Attalid Asia Minor Money, International Relations, and the State

In the third century BC, the Attalid dynasts of Pergamon in north-western Asia Minor were relatively minor players in Hellenistic great-power politics. However it all changed in 188 BC, when, under the terms of the treaty of Apameia, the Attalids were granted the greater share of the former Seleukid territories in western and inner Anatolia. At a stroke, the Attalids were elevated to the status of one of the major powers of the eastern Mediterranean; but this new-found prominence came at a price. The vast expanse of Attalid Asia Minor had been won not by conquest, but through a pragmatic and humiliating grant by Roman commissioners. As a result, the ideological and bureaucratic structures through which the second-century Attalid rulers administered their kingdom differed sharply from those of the other major Hellenistic dynasties. With contributions from world-specialists on Hellenistic history and coinage, this book is the first full-length study to be dedicated to the political economy of the Attalid kingdom of Pergamon, focusing in particular on its financial administration, international relations, and the functioning of the state.

Peter Thonemann teaches Greek and Roman history at Wadham College, Oxford. He is the author of The Birth of Classical Europe (with Simon Price, 2010) and The Maeander Valley: A Historical Geography from Antiquity to Byzantium (2011).

Preface
Table of Contents
List of Abbreviations
List of Maps and Figures
Notes on Contributors
1. The Attalid State, 188-133 BC, Peter Thonemann
2. The Attalids: A Military History, John Ma
3. The Attalids and the Seleukid Kings, 281-175 BC, Boris Chrubasik
4. What did the Attalids ever do for us? A View from the Aerarium, Philip Kay
5. The Closed Currency System of the Attalid Kingdom, Andrew Meadows
6. The Coinages of the Attalids and their Neighbours: A Panoramic View, Francois de Callatay
7. The Use of the Cistophoric Weight Standard outside the Pergamene Kingdom, Richard Ashton
8. War or Tradea Attic-Weight Tetradrachms from Second-Century BC Attalid Asia Minor in Seleukid Syria after the Peace of Apameia and Their Historical Context, Selene Psoma
Bibliography
Index