Philetairos (Pergamon)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bust of Philetaire from the Villa dei Papiri of Herculaneum . Roman marble copy of a Hellenistic bronze bust. Museo Archeologico Nazionale , Naples .

Philetairos ( Greek : Φιλέταιρος; * around 343 BC in Tios in Paphlagonia ; † 263 BC ), also Philhetairos , was the founder of the Hellenistic dynasty of the Attalids in Pergamon .

Life

Lineage and early years

Philetairus was born around 343 BC. Born in Tios in Paphlagonia. His father Attalus may have been Macedonian , as this name was particularly common in Macedonia. However, this conclusion is not mandatory because the name in the form of Attales is also attested in Asia Minor . In addition, Philetairos' mother Boa came from Paphlagonia, as the ancient literary historian Karystios indicates. This information is also confirmed in writing. The further assertion of Karystios that Boa supposedly a prostitute , was the historian keeps Wilhelm Hoffmann but just as the abusive indication of the Greek grammarian Daphitas that Attalids were of lowly origin, for untrustworthy. Martin Zimmermann is of the opinion that the origin of the Philetaire was at least not outstanding.

Strabon says that as a small child Philetairos had the misfortune of being crushed on the genitals at a funeral service to which his wet nurse carried him. This incident made him a eunuch as a child . The facial features of Philetairos depicted on Pergamene coins seem to confirm that he was indeed a eunuch.

Philetairus received a good education. He was initially in the service of the Macedonian general Dokimos , who was a follower of Antigonos Monophthalmos , but 302 BC. BC, shortly before the battle of Ipsos , defected to Lysimachus . After the defeat and death of Antigonos (301 BC) Lysimachus received a large part of Asia Minor and set Philetairos as lord of Pergamon. Philetairos was also in charge of the treasure stored there, worth 9,000 talents of silver. Through his former wife Amastris , Lysimachos had good contacts to Philetairus 'birthplace and was probably known to his family, since Philetairos' brother Eumenes probably became the commander of the city of Amastris through him.

Dynast Pergamons under Seleucid suzerainty

For a long time Philetairos remained loyal to Pergamons Lysimachos in his position as lord of the castle. But he turned his back on his overlord when the promising Crown Prince Agathocles 283/282 BC. Was murdered at the instigation of Lysimachos' last wife Arsinoë II . Like other friends of the dead man, he joined the Syrian ruler Seleucus I , partly out of fear of the danger threatening him from Arsinoë and partly because of the favorable political circumstances , to whom he also gave Pergamon and the treasures kept there. Seleucus I achieved 281 BC BC in the battle of Kurupedion a victory over Lysimachus, who fell. When Seleucus soon after near Lysimachia in Thrace by Ptolemy Keraunos , solemnly was murdered, demonstrated his loyalty Philetairos by ransomed the body of a large sum of money burned , and the ashes of Seleucus son Antiochus I sent. In this way he could secure his position in Pergamon and rule as a small dynast.

Pergamon, whose area only included the immediate vicinity of the city in the middle valley of the Kaikos , remained as a semi-autonomous small principality ruled by Philetairos under the suzerainty of the Seleucids . This is particularly evident from the coinage. Philetairus first struck coins in the name of Lysimachus with the portrait of Alexander , but after the battle of Kurupedion he struck in the same way for Seleucus. During the last decade of his reign, the coins bore Seleucus 'portrait but Philetairus' name. Around 270 BC He married his nephew Attalus, whom he had adopted, to Antiochis , a daughter of Achaios .

Construction activity in Pergamon; Donations to Greek cities

The urban area of ​​Pergamon was expanded during the reign of Philetaire. The construction of the Demeter sanctuary goes back to him. About 30 km from the city, a temple for the mother goddess Meter Aspordene was built by Mamurt Kale on the Yünd Dağ, with which Philetairos linked to a local cult of the Anatolian mother goddess. Otherwise, however, his work in Pergamon is largely unknown. A district of Pergamon was named after him Philetaireia . The so-called Philetarian City Wall , which then surrounded the city's 0.2 km 2 area , was perhaps built before his reign.

Philetairos knew how to master the danger posed by the Galatians when this tribe was in the early 270s BC. BC invaded Asia Minor and plundered the whole country. He used his treasure specifically to increase his prestige and, in the style of an Euergetes (benefactor), supported surrounding cities such as Aigai and Pitane with larger donations. In doing so he sought to commit himself to these churches. He helped the city ​​of Kyzikos financially in the fight against the Galatians. He gave Kyme 600 bronze shields as a gift. For this, Kyzikos honored him cultically by holding a festival named after him Philetaireia , as well as Kyme by donating a gold wreath and setting up a statue representing him in a sanctuary built for him, the Philetaireion . Philetairos also gave important gifts to Greek places of worship, such as the shrines of the Muses of Helicon and Hermes in Thespiai . Even supraregional sanctuaries honored him for demonstrated benefits; so appointed him Delphi around 280 BC. Together with his brother Eumenes and his adoptive son Attalus to the Proxenus . He maintained good relations with the island of Delos and was celebrated there with a festival bearing his name. Through the measures mentioned, Philetairos set the basics of cultural policy and representative behavior for the later Pergamene monarchs.

