HISTORY OF PERGAMON. 5^3

ruling family lived in amity. The devotion of the royal sons of Attalos I. to
their mother, a woman of humble birth but noble character, expressed itself in a
temple dedicated to her at Kyzicos, which, it is recorded, had its columns sculp-
tured— doubtless after the manner of the Ephesos columns — with mythic and
other scenes, all illustrating the devotion of sons to mothers ; the whole being
intended, as Polybios tells us, to express the love which bound her to her sons,
and them to each other.'"9 An inscription, just discovered at Pergamon, on a
pedestal which occupied the beautiful piazza about Athena's temple on the
acropolis, makes still more vivid this family affection ; the stone letters telling
us that Attalos II. put up this statue " to his mother, Queen Apollonis, because
of her love to him." I,2° In addition, history tells us that no enticements of the
Romans could influence Attalos II., even when in their power, to turn against
his ruling brother. Moreover, Attalos I. did not rule as a despot, but allowed
popular elements in his government of the city ; and we may be sure that his
successors likewise sought and gained the good opinion of their subjects and
allies, to whom, even though Romans, they were always true."21 The Perga-
mon rulers manifested a great regard for Greece itself; and the intercourse
was lively between their rising kingdom and the old seats of culture in Hellas.
Attalos I. purchased /Egina, and frequently passed his winters there. He
sent royal gifts to Athens, and, when he visited that city, was received with
the greatest honors. In Sikyon he raised a heavy mortgage on an Apollo tem-
ple, and restored it to free use. Later he made a present of ten talents of
silver, and of ten thousand measures of wheat, to the same city. For the
former favor, the citizens had erected to him a colossal statue in the market-
place, near Apollo's statue ; but now they honored him with a golden statue,
and, in the spirit of the new time, with a yearly festival, such as in earlier cen-
turies had been held only in honor of the gods. After the disastrous earth-
quake at Rhodes, in the latter half of the third century, when many rulers
sent thither gifts, Attalos did not fall behind in his munificence to the afflicted
city. In addition, these princes encouraged the sciences and arts most liber-
ally, being some of them themselves men of science. By one of them, the
great library at Pergamon was founded ; the academy at Athens received their
assistance ; and the recent discoveries in the ruins of their capital show how
extensive their patronage of the sculptor's art; while tradition tells us of the
fondness of their court for painting, and of the immense sums offered for cele-
brated pictures."22 These princes were, moreover, Greek rulers of a Greek
people ; thus forming a happy union which did not exist in the other new
empires of the day, and which was, doubtless, most favorable to developing
powers which still lay germinant in Greek art.

Put the first great stimulus to this artistic patronage seem to have been
the signal victories of Attalos I. over Antiochos and his formidable allies, the
Galatians. The Galatians of Christian times are well known to us through