THE ALTAR

The Great Altar of Pergamon (Figures 14, 57–62) brings together all the various themes discussed in the first four chapters. Eumenes II (reigned 197–158) dedicated it, perhaps to Zeus and Athena Nikephoros or to all of the gods, probably as a victory monument and thank offering for good fortune; it was also a benefaction to his subjects. One of its Ionic capitals carries a thunderbolt; the cornice of its interior sacrificial altar bears sockets for displaying military spoils like those illustrated in Figure 15; its fragmentary inscription mentions “good things”; and it stood outside the royal palace compound (see Figure 14), and thus nominally in the city proper. Moreover, soon after its completion, dedications by the Pergamene dēmos, or citizenry, began to appear around it.

Pottery found in the Altar’s foundations dates its construction to the 160s, an epochal decade that saw both the Roman conquest of Macedon in 168 (loyally supported by Eumenes) and Eumenes’ own unaided suppression in 166 of the great Celtic revolt (disloyally opposed by Rome). The implacable Romans exultantly paraded the last Macedonian king, the luckless Perseus (Figure 30), in chains up to the Capitol in their subsequent triumphal celebrations; 300,000 even more luckless Macedonians followed him into slavery; and the loot thus acquired freed the Romans from extra taxes for a staggering 120 years. Alexander’s dream was now Rome’s reality.