[German Version]

(pre-Gk “fortress”), on the Caicus (modern Bakir) in southern Mysia, 26 km from the coast, on a high hill (over 300 m) that drops steeply to the west, north, and east. In the Archaic and Classical periods, Pergamum/Pergamon was a fortress with a small settlement; in the late 6th century bce it came under Persian rule. After liberation by Alexander the Great, it came into the hands of the diadoch Antigonus, then Lysimachus (301–281 bce), who used it as the depository for his treasury of 20,000 talents, under the protection of the castellan Philetaerus. In 282 bce, Philetaerus…