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Pergamum. But Antiochus and his allies, the Gauls, were completely defeated in the vicinity of the temple of Aphrodite (who now received the name Nikephoros) before Pergamum, and the victorious Attalus took the name of Basileus.24 In the Hellenistic time this title, expressing the idea of complete sovereignty, amounted to a record of victory over the former overlord or a royal competitor.25 Ptolemaeus I was a king in deed since 321 and had no suzerain, even a nominal one, since the death of Alexander IV, in 310-9, but he took the diadem only after his victory over the "king" Antigonus in 305-4. Attalus proclaimed himself Basileus because he had proved himself, in a pitched battle, to be a mightier warrior than "king" Antiochus, his overlord.26 This victory of Attalus is generally placed some time before 230, because we know that in 229 and 228 Attalus had driven Antiochus from Asia Minor.27 But Justin places Attalus' "royal" victory over the Gauls and Antiochus Hierax immediately after Antiochus' success against Seleucus II, that is about 237. His chronology is confirmed by two pieces of evidence, one epigraphical, the other literary. In Book XXVII of his "Universal History," Trogus Pompeius successively related the War of Laodice, the War of the Seleucid Brothers, with the battle of Ancyra, Attalus' victory at Pergamum, the assassination of Ziaelas of Bithynia by the Gauls. Then he turned to the affairs of Macedonia and Egypt, and, then, took again the history of the last years of Antiochus Hierax. Now, the principles of composition of Trogus' work are such that the insertion of an excursus between two phases of the history of Asia proves that these phases were separated by a chronological interval. For instance, in Book XXVII a digression over Demetrius the Fair, king of Cyrene, cut into the history of the Seleucids, after the second Syrian war and the death of Antiochus IL It marked the interval (255-246) between these two events. In Book XXIX the discussion of the origins of the Cretans separated the first (219-217) and the second (212-206) war between Philip V of Macedon and the Aetolians.28 On the other hand, the place of the battle at Pergamum in Trogus' narrative shows that the victory of Attalus belongs to the first phase of the history of Antiochus Hierax and precedes the said interlude, which, as mentioned, began some time before 236. Accordingly, Attalus' victory at Pergamum and his assumption of the title Basileus are to be placed about 237. But, like Ptolemaeus I, Seleucus I, etc., Attalus antedated his kingship,29 and computed his regnal years from his succession to Eumenes, in 240 B.C.30 Now, in the excavations of Pergamum, there were found numerous stamped tiles bearing (in monogram) the trade-mark of the royal factory: "of King Attalus," and the year number.31 The pub- |
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