Last years, death and succession

The invasion of the Galatians in Asia Minor accelerated the separation of Asia Minor from the Seleucid supremacy. Philetairos is likely to have undertaken a reorientation of Pergamene foreign policy in the last years of his reign, which consisted of an increasing turning away from the Seleucids. As a result, there was a loosening of its dependence on this royal family. Since he had no sons of his own, he adopted the son of his brother Eumenes, who was also called Eumenes and succeeded him on the Pergamene throne. Eumenes I coined after 263 BC There followed the death of Philetairus and the formal defection from the Seleucid coins showing Philetairos' portrait, which was what the other rulers of the Attalid dynasty until about 190 BC. Was continued. After his death, Philetairos also received cultic veneration in Pergamon as Euergetes and Eumenes I built a fortress named after him Philetaireia on the Ida.

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Kai Brodersen and Bernhard Zimmermann (eds.): Personen der Antike . Verlag JB Metzler, Stuttgart and Weimar, page 168, ISBN 3-476-02023-1 .
  2. ↑ According to the government figures of the Attalids given by Strabo ( Geographika 13, p. 623 f.), Philetairus died in 263 BC. Chr .; and since, according to Pseudo- Lukian ( Makrobioi 12), he reached the age of 80 years, his year of birth turns out to be 343 BC. BC, which according to Wilhelm Hoffmann (RE XIX, 2, Col. 2157) should be more or less correct.
  3. ↑ Strabon, Geographika 12, 3, 8.Short curriculum vitae at Strabon, Geographika 13, 4, 1 .
  4. ↑ a b Wilhelm Hoffmann: Philetairos 1. In: Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XIX, 2, Stuttgart 1938, Sp. 2157-2161 (here: 2157).
  5. ↑ a b c Martin Zimmermann : Pergamon. History, culture, archeology , CH Beck, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-406-62139-0 , p. 20.
  6. ↑ fragment of Karystios Pergamon at Athenaios , Deipnosophistai 13, 577b.
  7. ↑ Daphitas in Strabo, Geographika 14, p. 647.
  8. ↑ Strabon, Geographika 13, 4, 1; Pausanias ( description of Greece 1, 8, 1 ) calls Philetairos a Paphlagonian eunuch; doubted by Wolfgang Radt: Pergamon. History and buildings of an ancient metropolis , p. 29.
  9. ↑ a b Wilhelm Hoffmann: Philetairos 1. In: Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XIX, 2, Stuttgart 1938, Col. 2157-2161 (here: 2158).
  10. ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece 1, 8, 1.
  11. ↑ Diodor , Bibliothḗkē historikḗ 20, 107, 4; Pausanias, Description of Greece 1, 8, 1.
  12. ↑ Strabon, Geographika 13, 4, 1.
  13. ↑ Strabon, Geographika 13, 4, 1; Pausanias, Description of Greece 1, 10, 4.
  14. ↑ Appian , Syriake 63,335 .
  15. ↑ a b Wilhelm Hoffmann: Philetairos 1. In: Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XIX, 2, Stuttgart 1938, Col. 2157-2161 (here: 2159).
  16. ↑ a b Andreas Mehl: Philetairos 2. In: Der Neue Pauly (DNP). Volume 9, Metzler, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-476-01479-7 , Col. 787.
  17. ^ Strabo, Geographika 13, 4, 2.
  18. ↑ Martin Zimmermann: Pergamon. History, culture, archeology , p. 22 f.
  19. ↑ Martin Zimmermann: Pergamon. History, culture, archeology , p. 21.
  20. ↑ On this in general Hans-Joachim Schalles, Investigations into the cultural policy of the Pergamene rulers in the third century BC , pp. 33–44.
  21. ↑ Martin Zimmermann: Pergamon. History, culture, archeology , p. 21 f.
  22. ^ Wilhelm Hoffmann: Philetairos 1. In: Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen antiquity science (RE). Volume XIX, 2, Stuttgart 1938, Col. 2157-2161 (here: 2160).
  23. ^ Wilhelm Hoffmann: Philetairos 1. In: Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen antiquity science (RE). Volume XIX, 2, Stuttgart 1938, Col. 2157-2161 (here: 2160 f.).
  24. ^ Wilhelm Dittenberger , Orientis Graeci inscriptiones selectae (OGIS) 764.
  25. ↑ OGIS 266, line 20 f.
predecessor Office successor
--- Ruler of Pergamon
around 302-263 BC Chr. 		Eumenes I.
personal data
SURNAME Philetairos
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Ruler of Pergamon
DATE OF BIRTH around 343 BC Chr.
PLACE OF BIRTH Tios
DATE OF DEATH 263 BC Chr.