Expeditions

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Bergama, Turkey (ancient Pergamum)

The Book of Revelation was written for a specific audience: the congregations of churches in seven towns in what is now western Turkey. The fortunes of those seven towns—Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea—have risen and fallen over the centuries since the Biblical book was written. Bergama, once the international city of Pergamum but now a village, exemplifies the changing tide of history for these seven locales.

Though Pergamum apparently served from prehistoric times as a military stronghold at the summit of a mountain between two branches of the Caicus River, it came into its own as a city during the third century B.C. Lysimachus, who consolidated his power in Thrace late in the fourth century B.C., named Philetaerus commander of Pergamum. Lysimachus left Philetaerus, one of his most trusted lieutenants, a large sum of money to use for war expenses. Philetaerus had other ideas: He took the money and used it to found his own dynasty (the Attalid dynasty) in 282 B.C. That dynasty lasted until about 100 B.C. During the Attalid dynasty, Pergamum greatly benefited from its alliance with Rome. It remained independent, however, until Attalus III died in 133 B.C., 077stating in his will that he left Rome “the furnishings of my palace.” Rome quickly interpreted that to mean he left the entire city-state to its control and incorporated it into its Asian province.

Most of the great public building projects of Pergamum were undertaken during the reign of Attalus III’s uncle, Attalus II, who ruled from 159 to 138 B.C. Ruins of many of those buildings still remain. The oldest part of the city, the acropolis, is modeled after the one in Athens and includes its own temple dedicated to Athena. The ruins of the famous Pergamum library are adjacent to that temple. The library was said to hold 200,000 volumes and, according to Plutarch, was given to Cleopatra as a gift from Mark Antony to make up for her loss after Julius Caesar’s troops burned the Alexandria library. A Hellenistic theater (above) on the steep western slope of the acropolis hill contained 80 rows of seats for 10,000 spectators.

A later Hellenistic city, located in the middle of the southern slopes of the acropolis hill, included a gymnasium with three separate terraces, a city fountain, a lower agora and several courtyards, including one called the Red Courtyard (below), because it was made of red brick. The central building in the middle city was a large basilica. Because fragments of colossal statues were found there, the basilica complex is thought to have originally been a temple to Egyptian deities.

Little is known about the early Christians of Pergamum. (Most of Pergamum was excavated before World War I by German archaeologists who were interested in classical archaeology and recorded no early Christian remains.) However, we do know that the basilica was converted into a church dedicated to St. John the Apostle during the Byzantine period.

John told the Christians of Pergamum, “I know you are living where Satan’s throne is” (Revelation 2:13). The New Oxford Annotated Bible describes the city as “a noted center of idolatrous worship”: Pergamum contained temples for Egyptian, Greek and Roman gods (the Temple of Hera appears at the beginning of this article). However, it may be more accurate to think of Pergamum as the luxury health spa of its day. Pergamum was the home of Galen, a Greek physician and writer who was considered one of the main sources of medical wisdom through the Middle Ages. Pergamum was also a center of the cult of Asklepios, the Roman god of medicine. Much of the lower city—built further downhill from the Greek city—developed under Roman rule as a complex dedicated to early forms of health care.

An inscription over the door of this sacred medical center, called an Asklepieon, read, “In the name of the gods, Death may not enter here.” The Roman emperors Marcus Aurelius and Caracalla both went there to be healed. The main building of the Asklepieon apparently contained sleeping rooms where the sick slept with hopes that the god Asklepios would either cure them directly or give them a prescription for a cure in a dream. The Asklepieon also had a number of fountains and pools, where the ill may have bathed, taken restorative mud baths and drunk water from a sacred spring.

Though much of the Roman city was dedicated to the healing arts, there were other amenities. A colonnaded street led from the medical library to a 3,500-seat Roman theater, which is still used for the Bergama Festival, held each May. At one time there was also a Roman arena that could seat 50,000. Legend has it that the arena would sometimes be flooded for fights between crocodiles and hippopotami.

Travel Essentials

Start with the Turkish Tourist Information Office. They have two offices in the U.S.: 821 United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017; phone: 212–687-2194; fax: 212–599-7568; and 1717 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Ste. 306, Washington, DC 20036; phone: 202–429-9844; fax: 202–429-5649. The Tourist Information Office has its own Web site: www.turkey.org/turkey.

The Seven Churches of Revelation, as they are known, are all in the same general region of Turkey; Izmir (ancient Smyrna) is the largest city in the region. Izmir has a major international airport and direct bus and train connections to Istanbul and Ankara. For the more adventurous, a car ferry service runs from Venice to Izmir in the summer.

A $45 visa is required for visiting Turkey, and a sticker visa good for three months is available at all border crossings. Otherwise, contact the Turkish Embassy in Washington (see the address for the Tourist Information Office above) or the Turkish consulate offices in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles and New York.

Bergama, Turkey (ancient Pergamum) The Book of Revelation was written for a specific audience: the congregations of churches in seven towns in what is now western Turkey. The fortunes of those seven towns—Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea—have risen and fallen over the centuries since the Biblical book was written. Bergama, once the international city of Pergamum but now a village, exemplifies the changing tide of history for these seven locales. Though Pergamum apparently served from prehistoric times as a military stronghold at the summit of a mountain between two branches of the Caicus River, it came […]