Watch List notes:

Kingdom of Pergamon, Eumenes I AR Tetradrachm. Circa 263-241 BC. Laureate head of Philetairos right / ΦIΛETAIPOY, Athena enthroned left, right hand resting on shield set at her feet, left elbow resting on small sphinx seated right; transverse spear in background, ivy leaf above arm, A on throne, bow to right. Unpublished in the standard references, for general type cf. U. Westermark, Das Bildnis des Philetairos von Pergamon, 1961, group III, pls. 1-6. 17.02g, 29mm, 12h.

Good Very Fine.

The second of the Attalid rulers of Pergamon, Eumenes had been adopted by his childless uncle Philetairos. In the reign of his predecessor Pergamon had been a largely autonomous but apparently loyal client state of the Seleukid empire, and as such Philetairos' coins bore the head of Seleukos I on the obverse. Upon his succession Eumenes, perhaps with the encouragement of Ptolemy II, who was at war with the Seleukids, revolted and defeated Antiochos I near the Lydian capital of Sardes in 261 BC. In so doing he obtained independence for Pergamon and greatly increased the territory under his dominion.

Eumenes honoured his forebears by establishing garrison posts in the north near the foot of Mount Ida which he called Philetaireia after his uncle and adoptive father, and an eastern region, northeast of Thyateira near the sources of the river Lykos, he called Attaleia after his grandfather. Eumenes struck coins bearing now the portrait not of the founder of the Seleukid dynasty, but that of his own - Philetairos. Though possessing all the powers of one, Eumenes never assumed the title of BAΣIΛEΩΣ - king. He did however imitate other Hellenistic rulers, for example by instituting a festival in his own honour at Pergamon - the Eumeneia.