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Ancient Theater in Turkey The amphitheatre of Pergamon |
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The Roman amphitheatre is situated in a side valley of the Selinus and is within sight of the Greek theatre built on the western slope of the Acropolis Mountain. The Selinus, which flows through the lower town of Pergamon and is overbuilt under the "Red Hall" on a length of almost 200 m and thus as the "Bridge of Pergamon" was by far the longest river overbuilding of antiquity, flows through the longitudinal axis of the amphitheatre. Here, too, the course of the river was vaulted. This difficult location had its advantages. On the one hand, the water needed in the arena was immediately available, on the other hand, the location had the advantage that the natural slopes of the river course could serve as a substructure for the lower rows of seats. |
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The history of Pergamon: | ||||||||||||
The 330 m high castle hill above today's Bergama has been inhabited since the 6th century BC, but it was not until the Hellenistic era that Pergamon blossomed into an ancient cosmopolitan city.
Based on finds of fragments of western Eastern Greek and Corinthian imported pottery from the late 8th century BC, a settlement can already be proven in Archaic times. Pergamon was first mentioned in literature in 400/399 BC. Alexander the Great liberated this area and Pergamon of Persian domination with him. At the time of the Diadochi Pergamon belonged like the rest of Mysia to the dominion of the Lysimachos. He used Philetairos to guard the castle, where 9,000 talents and a large part of the Lysimachos' spoils were deposited. With this treasure, Philetairos succeeded in becoming independent after the death of Lysimacho in 281 BC and founded his own dynasty with the Attalids. The Attalids ruled Pergamon from 281 to 133 B.C. The city became the centre of the Pergaman Empire. Eumenes I. did not yet accept the royal title. Only his successor Attalos I did this. Now there was a Pergamian Empire independent from all sides, which reached the peak of its power and expansion in 188 BC.
Pergamon flourished under the brothers Eumenes II and Attalos II, which was reflected in the monumental development of the city. The aim was to create a second Athens, an Athens of artistic and cultural activity, as it prevailed in Pericles' time and dominated large parts of Greek artistic creation. ttalos III of Pergamum, who died 133 B.C. without descendants, bequeathed Pergamum to the Romans. In 129 B.C., the Roman province of Asia emerged from the kingdom of Pergamon, and the city itself was declared free. Under Augustus, the first imperial cult was established in Pergamon in the province of Asia. Pliny the Elder was considered Pergamon's most important city and the local aristocracy continued to produce outstanding men. Under Trajan and his successors, a comprehensive new and redesign followed, the construction of a Roman "new city" at the foot of the Acropolis, and Pergamon was the first city in the province to receive a second neo-corie from Trajan in 113/114 A.D. Hadrian elevated the city to the rank of a metropolis in 123 A.D., thereby distinguishing it from its competitors Ephesus and Smyrna.
In Byzantine times, a retreat of the settlement to the castle hill can be observed, which was protected by a 6-metre thick wall made of spolia.
When around 1250 the later emperor Theodoros II visited Laskaris Pergamon, he was shown the house of Galen, but he saw the amphitheatres of the city destroyed, and apart from the walls, to which he devoted some attention, only the vaults of the river Selinus were worth mentioning to him. |
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Floor plan after Ch.Texier, Description de l'Asie Mineure, volume 2, Paris 1835, plate 120 | ||||||||||||
Photos: @chim | ||||||||||||
Translation aid: www.DeepL.com/Translator | ||||||||||||
Source: Wikipedia and others | ||||||||||||
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