“ Pergamum continued to rank for two centuries as the capital, and subsequently, with Ephesus and Smyrna, as one of the three great cities of the province; and the devotion of its former kings to the Roman cause was continued by its citizens, who erected on the Acropolis a magnificent temple to Augustus. ”

“ Excavations.-The site of the ancient city has been the scene of extensive excavations promoted by the Berlin museum since 1878, and directed first by K. Humann and A. Conze, and afterwards by W. Dörpfeld. The first impulse to them was given in 1873 by the reception in Berlin of certain reliefs, extracted by Humann from the walls of Bergama. ”

“ It was the seat of a conventus, including the cities of the Caïcus valley and some of those in the northern part of the Hermus valley. Under the Roman Empire Pergamum was one of the chief seats of the worship of Asclepius “the Saviour”; invalids came from distant parts of the country to ask advice from the god and his priests. The temple and the curative establishment of the god were situated outside the city. Pergamum was the chief centre of the imperial cult under the early empire, and, in W. M. Ramsay's opinion, was for that reason referred to in Rev. ”