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Attalus I

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   Coin struck during the reign of Attalus I, depicting the head of
   Attalus' great uncle Philetaerus on the obverse and seated Athena,
   Greek goddess of war and wisdom, on the reverse
   Enlarge
   Coin struck during the reign of Attalus I, depicting the head of
   Attalus' great uncle Philetaerus on the obverse and seated Athena,
   Greek goddess of war and wisdom, on the reverse

   Attalus I Soter (Greek: "Savior"; 269 BCE – 197 BCE) ruled Pergamon, a
   Greek polis in what is now Turkey, from 241 BCE to 197 BCE. He was the
   second cousin and the adoptive son of Eumenes I, whom he succeeded, and
   was the first of the Attalid dynasty to assume the title of king.

   Attalus won an important victory over the Galatians, newly arrived
   Celtic tribes from Thrace, who had been, for more than a generation,
   plundering and exacting tribute throughout most of Asia Minor without
   any serious check. This victory, celebrated by the triumphal monument
   at Pergamon, famous for its Dying Gaul, and the liberation from the
   Gallic "terror" which it represented, earned for Attalus the name of
   "Soter", and the title of "king."

   A courageous and capable general and loyal ally of Rome, he played a
   significant role in the first and second Macedonian Wars, waged against
   Philip V of Macedon. He conducted numerous naval operations, harassing
   Macedonian interests throughout the Aegean, winning honours, collecting
   spoils, and gaining for Pergamon possession of the Greek islands of
   Aegina during the first war, and Andros during the second, twice
   narrowly escaping capture at the hands of Philip.

   He died in 197 BCE, shortly before the end of the second war, at the
   age of 72, having suffered an apparent stroke while addressing a
   Boeotian war council some months before. He enjoyed a famously happy
   domestic life, shared with his wife and four sons. He was succeeded as
   king by his son Eumenes II.

Early life

   Little is known about Attalus' early life. He was the son of Attalus,
   and Antiochis.

   The elder Attalus was the son of a brother (also called Attalus) of
   both Philetaerus, the founder of the Attalid dynasty, and Eumenes, the
   father of Eumenes I, Philataerus' successor; he is mentioned, along
   with his uncles, as a benefactor of Delphi. He won fame as a
   charioteer, winning at Olympia, and was honored with a monument at
   Pergamon. Attalus was a young child when his father died, sometime
   before 241 BCE, after which he was adopted by Eumenes I, the incumbent
   dynast.

   Attalus' mother, Antiochis, was probably related to the Seleucid royal
   family (perhaps being the granddaughter of Seleucus I Nicator) with her
   marriage to Attalus' father likely arranged by Philetaerus to solidify
   his power. This would be consistent with the conjecture that Attalus'
   father had been Philetaerus' heir designate, but was succeeded by
   Eumenes, since Attalus I was too young when his father died.

Defeat of the Galatians

   The Dying Gaul
   Enlarge
   The Dying Gaul

   According to Pausanias, "the greatest of his achievements" was the
   defeat of the " Gauls"(Γαλάται). Pausanias was referring to the
   Galatians, immigrant Celts from Thrace, who had recently settled in
   Galatia in central Asia Minor, and whom the Romans and Greeks called
   Gauls, associating them with the Celts of what is now France,
   Switzerland, and northern Italy. Since the time of Philetaerus, the
   uncle of Eumenes I and the first Attalid ruler, the Galatians had posed
   a problem for Pergamon, indeed for all of Asia Minor, by exacting
   tributes to avoid war or other repercussions. Eumenes I had (probably),
   along with other rulers, dealt with the Galatians by paying these
   tributes. Attalus however refused to pay them, being the first such
   ruler to do so. As a consequence, the Galatians set out to attack
   Pergamon. Attalus met them near the sources of the river Caïcus and won
   a decisive victory, after which, following the example of Antiochus I,
   Attalus took the name of Soter, which means "savior", and claimed the
   title of king. The victory brought Attalus legendary fame. A story
   arose, related by Pausanias, of an oracle who had foretold these events
   a generation earlier:

          Then verily, having crossed the narrow strait of the Hellespont,
          The devastating host of the Gauls shall pipe; and lawlessly
          They shall ravage Asia; and much worse shall God do
          To those who dwell by the shores of the sea
          For a short while. For right soon the son of Cronos
          Shall raise a helper, the dear son of a bull reared by Zeus
          Who on all the Gauls shall bring a day of destruction.

