Philetairos of Pergamon "Buried by Vesuvius" at the Getty Villa until October 28, 2019
Philetairos of Pergamon "Buried by Vesuvius" at the Getty Villa until October 28, 2019. Philetairos, 343 –263 BCE, was the founder of the Attalid dynasty of Pergamon in Anatolia. After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE, Philetairos became embroiled in the struggle for supremacy, called the Wars of the Diadochi, between Alexander's generals. Philetairos served first under Antigonus then shifted his allegiance to Lysim achus who, after Antigonus was killed at the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BCE, made Philetairos commander of Pergamon, where Lysimachus kept a treasury of nine thousand talents of silver. Philetairos served Lysimachus until 282 BCE when court intrigues prompted him to desert Lysimachus and offer himself and the important fortress of Pergamon, along with its treasury to Seleucus. Seleucus subsequently defeated and killed Lysimachus at the Battle of Corupedium in 281 BCE. But, Seleucus himself was subsequently killed by Ptolemy Ceraunus, the brother-in-...