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Headword:
Attalos
Adler number: alpha,4316
Translated headword: Attalos, Attalus
Vetting Status: high
Translation: A king, brother of Eumenes,[1] to whom no other external resource[2] was available for the purpose of kingship, but only wealth, which, when handled with intelligence and daring, truly offers great utility for every initiative, but without the aforesaid things has for most men become the partial cause of misfortunes and, in short, of destruction. For it gives birth both to feelings of envy and to plots, and exercises great influence in the direction of corruption of body and soul; and there are [only] a few particular souls[3] able to repulse these things by the power of wealth. But he undertook to use his resources for no other end than kingly acquisition,[4] than which nothing greater or finer can be mentioned. He put in place the beginning of the aforesaid initiative not only through his beneficence and generosity towards his friends, but also through his deeds in wartime.[5] For having reigned and lived for two and seventy years, and having reigned for forty-four of these,[6] he lived his life with extreme moderation and respectfulness towards his wife and children, and preserved his faith to all his allies and friends, and died in the midst of his finest deeds.[7] And he so arranged his rule that the kingship was handed on to his children's children without internecine strife.[8] This Attalos, upon inheriting power, first brought forth a demonstration of his policy and power of action by restoring Ariarathes to the kingship.[9]
[Note] that [when] Attalos, husband of
Apollonia [and] king of Asia, departed this life, the Pythia was proved right about him, for in delivering an oracle to Attalos the Great she said, 'Be of good heart, bull-horned one. You shall have kingly honour, and your children's children, though their children after them shall not'.[10]
Attalos, basileus, adelphos Eumenous: hôi allo ouden ephodion hupêrxe pros basileian tôn ektos, ploutos de monon, hos meta nou men kai tolmês cheirizomenos alêthôs megalên parechetai chreian pros pasan epibolên, aneu de tôn proeirêmenôn tois pleistois kakôn paraitios pephuke ginesthai kai sullêbdên apôleias. kai gar phthonous gennai kai epiboulas kai pros diaphthoran sômatos kai psuchês megalas echei rhopas. oligai de tines eisi psuchai, hai tauta dunamenai diôtheisthai têi tou ploutou dunamei. ho de pros ouden allo epebaleto chrêsasthai tois chorêgiois all' ê pros basilikên anaktêsin, hou meizon oude kallion ouden hoion te estin eipein: hos tên archên enestêsato tês proeirêmenês epibolês ou monon dia tês eis tous philous euergesias kai charitos, alla kai dia tôn kata polemon ergôn. basileusas gar kai biôsas etê b# pros tois o#, toutôn de basileusas m# kai d#, sôphronestata men ebiôse kai semnotata pros gunaika kai tekna, diephulaxe de tên pros pantas summachous kai philous pistin, enapethane de en autois tois kallistois ergois. kai houtôs hêrmosato tên archên, hôs paisi paidôn astasiaston paradothênai tên basileian. houtos ho Attalos paralabôn tên exousian prôton exênenke deigma tês hautou proaireseôs kai praxeôs tên Ariarathou katagôgên epi tên basileian. hoti Attalos, ho Apollônias anêr, basileus Asias, metallattei ton bion, plêrôtheisês ep' autôi tês Puthias, hêtis chrêstêriazomenê Attalôi tôi megalôi ephê: tharsei, Taurokerôs, hexeis basilêïda timên, kai paidôn paides, toutôn ge men ouketi paides.
Notes:
OCD(4) p.202, s.v. '
Attalus I'.
[1] Attalos I of
Pergamon (reigned 241-197 BC) was in fact the cousin and adopted son of Eumenes (I, not formally king) and father of Eumenes II. From 'no other external resource' to 'his deeds in wartime' is an almost verbatim quotation from
Polybios 18.41.2-6.
[2] I follow Walbank (1967, 603), who takes
tw=n e)kto/s with
e)fo/dion rather than with
basilei/an.
[3] After 'a few particular souls' the Suda omits
Polybios's
panta/pasin, 'in every way' (to be taken with 'repulse').
[4] For
Polybios's 'because he . . . for none of the other ends' (
o(/ti pro\s ou)de\n tw=n a)/llwn) the Suda reads 'but he . . . for no other end' (
o( de\ pro\s ou)de\n a)/llo). 'Kingly acquisition' means the acquisition of kingly status. Again the text varies slightly from
Polybios, who has 'but for the acquisition of kingship, than which nothing greater or finer can even be mentioned' (
a)lla\ pro\s basilei/as kata/kthsin, ou(= mei=zon h)\ ka/llion ou)de\n oi(=o/n t' e)sti\n ou)d' ei)pei=n).
[5] Here Polyb. 18.41.7, alluding to Attalos's victory over the Gauls, is omitted.
[6] The Suda paraphrases the start of
Polybios 18.41.8, 'having received this honour and having lived' (
tuxw\n de\ th=s timh=s taut/hs kai\ biw/sas). For the first phrase the Suda illogically substitutes 'having reigned', which then has to be repeated immediately below.
[7] From 'For having reigned' to 'finest deeds' = part of Polyb. 18. 41. 8-9.
Polybios further defines those finest deeds as 'struggling on behalf of the liberty of the Hellenes'. (In section 9 Polyb. has
e)nape/qane d', an insignificant difference.)
[8] At the end of 9,
Polybios's mention of Attalos's four grown-up sons is omitted. Suda reads simply 'and he so arranged his rule' for
Polybios's 'he so arranged matters concerning his rule' (
ou(/tws h(rmo/sato ta\ kata\ th\n a)rxh\n). The
Polybios quotation ends after this sentence. 'Children's children' (as explicated by Walbank 1967, 604) refers to the last king of
Pergamon, Attalos III, who reigned 138-133.
[9] This sentence from
Polybios 32.12.1 actually describes Attalos II (reigned 159/8-139/8), who restored Ariarathes V of Cappadocia (reigned 163-130) in 157 (Walbank 1979, 534).
[10] For the substance of this addendum to the entry see also
Diodorus Siculus 34/35.13 (= John of
Antioch,
Neos Hellenomnemon 1.13.7-9, and Constantine Porphyrogenitus, 4 (
De sententiis), p. 387 no. 414;
Posidonius fr.149), which refers explicitly to 'the first king Attalos' but quotes the oracle in the same words as the Suda. Compare also
Pausanias 10.15.3. Attalos is 'bull-horned' because the Attalids claimed Dionysos as an ancestor.
Walbank, F.W. (1967), A Historical Commentary on Polybius, ii: Commentary on Books VII-XVIII (Oxford: Clarendon Press).
Walbank, F.W. (1979), A Historical Commentary on Polybius, iii: Commentary on Books XIX-XL (Oxford: Clarendon Press).
Keywords: biography; children; chronology; economics; ethics; historiography; history; religion; women
Translated by: D. Graham J. Shipley on 11 March 2001@13:30:49.
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