Eumenes II

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Eumenes II of Pergamon (ruled 197 - 158 BC) was king of Pergamon and a member of the Attalid dynasty. The son of king Attalos I and queen Apollonis, he followed on his father's footsteps and collaborated with the Romans to oppose first Macedonian, then Seleucid expansion towards the Aegean, leading to the defeat of Antiochus the Great at the Battle of Magnesia in 189 BC. Following the peace of Apamea in 188 BC, he received the regions of Phrygia, Lydia, Lycia, Pisidia, and Pamphylia from his Roman allies, as they had no desire to actually administer territory in the Hellenistic east but wished for a strong state in Asia Minor as a bulwark against any possible Seleucid expansion in the future. One of the great achievements of Eumenes II was the expansion of the Library at Pergamum, one of the great libraries of the Ancient World and the place traditionally associated with the creation of parchment, although it had actually existed for centuries. Married to Stratonice (in Greek Stratonike), daughter of Ariarathes IV, King of Cappadocia, and wife Antiochis, they were the parents of Attalus III. Since their son was still a minor, the throne was assumed by his brother Attalus II, who married his widow.

References

• Hansen, Esther V. (1971). The Attalids of Pergamon. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press; London: Cornell University Press Ltd. ISBN 0-8014-0615-3.
• Kosmetatou, Elizabeth (2003) "The Attalids of Pergamon," in Andrew Erskine, ed., A Companion to the Hellenistic World. Oxford: Blackwell: pp. 159–174. ISBN 1-4051-3278-7.

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