Attalus I ( ), surnamed Soter (, ; 269–197 BC),Hansen, p. 26. Livy, 33.21–22, says that Attalus died in the consulship of Cornelius and Minucius (197 BC) at the age of 72, having reigned 44 years. Polybius, 18.41, also says that he died at 72 and reigned 44 years. Strabo, 13.4.2, says that he reigned 43 years. was the ruler of the Greek polis of Pergamon (modern-day Bergama, Turkey) and the larger Pergamene Kingdom from 241 BC to 197 BC. He was the adopted son of King Eumenes I, whom he succeeded, and the first of the Attalid dynasty to assume the title of king, sometime around 240 to 235 BC. He was the son of Attalus and his wife Antiochis.
Attalus won an important victory, the Battle of the Caecus River, over the Galatians, a group of migratory Celtic tribes from Thrace, who had been plundering and exacting tribute throughout most of Asia Minor for more than a generation. The victory was celebrated with a triumphal monument at Pergamon (The Dying Gaul) and Attalus taking the surname "Soter" and the title of king. He participated in the first and second Macedonian Wars against Philip V of Macedon as a loyal ally of the Roman Republic, although Pergamene participation was ultimately rather minor in these wars.Hansen, pp. 46–50; Kosmetatou, p. 163; Gruen 1990, p. 29. He conducted numerous naval operations throughout the Aegean, gained the island of Aegina for Pergamon during the first war and Andros during the second, twice narrowly escaping capture at the hands of Philip V. During his reign, Pergamon also repeatedly struggled with the neighboring Seleucid Empire to the east, resulting in both successes and setbacks.
Attalus styled himself as a protector of the freedoms of the Greek cities of Anatolia as well as the champion of Greeks against barbarians. He funded art and monuments in Pergamon and in Greek cities he sought to cultivate as allies. He died in 197 BC at the age of 72, shortly before the end of the second war, having suffered an apparent stroke while addressing a Boeotian war council some months before. He and his wife Apollonis were admired for their rearing of their four sons. He was succeeded as king by his son Eumenes II.
Early life Little is known about Attalus' early life. He was Greek and the son of Attalus and Antiochis.Hansen, p. 26; Strabo, 13.4.2. His father 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, Philetaerus' successor.Hansen, p. 26; Strabo, 13.4.2, says that he was the cousin of Eumenes. Pausanias, 1.8.1, perhaps following Strabo, says the same. Later historians concluded that Strabo had skipped a generation, however. The elder Attalus is recorded, along with his uncles, as providing generous donations to Delphi.Hansen, p. 19; Austin, p. 400. His father also won fame as a charioteer, winning at Olympia, and was honored with a monument at Pergamon. It is conjectured the elder Attalus might have been considered a potential successor to Philetaerus, but Eumenes I succeeded to the throne instead. Attalus' mother Antiochis was probably related to the Seleucid royal family (perhaps a granddaughter of Seleucus I Nicator) with her marriage to Attalus' father likely arranged by Philetaerus to solidify his power.Hansen, pp. 27-28.
At some point prior to 241 BC, Attalus' father died. If the elder Attalus had been heir designate at some point, he died before he could ever take the throne. The younger Attalus was adopted by Eumenes I, the incumbent dynast. After Eumenes' death in 241 BC, Attalus succeeded to the Pergamene throne.
Defeat of the Galatians
Little is known of the early reign of Attalus. The main recorded event of the era was a battle with the Galatians.Kaye, p. 314. According to the 2nd century AD Greek writer Pausanias, "the greatest of his achievements" was the defeat of the "Gauls" ().Pausanias, 1.8.1. The Galatians were 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 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 recorded to do so.Hansen, pp. 28–31; Livy, 38.16. As a consequence, the Galatians set out to attack Pergamon, sometime around 238–235 BC.Allen, pp. 28–34, suggests the "early 230s." Kosmetatou, p. 161 and Green, p. 150 say circa 237. Attalus met them near the sources of the river Caecus and decisively won the resulting Battle of the Caecus River.Hansen, p. 31. An Inscription from the Gaul Monument located in the Athena Sanctuary on the acropolis at Pergamon reads: "King Attalos having conquered in battle the Tolistoagii Gauls around the springs of the river Kaikos [set up this] thank-offering to Athena", Pollitt, p. 85, see also Austin, p. 405). Such inscriptions are the main source of information on Attalus' war with the Galatians, see Mitchell, p. 21.
The prestige gained by the victory caused Attalus to take the surname of Soter, "savior", following the example of Antiochus I. He also declared himself basileus, king. While this did not increase his practical authority as his adopted father had already ruled like a king, it formally severed any relationship with the Seleucid Empire's king as a superior suzerain.Hansen, pp. 24, 28, 31; Austin, p. 396; Kosmetatou, p. 161; Mitchell, p. 21; Green p. 151. See Strabo, 13.4.2; Polybius, 18.41. The victory would be the core element of Attalus' reputation and fame. Attalus presented himself as the victorious champion of Greeks against barbarians, and commissioned much artwork and sculptures commemorating himself and the Pergamene victory.Bradford & Bradford, p. 121: "Attalus... commissioned a series of sculptures that depicted the defeat of the Gauls and glorified himself as the champion of Greeks against barbarians"; Wilson, p. 593: "By means of lavish sculpted dedications, Attalus depicted his victories as important achievements, and himself as the champion of Greek freedom against a renewed barbarian threat." Green, p. 339.
