Philosophy between Pergamon and Rome

Abstract Pergamon, like Alexandria, was overshadowed by Athens as a philosophical centre during the Hellenistic period. Nevertheless, many events and actors that marked Pergamene philosophy also had a notable connection with Rome. This chapter discusses Attalid patronage of philosophical schools (especially the Peripatos and the Academy); the fate of Aristotle’s books in the Troas, as well as those of Zeno in the Pergamene library; the Stoicism of Crates of Mallos (which goes well beyond allegory and ‘anomaly’ and seems to play a more prominent role in his views on euphony and the sound of poetry); and relations between Pergamene philosophers and notable Romans in the first century bce, including the influence at Rome of Athenodorus Cordylion, Panaetius, and Cratippus.