City
Pergamo
Bergama
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Pergamum, capital of the Attalid kings, lies beneath modern Bergama in Turkey, on a steep spur above the fertile plain of the river Caicus, some thirty kilometres from the sea. Under Eumenes the Second it became the leading power in Asia Minor and a centre of culture and science, famous for its great altar. The Roman writer Pliny called it by far the most renowned place in Asia. On the map the name is written with unusual care, and the figure of twenty-five miles to the next station is split by the red letter I of Asia, so it was clearly added after the province name.