■The high tone of the apostolic teaching is sustained by Clement of Rome, who says {Ep. ad Cor. 49 f.): 'In love were all the elect of God made perfect. . . . How great and marvellous a thing is love, and there is no declaring its perfec- tion. . . . They that by God's grace were perfected in love dwell in the abode of the pious.'
Literature.— In addition to tlie works referred to in the art. see W. B. Pope, A Coinpendiuni of ChrUiian Theoloiiy'^, iii. [London, 1880] 66 ff. ; O. A. Curtis, The Christian Faith, do., 1906, p. 373 ff. ; W. A. Brown, Christian Thcnlngi/ in Outline, Edinburgh, 1907, p. 411 if. : L. Lemma, * Volllioinmenheit ' in PRE3 XX. [Leipzig, 1908J 733 fl.; J. A. Beet, 'Christian Per- fection,' in Exp, 6th ser., v. [1897] 30 ff., 134 ff., 211 ff.
J. 6. Tasker.
PERGA [U^pyri). — Perga was an ancient import- ant city of Pamphylia, on the plateau between the rivers Catarrhactes and Cestrus. Reckoned by Ptolemy among the inland cities of the country (UafitfiiMas /xead-feMi. [V. v. 7]), it had a river-harbour 5 miles eastward on the navigable Cestrus, about 8 miles from the sea (Strabo, XIV. iv. 2). It differed essentially from its rival Attalia, 12 miles to the S.W., in being a centre not of Hel- lenic culture, but of native Anatolian feeling. It was celebrated for the worship of the Queen of Perga, who came to be identified with the Greek Artemis, but who was really, like the Artemis of the Ephesians, a nature-goddess. On coins she is figured sometimes as a fair Diana of the chase, sometimes as a rude cultus-image. Her temple, the Artemisium, stood on the Acropolis, overlook- ing the city and expressing its faith. Perga was occupied by Alexander on his march eastward. A much-frequented northward route led over the Taurus into Phrygia and the Menander Valley.
Paul and Barnabas were twice at Perga in their first missionary tour. In their outward journey they landed at the river-harbour and went up to the city (Ac 13"). Ramsay thinks that they intended to begin a missionary campaign there, but altered their plans on account of a serious
PERGAMUS, PERGAMUM
I'ERGAMLS, PERGAMUM 1C7
illness — perhaps malarial fever — which compelled St. I'aiil to leave the enervating atmosphere of Paniphylia and seek health in tlie Phrygian up- lands {St. Paul, p. 8911'.). Conybeare and ilowson suggest that, in any case, ' if St. Paul was at Perga in May, he would find the inhaliitants de.serting its hot and silent streets,' moving to their summer quarters ' in tiie direction of his own intended journey. He would be under no tempta- tion to stay' 1st. Paul, i. 19'.) f.). Before the apostles left Perga, a painful incident occurred. ' John departed from them and returned to Jeru- salem ' (13"), either because he was displeased (as Ramsay surmises) at the sudden change in the plan of campaign, or simply because the snows of Taurus sent a chill to his heart and made him long for his Juda!an home. At any rate ' he withdrew from them from Pami>hylia,' without good cause, St. Paul then and afterwards maintained, 'and went not with them to the work ' (15" ; see Mark [John]). On tlie return journey Paul and Barnabas attempted some missionary work in Perga (14-°), but apjjarently it was brief and without marked results. Long the 'metropolis' of Western Pani- phylia, Perga was overshadowed in the Byzantine period by Attalia. Under the name of Murtana it has extensive ruins, but the site of the ancient temple has not yet been discovered.
Literature. — Conybeare-Howson, The Life and Epistles of St. Paul, new ed., 1S77, i. 19311. ; W. M. Ramsay, -S'l. J'aiU the Traveller and the liomaii Citizen, lsy5, p. b9ff., Ilist. Geography oj A^ia Minor, 1890, p. 415 f. ; C. Lanckoronski, Vitles de la Paniphitlie et de la Pisidie, i. [l^;to] ; Murray's Haudbuuk to Asia iliiwr, 1S95. JaMES STKAHAN.
PERGAMUS, PERGAMUM (r, Ylipyaiw^ or t4 lli/rfap.ov ; Itev 1" and 2'- leave the gender un- certain ; Dio Cassius, Pausanias, and Ptolemy have the fem. form, most authors and inscriptions the neat. ; the AV chose the former, the KV the latter). — Pergamus was for over a century (241- 133 B.C.) a royal city, and for two more centuries the ollicial capital of a gTeat and wealthy Roman province. Built on a huge conical hill, which dominated the broad and fertile valley of the river Caicus and afforded an extensive view of the ./Egean Sea (15 miles distant), it was an ideal citadel in days of ancient Mysian warfare. Its historical importance began when the adventurer Philetierus, the agent of Lysimachus, made it the capital of an independent State (283 B.C.), which was raised into a kingdom by Attalus I., the conqueror of the Asiatic Gauls (241-197). For assisting the Romans in their struggle with Antiochus the Great, Attalus' son Eumenes II. was rewarded with the magnih- cent gift of all the Seleucid dominions north of the Taurus. The Attalids m.ade their capita! one of the most beautiful of Greek cities, adorning the Acropolis with stately public buildings, which they tilled with treasures of art. The library con- tained 200,000 volumes, and ' parchment ' is derived from Pergamus. When Attalus III. (138-133 B.C.) bequeathed his realm to the Romans, the greater part of it was formed into the province of Asia, of which Pergamus was the capital. The city could never be a centre of international commerce like Ephesus or Smyrna, for it was traversed only by inland byways of traffic, but its brilliant history gave it an indisputable claim to the primacy among Asian cities, and it was not till the time of Hadrian (A.D. 117-138) that Ephesus became officially what it had long been in reality — the administrative centre of the province.