Attalus III

Attalus III. Philometor Euergetes ( BC * 171, † 133 BC ) was king of Pergamon. As the son of Eumenes II and the Stratonike he followed in 138 BC Attalos II, from 159 BC was his guardian after the death of his father on the throne.

Already 153 BC, he was introduced to the Roman Senate, where his age and rank was received accordingly and confirmed in his own name the connection and friendship of the Pergamon king's house with Rome. Even during the reign of Attalus II, he was involved in the distribution of priests offices, including the important for the Attalids ordination of Dionysus Kathegemos.

The ancient tradition draws a picture of an isolated loner, the reputation of the Pergamon kingdom through a series of killings of relatives and friends who he blamed for the death of his mother and his fiancée Berenice darkened. It devotes to the affairs of state, he was concerned with agriculture, horticulture and plant breeding, especially of poisonous plants.

According to Strabo Attalos III died. after five years of reign of an illness. Justin graces the circumstances of the death of abundant and reported that the king had died from the effects of a sunstroke, which he drew upon when he - was working on a memorial for his mother - a skilled dilettante in the manufacture of wax patterns and bronze portraits.

Attalus III. decreed that in the event of his death fall kingdom and royal treasures to Rome as a heritage, the Greek cities of his kingdom, especially Pergamon, but should remain free. The Roman Senate confirmed in a Senatus consultum all provisions of Attalus III. Tiberius Gracchus proposed to use the legacy for agrarian reform. Before the start of the heritage of Rome but had first down the revolt of Aristonicus who claimed the throne as the illegitimate son of Attalos II and under the name Eumenes III. government affairs took.