   Pausanius adds that by the "son of a bull" the oracle "meant Attalus,
   king of Pergamon, who was styled bull-horned". On the acropolis of
   Pergamon was erected a triumphal monument, which included the famous
   sculpture The Dying Gaul, commemorating this battle.

Conquests in Seleucid Asia Minor

   Several years after the first victory over the Gauls, Pergamon was
   again attacked by the Gauls together with their ally Antiochus Hierax,
   the younger brother of Seleucus II Callinicus, and ruler of Seleucid
   Asia Minor from his capital at Sardis. Attalus defeated the Gauls and
   Antiochus at the battle of Aphrodisium and again at a second battle in
   the east. Subsequent battles were fought and won against Antiochus
   alone: in Hellespontine Phrygia, where Antiochus was perhaps seeking
   refuge with his father-in law, Ziaelas the king of Bithynia; near
   Sardis in the spring of 228 BCE; and, in the final battle of the
   campaign, further south in Caria on the banks of the Harpasus, a
   tributary of the Maeander.

   As a result of these victories, Attalus gained control over all of
   Seleucid Asia Minor north of the Taurus Mountains. He was able to hold
   onto these gains in the face of repeated attempts by Seleucus III
   Ceraunus, eldest son and successor of Seleucus II, to recover the lost
   territory, culminating in Seleucus III himself crossing the Taurus with
   his army, only to be assassinated in 223 BCE.

   Achaeus, who had accompanied Seleucus III, assumed control of the army.
   He was offered and refused the kingship in favour of Seleucus III's
   younger brother Antiochus III the Great, who then made Achaeus governor
   of Seleucid Asia Minor north of the Taurus. Within two years Achaeus
   had recovered all the lost Seleucid territories, "shut up Attalus
   within the walls of Pergamon," and assumed the title of king.

   After a period of peace, in 218 BCE, while Achaeus was involved in an
   expedition to Selge south of the Taurus, Attalus, with some Thracian
   Gauls, recaptured his former territories. However Achaeus returned from
   victory in Selge in 217 BCE and resumed hostilities with Attalus.

   Antiochus, under a treaty of alliance with Attalus, crossed the Taurus
   in 216 BCE, attacked Acheaus and besieged Sardis, and in 214 BCE, the
   second year of the siege, was able to take the city. However the
   citadel remained under Acheaus' control. Under the pretense of a
   rescue, Achaeus was finally captured and put to death, and the citadel
   surrendered By 213 BCE, Antiochus had regained control of all of his
   Asiatic provinces.

First Macedonian War

   Thwarted in the east, Attalus now turned his attention westward.
   Perhaps because of concern for the ambitions of Philip V of Macedon,
   Attalus had sometime before 219 BCE become allied with Philip's enemies
   the Aetolian League, a union of Greek states in Aetolia in central
   Greece, having funded the fortification of Elaeus, an Aetolian
   stronghold in Calydonia, near the mouth of the river Achelous.

   Philip's alliance with Hannibal of Carthage in 215 BCE also caused
   concern in Rome, then involved in the Second Punic War. In 211 BCE, a
   treaty was signed between Rome and the Aetolian League, a provision of
   which allowed for the inclusion of certain allies of the League,
   Attalus being one of these. Attalus was elected one of the two
   strategoi (generals) of the Aetolian League, and in 210 BCE his troops
   probably participated in capturing the island of Aegina, acquired by
   Attalus as his base of operations in Greece.

   In the following spring (209 BCE), Philip marched south into Greece.
   Under command of Pyrrhias, Attalus' colleague as strategos, the allies
   lost two battles at Lamia. Attalus himself went to Greece in July and
   was joined on Aegina by the Roman proconsul P. Sulpicius Galba who
   wintered there. The following summer (208 BCE) the combined fleet of
   thirty-five Pergamene and twenty-five Roman ships failed to take
   Lemnos, but occupied and plundered the countyside of the island of
   Peparethos (Skopelos), both Macedonian possessions.

