Pergamon, Turkey – The city established with thousands of kilogrammes of gold!

Pergamos or Pergamon supposed to originate from a language used before Greek means “castle”. The life in Pergamon with various legends about the foundations started in the prehistoric era and dates back to the 3rd century BC. The settled culture beginning in the Archaic age hosted Lydians, Persians, Greeks and a new era opened with Alexander the Great.

After the death of Alexander, a struggle started among the commmanders to share the heritage and the South and West Anatolias have been left to General Lysimakhos. Lysimakhos has also possessed a big war booty besides the lands. This booty meant a treasury weighing 9 thousand talant (weighing 180 thousand kg. for some sources and 234 thousand kg. for some others)! General Lysimakhos had delivered this treasury to his commander Philetairos while going to a war. After the death of Lysimakhos, Philetairos devlared the Kingdom of Pergamon and minted coins belonging to the city. The city developed rapidly; Eumenes I, Attalos I, Eumenes II, Attalos II, Attalos III ruled respectively. After the death of the king, the city has been annexed to Rome. After the death of Cesar, Pergamon was left to Antonius in 40 BC and it lost its famous library in this period. The city has undergone many chaotic centuries and in 300s, the decadence started for Pergamon like in the other Anatolian cities. Poverty, earthquakes, plague and power struggles… Following the division of the Roman Empire into two in 395 AD, the Byzantine Age started for Pergamon. Pergamon which played an important role in the propagation of Christianity possessed on of the “Seven Churches” built by the Apostle Pavlos. The city was captured by the Turks at the beginning of the 14th century and annexed to the Ottoman Empire after 1345…

While the histroy witnessed such chaotic eras, Pergamon never lost ists splendour and importance in the region. It always amazed human beings with its library, parchment, medical centers, big steps in psychiatry, culture and art…