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PERGAMUM

Volume 17 · 249 words · 1810 Edition

(Pliny); called also Pergamea, (Virgil); Pergamia, (Plutarch); a town of Crete, built Pergamum, built by Agamemnon in memory of his victory, (Vel- Per- gamus, quoted by Plutarch.) It was situated near Cydonia (Servius); to what point not said; but Scylax helps him out, who places the Dactylean temple of Diana, which stood near Cydonia (Strabo), to the north of the territory of Pergamum.—Another Pergamum (Pliny, Strabo); a town of Myia, situated on the Cai- cus, which runs by it. It was the royal residence of Eumenes, and of the kings of the Attali (Livy). There an ancient temple of Aesculapius stood; an aly- jum (Tacitus). The ornament of Pergamum was the royal library, vying with that of Alexandria in Egypt; the kings of Pergamum and Egypt rivaling each other in this respect (Pliny). Strabo attributes this rivalry to Eumenes. Plutarch reckons up 200,000 volumes in the library at Pergamum. Here the membrane perga- menae, whence the name parchment, were invented for the use of books, (Varro, quoted by Pliny). The country of Galen, and of Oribasius chief physician to Julian the Apostate (Eunapius), called by some the age of Galen. Here P. Scipio died (Cicero). Attalus I of Eumenes dying without issue, bequeathed his kingdom to the Roman people, who reduced it to a province, (Strabo). Pergameus, the epithet (Martial). Here was one of the nine conventus juridici, or assemblies of the Asia Romana, called Pergamenus, and the ninth in order (Pliny); which he also calls juridictio Perga- mena.