Philetaerus (
Greek F???ta????,
Philétairos, ca. 343 BC–263 BC) was the founder of the
Attalid dynasty of
Pergamon in
Anatolia.
He was born in Tieium (Greek Tieion),[1] a small town on the Black Sea coast of Anatolia between Bithynia to the west and Paphlagonia to the east. His father was Attalus (Greek Attalos) (perhaps from Macedon) and his mother Boa was Paphlagonian.[2]
After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC, Philetaerus became embroiled in the struggle for supremacy, called the Wars of the Diadochi (diadochi means "successors" in Greek) between Alexander's regional governors, Antigonus in Phrygia, Lysimachus in Thrace and Seleucus in Babylonia (among others). Philetaerus served first under Antigonus. He then shifted his allegiance to Lysimachus (ruler of Pergamon from 323 BC to 281 BC), who, after Antigonus was killed at the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC, made Philetaerus commander of Pergamon, where Lysimachus kept a treasury of nine thousand talents of silver.[3]
Philetaerus served Lysimachus until 282 BC, when perhaps because of conflicts involving the court intrigues of Arsinoë, Lysimachus' third wife, Philetaerus deserted Lysimachus, offering himself and the important fortress of Pergamon, along with its treasury to Seleucus,[4] who subsequently defeated and killed Lysimachus[5] at the Battle of Corupedium in 281 BC. Seleucus himself was killed by Ptolemy Ceraunus, a brother of Arsinoë at Lysimachia a few months later.[6]
