Travel Guide Bergama (Pergamo)

This Roman archaeological site dominates the plain of Bakirçay in the Aegean region of Turkey. It shelters a splendid Hellenistic theater which makes it an obligatory stop for all the amateurs of the kind and of ancient history. Built on a hillside during the reign of Eumenes II in the 2nd century B.C., this theater, the steepest in antiquity, is different from the conventions of the time which required that the perimeter of the auditorium exceed the semicircle. With its 80 tiers, it could accommodate 10,000 spectators. In the center of the cavea we can see an imperial marble lodge built by the Romans for the highest dignitaries of the city. The history of the city is known since the third century BC, when it was the capital of the Attalid kingdom. Important economic center, it was adorned with grandiose monuments. Thanks to Plutarch, we know that the library of Pergamon, rich of 200 000 volumes, was one of the most important libraries of the Antiquity. At the time, it was surpassed only by that of Alexandria. The library of Pergamon, like that of Alexandria, was intended for engineers and scholars whom the king protected. The Alexandrians, hampered by the competition, stopped exporting papyrus, but the wise men of Pergamon invented the parchment (in Latin pergamen) made of animal skin. After the destruction by fire of the library of Alexandria, Mark Antony offers to Cleopatra as a consolation gift the contents of the library of Pergamon. During the Roman period, the city grew, reaching nearly 150,000 inhabitants. The decline of Pergamon began in 88 BC, at the time of its alliance with Mithridate against the Romans. When the latter defeated the ruler of Pontus, they plundered the treasures of Pergamum and transported them to Rome. Christianity found there a ground of proselytism, Pergamon is part of one of the seven churches of theApocalypse.