Harrison, Jane Ellen: Introductory studies in Greek art (London: Unwin, 1902)

THE ALTAR OF EUMENES AT PERGAMOS. 289

Attalus I B.C. 241-197
Attains defeats Antiochus and Galatians circ. 241
Eumenes II. ... ... ... ... 197-159
Attalus II. (Philadelphos) ... ... 159-138
Attalus III. (Philometor) ... ... 138-133
Attalus III. bequeaths his kingdom to
the Romans ... ... ... 133

The brief career of this kingdom of Pergamos is for
the most part a splendid one. Of the first Eumenes
we know nothing; his time may well have been spent
in consolidating his authority at home. With the first
Attalus begins our interest. He was scarcely well on
the throne before he was called upon to put his valour
to a great and terrible proof. In the early part of the
fifth century B.C. we have seen how the Greek people,
and especially the Athenians, withstood the onset of the
Persians, how the best period of their art bore the im-
press of the struggle. Now again in the early part of
this third century we have to watch the little kingdom
of Pergamos beset by a foe even more barbarous ; we
shall see her victorious, and we shall once more have to
mark in this last epoch of Hellenic civilization how the
struggle and victory found its utterance in the last
revival of a national art.
It is from the north this time, not the east, that the
enemy advances. We are familiar with those “ foolish

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