PERGA (par'ga), (Gr. fierg'ay, citadel), a town of Pampbylia, in Asia Minor, situated upon the river Cestrus, sixty stades from its estuary.
On a hill near the town stood a celebrated temple of Artemis, at which the inhabitants of the surrounding country held a yearly festival in honor of the goddess. Perga was originally the capital of Pamphylia; but when that province was divided into two, Side became the chief town of the first, and Perga of the second Pamphylia. (Strabo, xiv. p. 667 ; Pliny, Hist. Nat. v. 26; Pomp. Mela, 14; Cic. Verr. i. 3o). The apostle Paul was twice at this place (Acts xiii: 13; xiv :25). In the first instance he seems to have landed at Perga, and the Cestrus was then, in fact, navigable to the town, although the en trance to the river is now impassable, having long been closed by a bar. The site has been established by Col. Leakc as that where extensive remains of vaulted and ruined buildings were ob served by General Kohler on the Cestrus, west of Stavros. It is called by the Turks Eski-kalesi. PERGAMOS (pEr'ga-rnOs), (Gr. Ilip-yauos, fier' g-am-os, citadel, burg), or PERGADIUM, a town of the Great Mysia, the capital of a kingdom of the same name, and afterwards of the Roman province of Asia Propria.
(1) Location. The river Caicus, which is formed by the union of two branches meeting thirty or forty miles above its mouth, waters an extensive valley not exceeded in natural beauty and fertility by any in the world. In this valley, in N. lat. 3o° 4', E. long. 27° 12', stood Perga mos, at the distance of about twenty miles from the sea. It lay on the north bank of the Caicus, at the base and on the declivity of two high and steep mountains, on one of which now stands a dilapidated castle. About two centuries before the Christian era, Pergamos became the residence of the celebrated kings of the family of Attalus, and a seat of literature and the arts.
(2) Library. King Eumenes, the second of the name, greatly beautified the town, and in creased the library of Pergamos so considerably that the number of volumes amounted to 200,000. As the papyrus shrub had not yet begun to be exported front Egypt, sheep and goat skins, cleaned and prepared for the purpose, were used for manuscripts ; and as the art of preparing them was brought to perfection at Pergamos, they, from that circumstance, obtained the name of pergamena, or parchment. The library mained at Pergamos after the kingdom of the Attali had lost its independence. until Antony removed it to Egypt, and presented it to Queen Cleopatra. (Pliny, Hist. Nat. iii. 2; Plutarch, Anton.) The valuable tapestries, called in Latin °ultra, from having adorned the hall of King At talus, were alsc, wrought in this town. The last
king of Pergamos bequeathed his treasures to the Romans, who took possession of the kingdom also, and erected it into a province under the name of Asia Propria (Martial. Epig. ix:17).
(3) Under the Romans. Pergamos retained under the Romans that authority over the cities of Asia which it had acquired under the suc cessors of Attalus, and it still preserves many vestiges of its ancient magnificence. Remains of the Asclepium, and of some other temples, of the theater, stadium, amphitheater, and several other buildings, are still to he seen. Even now Perga mos, under the name of Bergamo, is a place of considerable importance, containing a population estimated at 14,000, of whom about 3,0oo are Greeks, 3oo Armenians, and the rest Turks (Mac farlane's Visit).
(4) Present Condition. The town consists for the most part of small and mean wooden houses, among which appear the remains of early Chris tian churches, showing 'like vast fortresses amid vast barracks of wood.' None of these churches have any Scriptural or Apocalyptic interest con nected with them, having been erected 'several centuries after the ministry of the apostles, and when Christianity was not a humble and despised creed. but the adopted religion of a vast empire.' The Pagan temples have fared worse than these Christian churches.
(5) One of the Seven Churches. In Pergamos was one of 'the Seven Churches of Asia,' to which the Apocalypse is addressed. This church is com mended for its fidelity and firmness in the midst of persecutions, and in a city so eminently ad dicted to idolatry. 'I know,' it is said, 'thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is' (Rev. ii :13); Now there was at Pergamos a celebrated and inuch frequented temple of fEsculapius, who probably there, as in other places, was .worshiped in the form of a living serpent, fed in the temple, and considered as its divinity. Hence iEsculapius was called the god of Perga mos, and on the coins struck by the town, rEscu lapius appears with a rod encircled by a serpent (Berger, Thesaur., i. 492). As the sacred writer mentions (Rev, xii :9) the great dragon and the old serpent, there is reason to conclude that when he says in the above passage that the church of Pergamos dwelt 'where Satan's seat is,' he alludes to the worship of the serpent, which was there practiced (Rosenmuller, Bib. Geog. 13-17; Macfarlane, Visit to the Seven Apocalyptic Churches, 1832; Artindell's Asia Minor, ii. 3o2 7 ; Leake's Geog. of Asia Minor, pp.265,266; Rich ter, Wallfahrten, P. 488, sq.; Schubert, Reise ins Morgenlond; Missionary Herald for 1839, pp. 228 3o; Smith, Diet. Class Geog.)