As with other Attalid rulers, Pergamene royal coinage depicted a middle-aged version of Philetaerus, the dynasty's founder. Around the 230s BC, the depiction of Philetaerus changed from a plain band to a diadem entwined with a laurel wreath, the symbol of victory, perhaps to celebrate the defeat of the Galatians.Hansen, pp. 31; 216–219
Pausanias wrote of a surely invented oracle's prophecy which foretold the great victory, allegedly created a generation earlier:
Pausanias writes that by "son of a bull", the oracle Phaennis "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.Pollitt, p. 85.
Conflicts with the Seleucid Empire in 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. Three subsequent battles were fought and won against Antiochus Hierax's forces, which fought without support from the Gauls: 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 BC; and, in the final conflict of the campaign, in Caria at the Battle of the Harpasus, the Harpasus river being a tributary of the Maeander.Hansen, pp. 34–35; Green, pp. 264–265.
As a result of these victories, Attalus gained putative control over all of Seleucid Asia Minor north of the Taurus Mountains.Hansen, p. 36; Kosmetatou, p. 162; Green, p. 264. See Polybius, 4.48. He was able to hold on to these gains in the face of repeated attempts by Seleucus III Ceraunus, eldest son and successor of Seleucus II, to recover the lost territory.Hansen, p. 36; Green, p. 265. That said, this influence was tenuous; later historians consider any attempt to translate military success into political hegemony in these areas fraught and unlikely to have been successful.Allen, pp. 38–39. Around 226–223 BC, Attalus erected a monument to his battlefield victories in the acropolis of Pergamon, dedicated to Zeus and Athena; a slight adjustment to the artwork on coinage also occurred.
Seleucus III was assassinated in 223 BC after crossing the Taurus into Asia Minor.Green, p. 265 says it was a member of his own army; Hansen, p. 36 by a Gaul. Achaeus assumed control of the Seleucid army afterward. He was offered and refused the kingship in favor of Seleucus III's younger brother Antiochus III the Great, who then made Achaeus governor of Seleucid Asia Minor north of the Taurus. Achaeus embarked upon a remarkably successful campaign, rapidly reclaiming Asia Minor for the Seleucids. Within two years Achaeus had recovered all the lost Seleucid territories and "shut up Attalus within the walls of Pergamon".Green, p. 265; Heinen, p. 431. The quote is from Polybius, 4.48. In a stroke of good fortune for Attalus, Achaeus revolted against Antiochus III around 220 BC and declared himself the Seleucid king.Hansen, p. 39.
After a period of peace, in 218 BC, while Achaeus was involved in an expedition to Selge south of the Taurus, Attalus, allied with some Thracian Gauls, recaptured his former territories in Western Asia Minor, establishing the Pergamese state as one of the powers of Asia Minor.Hansen, pp. 41–43. According to Heinen, p. 432, after the expedition of 218, Attalus' kingdom was again the most powerful state in Asia Minor. Bradford & Bradford, p. 121 says "Attalus established Pergamum as a power in the Greek East, but it was to reach its greatest power and prosperity by its alliance with Rome". See Polybius, 5.77. However, Achaeus returned from victory in Selge in 217 BC and resumed hostilities with Attalus.Hansen, pp. 42–43.
Under a treaty of alliance with Attalus, Antiochus III crossed the Taurus in 216 BC, attacked Achaeus and besieged Sardis, and in 214 BC, the second year of the siege, was able to take the city. However the citadel remained under Achaeus' control. Under the pretense of a rescue, Achaeus was finally captured and put to death, and the citadel surrendered. By 213 BC, Antiochus III had regained control of all of his provinces in the east of Asia Minor.Hansen, p. 43; Heinen, p. 440. Polybius, 5.107, 7.15–18, 8.17–23.
First Macedonian War
While affairs in the east of his kingdom occupied much of his early reign, the west of Attalus' domain became more active later on. Attalus had sometime before 219 BC become allied with the Aetolian League, a union of Greek states in Aetolia in central Greece. He helped fund the fortification of Elaeus, an Aetolian stronghold in Calydonia, near the mouth of the river Acheloos. This would later bring Attalus into conflict with Philip V of Macedon, king of Antigonid Macedonia and the preeminent power in the Aegean Sea region, in what would eventually become the First Macedonian War.Hansen, p. 46; Gruen 1990, p. 29. Polybius, 4.65. Attalus sought to burnish his regional reputation, more so than many of his contemporary rulers. In addition to fortifications, Attalus also funded art and monuments, such as a stoa at Delphi (then part of the Aetolian League).Kaye, p. 20.