by a solita 5 os itself ‘four times Neokoros,’ where the fourth Neokorate refers to the worship of Diana the Ephesian, recognized as a Roman
deity by Hadrian (see above). beg sueyhane on its coins boasts itself as che first city honoured with triple Neokorate ; but no stress can be laid on this boast, for the three cities, Pergamum, Ephesus, Smyrna, vied with one anovher in titles, inventing or appropriating them, and all three claimed the primacy of Asia on different grounds.§
* See The Church in tha Rom. Emp. before 170, p. 276.
Friinkel, Jnschriften Pergam, iL p. 268; Durr, Reisen dea Kaisers Hadrian, p. 401.
t See vol. i. p. 724.
§ Ephesus acquired triple Neokorate in the latter part of Severus’ reign, as Head says in Catalogue Brit. Mus. Jonia,
PERGAMUS OR PERGAMUM 751
The allusion to the martyr Antipas at Pe mum (Rey 93) ig remarkable. pee poe any other of the Seven Churches is alluded to. Yet it is not to be doubted, in view of the rest of the book, that there had been martyrs in them all, and that their sufferings, which are mentioned, imply fully developed persecution by the Roman state. The prominent mention of Antipas is probably to be explained by his being the earliest martyr put to death by the Roman state policy ; and, according to a common principle, the name of the first is given as in a sense representative of the whole list. While Pergamum was the capital of the province, the governor, before whom the trials would be held, was there more fr uently than in any other city (though of course he made occa- sional progresses through his province); and many Christians from other cities would be condemned and would suffer there, so that Pergamum would be peculiarly associated with the death of the martyrs from Antipas onwards. There is there- fore no po that Antipas belonged to Pergamum, though he is mentioned as having suffered there.*
This position of Pergamum as the place of martyrs did not continue after it ceased to be ‘the place where the throne of Satan is.’ After the time of Hadrian, doubtless, the proconsul of Asia spent much more of his time at Ephesus than at
ergamum ; and we observe in the earliest Mar- tyrologies, the old Syrian and the Hieronymian, that more martyrs are associated with Ephesus, Smyrna, Laodicea, and Synnada than with Perga- mum ; for very few names of the Ist cent. martyrs at Pergamum were preserved.+ The allusion to the new name given to each Christian, secret, written on a white stone (Rev 217), is perhaps an allusion to the custom of taking secret and new baptismal names: this custom perhaps arose in the stress of persecution, and was intended to ensure greater secrecy during the ages when it was dangerous to be known as a Christian. The secret name is mentioned only in the letter to Pergamum, the place of martyrs, and does not occur in the letters to the other churches. The question also occurs whether the allusion to writing on a white stone is made with reference to the writing material manu- factured at Pergamum and deriving its name from the city, charta Pergamena or parchment. In the letter to Philadelphia occurs an allusion to writing : 41 will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God’: the difference between this expression and the secret name written on the white stone at Pergamum suggests that the language is chosen with reference to the special circumstance of the city: ‘the name is written, not on your lasting white parchment, but on an imperishable white tessera’; cf. LAODICEA. The ‘white stone’ is not an allusion to the white stone (λευκὸς AlGos), 4.¢. marble, so abundant in the buildings of Pergamum and other great cities; it is called a ‘ white ψῆφος, a sort of tessera, a small cube or tablet, on which brief titles or watchwords or signs were engraved, and which was often employed for similar purposes to a ticket in modern times.
That there were Jews in Pergamum may be regarded as certain. In B.c, 139 the Romans wrote to Attalus 1. in favour of the Jews, which sroves that there were Jews in his dominions (as is of course well known from other sources), and there is a reasonable certainty that some would
. 76; see the inscription in Le Bas- Waddington, No. 147); inohiver! de Neocoria, p. 107 t.
* No independent tradition about Antipas bas come down to us: the references to him seem all to depend on Rev 24. The details of almost all eventa in the earliest persecutions perished from the memory of history.
ἡ See the preceding note. ᾿ ;
1 Of, Σεράτων Τυράννον ‘ledeia at Magnesia Sip., Ath. Mit Inst. 1899, p. 239.
PERIDA
settle in the capital of the kingdom as the centre for financial operations. About 8,6. 130 the Pergamenians, now an autonomous state (as we have seen above), passed a decree (in accordance with the resolution of the Roman Senate) in favour of the Jews and the high priest Hyrcanus.* While this decree does not actually mention Jewish residents in the city, there would be little reason for it unless Pergamum were in close re- lations with the Jews. nder the Romans, Per- gamum was no longer the commercial centre of the province, for it lay far from 7 of the great trade routes between the East and Rome; and it may be regarded as probable that the Jewish settlers in Pergamum would not increase but rather diminish in numbers. Hence in B.c. 62, when Flaccus, overnor of Asia, confiscated the money which the ΤῊ Ξ of the provinces were on the point of sending to Jerusalem as their annual contribution, he seized at Apameia of Phrygia nearly 100 Ibs. weight of gold,t at Laodicea of Phrygia over 20 Ibs. weight, at Adramyttium an amount which has been obliterated in the manuscripts, and at Pergamum a small amount. Adramyttium, as a seaport, was prperenily at that time a more im- rtant Jewish centre than Pergamum. The inscriptions hitherto discovered in the city never allude to Jews; but, inasmuch as the Jews used ure Greek names (even the envoys mentioned in the Pergamenian decree about 130 have Greek names, and would be unrecognizable as Jews), some of the persons alluded to in the inscriptions may possibly be Jews. On the whole, the failure of the term ‘Jew’ in the numerous inscriptions points to the very thorough assimilation of Greek manners by the Pergamenian Jews, who had thus become almost undistinguishable from the general population of the city. It is probable that this adoption of Greek manners by the Jews in Perga- mum is the cause of the allusion to Balaam and the Nicolaitans in Rev 2-45, Some of them had become Christians; and their freedom in following Greek ways of life, and in complying with idola- trous usages in society, had begun to have some effect on the Christian community in the city. Little is known as to the later history of Chris- tianity in Pergamum, or as to the fortunes of the city. It was a bishopric throughout the Byzantine period, being part of the later and smaller Byzan- tine Asia, under Ephesus; and it has continued to be a place of some consequence, preserving the ancient name Bergama, down to the present day. Much more light will be thrown on the city when the splendid and costly excavations conducted for years at Pergamum by the German Government are completed and their results fully published. Up to the present time the volumes (1.) on the inscriptions (with supplement in Athen. Mittheil. Inst. 1899), (ii.) on the sanctuary of Athena Polias Nikephoros, (iv.) on the theatre-terrace, and (v.) on the temple of Trajan, are the only ones published. W. M. RAMSAY. PERIDA (x13, Padovpd). —The eponym of a