Pergamum (PERGAMO) - Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. IX, p. 715

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

PERGAMO. - In the New Testament, P. is mentioned in Apoc. 1, 11 and 2, 12 (Πέργαμος) as the seat of a flourishing Christian community, which had long since (ibid. 2, 13) borne witness to Christ through martyrdom. ANTIPAPA (v.) is perhaps only an illustrious case, taken as a model. The evangelization of P. may have taken place through envoys of Paul or

The Acropolis itself resembles a colossal throne rising amid the hollows of the Cezio and the Selino. Above all, however, the altar of Jupiter was famous. The cult of Asclepius, with the emblem of the serpent, may have evoked Gen. 3, 1 (cf. Apoc. 12, 9; 20, 2).

Caio (or Gaio [v.]), to whom the Third Epistle of John is addressed, is said to have been bishop of P., according to the Cost. apost. (VII, 46; PG 1, 1053).

BIBL.: V. Chapot, La province romaine proconsulaire d'Asie, Paris 1904, pp. 507-32 (passim); W. M. Ramsay, The letters to the seven Churches, London 1904, pp. 281-315; id., Pergamus or Pergamum, in Dict. of the Bible, III, pp. 749-52; L. Fillion, Pergame, V, in DB, cols. 134-40; E-B. Allo, L'Apocalypse, Paris 1921, pp. 27-30, cf. p. 16; V. Schultze, Altchristliche Städte und Landschaften, II, Gütersloh 1926, pp. 20-49; M. Kiddle, The revelation of st. John, London 1940, reprint 1946, pp. 29-35. Teodorico da Castel San Pietro