Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/429

Rh ATTALUS. veyed to Pergamus, and died the same year, in the eeventy-second year of his age, after a reign of forty-four years. (Liv. xxxii. 16, 19, 23, 24, 33, xxxiii. 2, 21; Polyb. xvii. 2, 8, 16, xviii. 24, xxii. 2, &c.) As a ruler, his conduct was marked by wisdom and justice ; he was a faithful ally, a gene- rous friend, and an affectionate husband and fa- ther. He encouraged the arts and sciences. (Diog. Laert. iv. 8 ; Athen. xv. p. 697; Plin. H. N. viii. 74, xxxiv. 19. § 24, xxxv. 49.) By his wife, ApoUonias or Apollonis, he had four sons: Eumenes, who succeeded him, Attalus, Philetaerus, and Athenaeus. II. Sumamed Philadelphus, was the second son of Attalus I., and was bom in b. c. 200. (Lu- cian, Macrob. 12 ; Strab. xiii. p. 624.) Before his accession to the crown, we frequently find him em- ployed by his brother Eumenes in military opera- tions. In B. c. 190, during the absence of Eume- nes, he resisted an invasion of Seleucus, the son of Antiochus, and was afterwards present at the bat- tle of Mount Sipylus. (Liv. xxxvii. 18, 43.) In B. c. 1 89, he accompanied the consul Cn. Manlius Vulso in his expedition into Galatia. (Liv. xxxviii. 12 ; Polyb. xxii. 22.) In 182, he served his bro- ther in his war with Phamaces. (Polyb. xxv. 4, 6.) In 171, with Eumenes and Athenaeus, he joined the consul P. Licinius Crassus in Greece. (Liv. xlii. 55, 58, 65.) He was several times sent to Rome as ambassador : in B. c. 1 92, to announce that Antiochus had crossed the Hellespont (Liv. xxxv. 23); in 181, during the war between Eume- nes and Phamaces (Polyb. xxv. 6); in 167, to con- gratulate the Romans on their victory over Perseus. Eumenes being in ill-favour at Rome at this time, Attalus was encouraged with hopes of getting the kingdom for himself ; but was induced, by the re- monstrances of a physician named Stratius, to abandon his designs. (Liv. xlv. 19, 20 ; Polyb. XXX. 1 — 3.) In 164 and 160, he was again sent to Rome. (Polyb. xxxi, 9, xxxii. 3, 5.) Attalus succeeded his brother Eumenes in B. c. 159. His first undertaking was the restoration of Ariarathes to his kingdom. (Polyb. xxxii. 23.) In 156, he was attacked by Prasias, and found himself compelled to call in the assistance of the Romans and his allies, Ariarathes and Mithridates. In B. c. 154, Prusias was compelled by the threats of the Romans to grant peace, and indemnify At- talus for the losses he had sustained. (Polyb. iii. 5, xxxii. 25, &c., xxxiii. 1, 6, 10, 11 ; Appian, MitUr. 3, &c.; Diod. xxxi. Exc. p. 589.) In 152, he sent some troops to aid Alexander Balas in usurping the throne of Syria (Porphyr. ap. Euseb. p. 187; Jus- tin, xxxv. 1), and in 149 he assisted Nicomedes against his father Pmsias. He was also engaged in hostilities with, and conquered, Diegylis, a Thra- cian prince, the father-in-law of Prusias (Diod. xxxiii. Exc. p. 595, &c. ; Strab. xiii. p. 624), and sent some auxiliary troops to the Romans, which assisted them in expelling the pseudo-Philip and in taking Corinth. (Strab. /. c; Pans. vii. 16. § 8.) During the latter part of his life, he resigned him- self to the guidance of his minister, Philopoeraen. (Plut. Mor. p. 792.) He founded Philadelphia in Lydia (Steph. Byz. s.v.) and Attaleia in Pamphylia. (Strab. xiv. p. 667.) He enco^iraged the arts and sciences, and was himself the inventor of a kind of embroidery. (Plin. i/.iV. vii. 39, xxxv. 36. § 19, viii. 74 ; Athen. viii. p. 346, xiv. p. 634.) He died B. c. 1 38, aged eighty-two. ATTALUS. 4i; III. Sumamed Philoaiktor, was tlie son of Eunienes II. and Stratonice, daughter of Ariara- thes, king of Cappadocia. While yet a boy, he was brought to Rome (b. c. 152), and presented to the senate at the same time with Alexander Balas. He succeeded his uncle Attalus II. B. c. 138. He is known to us chiefly for the extravagance of his conduct and the murder of his relations and friends. At last, seized with remorse, he abandoned all public business, and devoted himself to sculpture, statuary, and gardening, on which he wrote a work. He died B. c. 133 of a fever, with which he was seized in consequence of exposing himself to the sun's rays while engaged in erecting a monument to his mother. In his will, he made the Romans his heirs. (Strab. xiii. p. 624; Polyb. xxxiii. 16; Justin. XXX vi. 14 ; Diod. xxxiv. Exc. p. 601 ; Varro, R. R. Praef.; ColumeU. i. 1. § 8; Plin. H. N. xviii. 5 ; Liv. Epit. 58 ; Plut. Tih. Gracch. 14 ; Veil. Pat. ii. 4 ; Florus, ii. 20; Appian. Mithr. 62, Bell. Civ. v. 4.) His kingdom was claimed by Aristonicus. [ Aristonicus.] [C. P. M.] A'TTALUS, emperor of the West for one year (a. d. 409, 410), the first raised to that office purely by the influence of barbarians. He was bom in Ionia, brought up as a Pagan (Philos- torgius, xii. 3), and received baptism from an Arian bishop. (Sozomen, Hist. Ecd. ix. 9.) Having be- come senator and praefect of the city at the time of Alaric's second siege of Rome, he was, after the surrender of the place, declared emperor by the Gothic king and his army, in the place of Hono- rius, and conducted by them in state to Ravenna, where he sent an insulting message to Honorius, commanding him to vacate the throne, amputate his extremities, and retire to a desolate island. (Philostorgius, xii. 3.) But the union of pride and folly which he had shewn in the first days of his reign, by proposing to reannex Egypt and the East to the empire (Sozomen, Hid. Eccl. ix. 8), and later by adopting measures without Alaric's advice, in- duced the Gothic chief to depose him on the plain of Ariminum. (Zosimus, vi. 6 — 13.) After the death of Alaric, he remained in the camp of Ataul- phus, whom, as emperor, he had made count of the domestics, and whose nuptials with Placidia he ce- lebrated as a musician. He was again put forward by Ataulphus as a rival emperor, during the insur- rection of Jovinus, but on being abandoned by him (Olympiod. apud Pliot. p. 58), was taken prisoner, and on being brought before the tribunal of Hono- rius, was condemned to a sentence with which he had himself threatened Honorius in his fonner pros- perity, viz. the amputation of his thumb and fore- finger, and perpetual banishment to the island of Lipari, a. d. 416. (Philostorgius, xii. 4, with Godefroy's Dissertations.) There is in the British Museum a silver coin of this emperor, once in the collection of Cardinal Albano, and supposed to be unique. It is remark- able as exceeding in size all known ancient silver coins, and weighs about 1203 grains, and in the usual numismatic language would be represented by the number 13^. The obverse is, priscus. attalvs. p. f. aug., a protome of Attidus, turned to the right, wearing a fillet ornamented with pearls round his forehead, and the paltidamentum fastened across the right shoulder with the usual bulla. The reverse is, invicta. roma. aetkrna. r. m. Rome, helmeted and draped to the feet, sit-