PERGAMOS (lIgp-yagos), or PERGAMUM, a town of the Great Mysia, the capital of a kingdom of the same name, and afterwards of the Roman province of Asia Propria. 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. 39° 4', E. long. I2', stood Pergamos, 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 moun tains, on one of which now stands a dilapidated castle. About two centuries before the Christian era, Pergamos became the residence of the cele brated kings of the family of Attalus, and a seat of literature and the arts. King Eumenes, the second of the name, greatly beautified the town, and increased the library of Pergamos so consider ably that the number of volumes amounted 200,000. As the papyrus shrub had not yet begun to be exported from 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 remained at Pergamos after the kingdom of the Attali had lost its inde pendence, 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 aulsaa, from having adorned the hall of King Attalus, were also 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, ix. 17). Pergamos retained under the Romans that authority over the cities of Asia which it had acquired under the successors of Attalus, and it still preserves many vestiges of its ancient magnifi cence. Remains of the Asclepium and of some other temples ; of the theatre, stadium, amphithe atre, and several other buildings ; are still to be seen. Even now, Pergamos, under the name of Bergamo, is a place of considerable importance, containing a population estimated at 14,00o, of whom about 3000 are Greeks, 300 Armenians, and the rest Turks (Macfarlane's Visit). The writer just cited says, The approach to this ancient and decayed city was as impressive as well might be. After crossing the Caicus, I saw, looking over three vast tumuli, or sepulchral barrows, similar to those of the plains of Troy, the Turkish city of Pergamos, with its tall minarets and taller cypresses, situated on the lower declivities and at the foot of the Acropolis, whose bold gray brow was crowned by the rugged walls of a barbarous castle, the usurper of the site of a magnificent Greek temple.'
The town consists for the most part of small and mean wooden houses, among which appear the re mains of early Christian churches, showing like vast fortresses amid vast barracks of wood.' None of these churches have any Scriptural or Apoca lyptic interest connected 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. The fanes of Jupiter and Diana, of Alsculapius and Venus, are prostrate in the dust ; and where they have not been carried away by the Turks, to cut up into tombstones or to pound into mortar, the Corinthian and Ionic columns, the splendid capitals, the cor nices and pediments, all in the highest ornament, are thrown into unsightly heaps.' In Pergamos was one of the seven churches of Asia,' to which the Apocalypse is addressed. This church is commended for its fidelity and firmness in the midst of persecutions, and in a city so emi nently addicted 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 much frequented temple of iEsculapius, who probably there, as in other places, was worshipped in the form of a living serpent, fed in the temple, and considered as its divinity. Hence YEsculapius was called the god of Pergamos, and on the coins struck by the town, Esculapius appears with a rod encircled by a ser pent (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 al ludes to the worship of the serpent, which was there practised (Rosenmiiller, Bib. Geog., iii. 13-17; Macfarlane, Visit to the Seven Apocalyptic Churches, 1832; Arundell's Asia Minor, ii. 302-7; Leake's Geog. of Asia Minor, pp. 265, 266 ; Richter, Wallfahrten, p. 488, seq. ; Schubert, Reise ins Morgenland ; Missionary Herald for 1839, pp. 228-3o).—J. K.