   Attalus and Sulpicius then attended a meeting in Heraclea of the
   Council of the Aetolians, at which the Roman argued against making
   peace with Philip. When hostilities resumed, they sacked both Oreus, on
   the northern coast of Euboea and Opus, the chief city of eastern
   Locris.

   The spoils from Oreus had been reserved for Sulpicius, who returned
   there, while Attalus stayed to collect the spoils from Opus. With their
   forces divided, Philip attacked Opus. Attalus, caught by surprise, was
   barely able to escape to his ships.

   Attalus was now forced to return to Asia, for he had learned at Opus
   that, at the urging of Philip, Prusias I king of Bithynia, related to
   Philip by marriage, was moving against Pergamon. Soon after, the Romans
   also abandoned Greece to concentrate their forces against Hannibal,
   their objective of preventing Philip from aiding Hannibal having been
   achieved.

   In 206 BCE the Aetolians sued for peace on conditions imposed by
   Philip. A treaty was drawn up at Phoenice in 205 BCE, formally ending
   the First Macedonian War. The "Peace of Phoenice" also ended the war
   with Prusias, and Attalus retained Aegina.

Macedonian hostilities of 201 BCE

   Prevented by the treaty of Phoenice from expansion in the east, Philip
   set out to extend his power in the Aegean and in Asia Minor. In the
   spring of 201 BCE he took Samos and the Egyptian fleet stationed there.
   He then besieged Chios to the north.

   These events caused Attalus, allied with Rhodes, Byzantium and Cyzicus,
   to enter the war. A large naval battle occurred in the strait between
   Chios and the mainland, just southwest of Erythrae. According to
   Polybius, fifty-three decked warships and over one hundred and fifty
   smaller warships, took part on the Macedonian side, with sixty-five
   decked warships and a number of smaller warships on the allied side.
   During the battle Attalus, having become isolated from his fleet and
   pursued by Philip, was forced to run his three ships ashore, narrowly
   escaping by spreading various royal treasures on the decks of the
   grounded ships, causing his pursuers to abandon the pursuit in favour
   of plunder.

   Also during 201 BCE, Philip invaded Pergamon; although unable to take
   the easily defended city, in part due to precautions taken by Attalus
   to provide for additional fortifications, he demolished the surrounding
   temples and altars. Meanwhile, Attalus and Rhodes sent envoys to Rome,
   to register their complaints against Philip.

Second Macedonian War

   In 200 BCE, Attalus became involved in the Second Macedonian War.
   Acarnanians with Macedonian support invaded Attica, causing Athens,
   which had previously maintained its neutrality, to seek help from the
   enemies of Philip. Attalus, with his fleet at Aegina, received an
   embassy from Athens, to come to the city for consultations. Informed
   that Roman ambassadors were also at Athens, Attalus went there in
   haste. His reception at Athens was extraordinary. Polybius writes:

          … in company with the Romans and the Athenian magistrates, he
          began his progress to the city in great state. For he was met,
          not only by all the magistrates and the knights, but by all the
          citizens with their children and wives. And when the two
          processions met, the warmth of the welcome given by the populace
          to the Romans, and still more to Attalus, could not have been
          exceeded. At his entrance into the city by the gate Dipylum the
          priests and priestesses lined the street on both sides: all the
          temples were then thrown open; victims were placed ready at all
          the altars; and the king was requested to offer sacrifice.
          Finally they voted him such high honours as they had never
          without great hesitation voted to any of their former
          benefactors: for, in addition to other compliments, they named a
          tribe after Attalus, and classed him among their eponymous
          heroes.

   Sulpicius Galba, now consul, convinced Rome to declare war on Philip
   and asked Attalus to meet up with the Roman fleet and again conduct a
   naval campaign, harassing Macedonian possessions in the Aegean. In the
   spring of 199 BCE, the combined Pergamon and Roman fleets took Andros
   in the Cyclades, the spoils going to the Romans and the island to
   Attalus. From Andros they sailed south, made a fruitless attack on
   another Cycladic island, Kithnos, turned back north, scavenged the
   fields of Skiathos off the coast of Magnesia, for food, and continued
   north to Mende, where the fleets were wracked by storm. On land they
   were repulsed at Cassandrea, suffering heavy loss. They continued
   northeast along the Macedonian coast to Acanthus, which they sacked,
   after which they returned to Euboea, their vessels laden with spoils.

