in his sacred place), partly from the priests and physicians in attendance on the temple. As this worship and medical treatment brought many wealthy visitors to Pergamum, the god was naturally highly popular in the city. Hence, in the 2nd and 3rd cents. after Christ, Asklepios was the repre- sentative deity of Pergamum, standing for it as type on most of the symbolical alliance coins.
he view has been often maintained that the richness of the accessories with which the worship of these and other deities was conducted in Per- gamum suggested the words in Rev 2", describing the city as the place ‘where the throne of Satan is,’ and as the place ‘where Satan dwelleth.’ Ac- cording to that view, Pergamum is pictured as a religious centre, and contrasted with purely com- mercial cities like Smyrna and Ephesus and Corinth. But this picture is hardly true to the facts as they existed when the Apocalypse was written. It was not the case that commercial cities were less ΕἸΠΕ to religion in ancient times than those which, like Pergamum, lay apart from the great lines of commerce and intercourse. Writers who take that view are misled by modern ideas, natural in modern time when religion has become a moral force, resisting and seeking to withdraw men from many of the practices con- ducive to commercial success. But in ancient times religion was rather the glorification of suc- cess, commercial and otherwise: the gods were the patrons of every side of common life; and the great commercial city was most likely to be the great religious city. If the greatest centre of pagan ritual in the province Asia is the place where the throne of Satan is, then Ephesus is the a! that beyond all others merits that description.
he words of Rev 2" must refer to some other attribute which can be truly attached to Per- gamum. Pliny sets us in the right path by his remark, Nat. Hist. v. 30, that Pergamum was far the most distinguished city of Asia (longe claris- simum Asia, i.e. provincie). These words show clearly that Pliny regarded Pergamum as the eapital of the province. The province Asia had come into existence as an enfranchised + kingdom,
* Frinkel, 1.6. fi. p. 289. + When kings ceased to govern it the change was a declara- tion of freedom.
PERGAMUS OR PERGAMUM
with a universally recognized capital: Pergamum was the germ οὐ; of which the kingdom had slowly grown to maturity and strength. Occupy- ing this historical pre-eminence, Pergamum was naturally recognized as the capital of the new province Asia; and it retained this position for over two centuries. By the middle of the second century after Christ, on the contrary, there can be oo danke that Ephesus was recognized generally as the capital of the province. It is uncertain at what time the change was made. It is even un- certain whether the change was formally made at some definite time by imperial order, or gradually came about in practice without any authoritative imperial recognition. It is, however, certain that, under Augustus, Pergamum was still the capital, for the provincial council (called the Κοινὸν ᾿Ασίας) * built here the temple dedicated to Rome and Augustus to serve as its meeting-place, while Ephesus then was not officially regarded as lead- ing city. The provincial council built a temple at Smyrna to Tiberius, and it was perhaps not until A.D, 41-54 that it built at Ephesus a temple and dedicated it to Claudius.t Down to this time it seems reasonably certain that Ephesus had not been recognized, either by general consent or by