In the third century BC, the Attalid dynasts of Pergamon in north-western Asia Minor were relatively minor players in Hellenistic great-power politics. This all changed in 188 BC, when, under the terms of the treaty of Apameia, the Attalids were granted the greater share of the former Seleukid territories in western and inner Anatolia. At a stroke, the Attalids were elevated to the status of one of the major powers of the eastern Mediterranean; but this new-found prominence came at a price. The vast expanse of Attalid Asia Minor had been won not by conquest, but through a pragmatic and humiliating grant by Roman commissioners. As a result, the ideological and bureaucratic structures through which the second-century Attalid rulers administered their kingdom differed sharply from those of the other major Hellenistic dynasties.

With contributions from world-specialists on Hellenistic history and coinage, this book is the first full-length study to be dedicated to the political economy of the Attalid kingdom of Pergamon, focusing in particular on its financial administration, international relations, and the functioning of the state.