   On their return, Attalus and the Roman commander went to Heraclea to
   meet with the Aetolians, who under the terms of their treaty asked
   Attalus for a thousand soldiers. Attalus refused, citing the Aetolians'
   own refusal to honour Attalus' request to attack Macedonia during
   Philip's attack on Pergamon two years earlier. Resuming operations,
   Attalus and the Romans attacked but failed to take Oreus and, deciding
   to leave a small force to invest it, attacked across the straight in
   Thessaly. When they returned to Oreus, they again attacked, this time
   successfully, the Romans taking the captives, Attalus the city. The
   campaigning season over, Attalus, after attending the Eleusinian
   Mysteries, returned to Pergamon after an absence of more than two
   years.

   In the spring of 198 BCE, Attalus returned to Greece with twenty-three
   quinqueremes and joined a fleet of twenty decked Rhodian warships at
   Andros, to complete the conquest of Euboea begun the previous year.
   Soon joined by the Romans, the combined fleets took Eretria and later
   Carystus. Thus, the allies controlled all of Euboea except for Chalcis.
   After a failed attempt to take Corinth, the Romans left for Corcyra,
   while Attalus sailed for Piraeus.

   Early in 197 BCE, Titus Quinctius Flamininus, the Roman consul,
   summoned Attalus to a Boeotian council in Thebes to discuss which side
   Boeotia would take in the war. Attalus was the first to speak in the
   council, but during his address he stopped talking and collapsed, with
   one side of his body paralyzed. Attalus was taken back to Pergamon,
   where he died the following fall, perhaps having heard of the news of
   the decisive Roman victory at the Battle of Cynoscephalae, bringing
   about the end of the Second Macedonian War.

Family

   Attalus married Apollonis, from Cyzicus. They had four sons, Eumenes,
   Attalus, Philetaerus and Athenaeus (after Apollonis' father). Polybius
   describes Apollonis as:

          … a woman who for many reasons deserves to be remembered, and
          with honour. Her claims upon a favourable recollection are that,
          though born of a private family, she became a queen, and
          retained that exalted rank to the end of her life, not by the
          use of meretricious fascinations, but by the virtue and
          integrity of her conduct in private and public life alike. Above
          all, she was the mother of four sons with whom she kept on terms
          of the most perfect affection and motherly love to the last day
          of her life.

   The filial "affection" of the brothers as well as their upbringing is
   also remarked on by several ancient sources. A decree of Antiochus IV
   praises

          … king Attalus and queen Apollonis … because of their virtue and
          goodness, which they preserved for their sons, managing their
          education in this way wisely and well.

   An inscription at Pergamon represents Apollonis as saying that

          … she always considered herself blessed and gave thanks to the
          gods, not for wealth or empire, but because she saw her three
          sons guarding the eldest and him reigning without fear among
          those who were armed.

   Polybius, describing Attalus' life says:

          … and what is more remarkable than all, though he left four
          grown-up sons, he so well settled the question of succession,
          that the crown was handed down to his children's children
          without a single dispute.

   Attalus died in 197 BCE at the age of 72. He was succeeded by his son
   Eumenes II.

Introduction of the cult of the Magna Mater to Rome

   In 205 BCE, after the "Peace of Phoenice", Rome turned to Attalus, as
   its only friend in Asia, for help concerning a religious matter. An
   unusual number of meteor showers caused concern in Rome, and an
   inspection was made of the Sibylline Books, which discovered verses
   saying that if a foreigner were to make war on Italy, he could be
   defeated if the Magna Idaea, the Mother Goddess, associated with Mount
   Ida in Phrygia, were brought from Pessinus to Rome. M. Valerius
   Laevinus heading a distinguished delegation, was dispatched to
   Pergamon, to seek Attalus' aid. According to Livy, Attalus received the
   delegation warmly, "and conducted them to Pessinus in Phrygia" where he
   "handed over to them the sacred stone which the natives declared to be
   "the Mother of the Gods," and bade them carry it to Rome". In Rome the
   goddess became known as the Magna Mater.
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