The first historical reference to Pergamum, a city of Mysia in northwest Anatolia, is by Xenophon (c.430-c.354 BC), a Greek soldier who fought in the Greco-Persian wars (499-449 BC), in the final pages of his Anabasis.
After gaining control of western Asia Minor, Lysimachus appointed his general Philetaerus (c.80; r.281-263 BC), son of Attalus, to be his governor at Pergamum and guard his treasury. In 282 BC Philetaerus switched his allegiance to Seleucus-I. When Seleucus died in 281 BC, he set himself up as king and founded the Attalid Dynasty (281-129 BC).
Eumenes-I (r.263-241 BC), son of Eumenes the brother of Philetaerus, defeated the Seleucid Antiochus-I (r.281-261 BC) in a battle near Sardis in 262 BC, and although he probably lost most of his gains to Antiochus II (40; r.261-246 BC), he maintained his independence till his death. He regularly bought immunity from the plundering bands of Galatians.
The greatest achievement of Attalus-I (72; r.241-197 BC), son of Attalus a cousin of Eumenes-I, was his decisive defeat of the Galatians sometime before 230 BC. His counterattack (230-228 BC) on Antiochus Hierax (c.263-226 BC) – at war with his brother Seleucus II (246-225 BC) for possession of Asia Minor – gained him all of Asia Minor except Cilicia, but Achaeus (d.213 BC)), a general of Antiochus III (c.54; r.223-187 BC), deprived him of most of his conquests.
The dangerous ambitions of Philip V of Macedon (59; r.221-179 BC) prompted Attalus to support Philip’s enemies, the Aetolians. After the Peace of Phoenice (205 BC), his response to Philip’s acts of aggression near the Hellespont was to renew the war in alliance with Rhodes and to secure Roman intervention. He died shortly before the final victory in the Second Macedonian War (200-197 BC).
Eumenes II (r.197-160 BC), eldest son of Attalus-I, collaborated with the Romans to oppose first Macedonian and then Seleucid expansion towards the Aegean, leading to the defeat of Antiochus III at the Battle of Magnesia in 190 BC. The Peace of Apamea (188 BC) gave him the Thracian Chersonese and most of western Asia Minor. The Romans intervened in his favour to end his wars with Bithynia (186-183 BC). He later fell out with the Romans after they suspected him of conspiring with Perseus of Macedon (c.46; r.179-166 BC).
Attalus II (82; r.160-138 BC), second son of Attalus-I, regained the support of the Romans. They assisted him in his two wars against Prusias II of Bithynia (r.182-149 BC) and sided with him in helping the pretender Alexander-I Balas (r.150-146 BC) to win the Seleucid throne from Demetrius-I (35; r.161-150 BC).
Attalus III (c.37; r.138-133 BC), son of Eumenes II, had no heirs of his own and in his will he left the kingdom of Pergamum to Rome. When Attalus died, Aristonicus (r.133-129 BC), perhaps an illegitimate son of Eumenes II, led a popular uprising and took the dynastic name Eumenes III. He was eventually captured by the Roman forces and put to death.
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