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Shaping the Elite of Attalid Pergamon: A Reappraisal of the Epigraphic Dossiers Concerning Priesthoods

Stefano G. Caneva

ELECTRUM, Volume 30, 2023, pp. 75-101

https://doi.org/10.4467/20800909EL.23.004.17321

The history of Hellenistic Pergamon is deeply affected by the dual status of a polis that also functioned as a dynastic residence. This overlap between civic and royal institutions significantly impacted the political life of the city. This paper contributes to the ongoing debate about honorific habits and the consolidation of the civic elite of Pergamon by focusing on the triangular interactions between the Attalids, their court, and the polis’ institutions in the period from Eumenes I to Attalos III. To do so, several dossiers concerning the priesthoods and religious liturgies of Attalid Pergamon will be reassessed by paying attention to their tenure, appointment, privileges, and the social groups that held these charges.

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Philetairos Ktistes and Pergamon’s Civic Memory in the Post-Attalid Period

Stefano G. Caneva

ELECTRUM, Volume 32, 2025, pp. 211-228

https://doi.org/10.4467/20800909EL.25.015.21405

This paper provides a reappraisal of the representation of Philetairos as the new founder of Pergamon between the Hellenistic and the Imperial period. The link between Philetairos and the early development of Pergamon as a polis is reassessed in the wake of the recent archaeological scholarship and with particular attention to the occurrences of the toponym Philetaireia, by which the areas of the citadel urbanised before Eumenes II were known. The existence of a cult of Philetairos as Ktistes is possible but unproven for the Attalid period; conversely, its traces are evident in the late 2nd and 1st cent. BC. Finally, by reassessing the sources regarding the charge of “prytanis and priest (of Philetairos)” between 133/2 BC and the advent of the Principatus, it is possible to identify a rupture in the organisation of Pergamon’s civic memory at the beginning of the Imperial period. This overview shows that the characterisation of Philetairos as city founder in Pergamon’s civic memory was probably first shaped by his successors to spread a message of legitimacy but reached its peak in the century between the end of the Attalid dynasty and Augustus. At this time, the city looked at its grand past as a source of identity and prestige, with which the new ruling class wished to connect. Under the Empire, the legacy of Philetairos lost a great deal of its appeal without, however, causing the complete disappearance of Pergamon’s dynastic past from the memory of the civic elites.

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University of Padua

Italy

ROR ID:

Research Organization Registry icon 00240q980

Stefano G. Caneva

University of Padua (Italy)