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Aristonicus of Pergamum (died 128 BC) was perhaps the illegitimate son of Eumenes II. After the death, in 133 BC, of Attalus III king of Pergamum, who had bequethed his kingdom to Rome, Aristonicus led a popular uprising against Roman rule.
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[edit] Trogus (1st century BC) / Justin (3rd century)
[1]:
"During the same period, in which the government of Syria was passing from hand to hand among its new sovereigns, King Attalus in Asia polluted a most flourishing kingdom, which he inherited from his uncle Eumenes, by murders of his friends and executions of his relatives, pretending sometimes that his old mother, and sometimes his wife Berenice, had been destroyed by their wicked contrivances. After this atrocious outburst of rage, he assumed a mean dress, let his beard and hair grow like those of persons under legal prosecution, never went abroad or showed himself to the people, held no feasts in his palace, and behaved in no respect, indeed, like a man in his senses; so that he seemed to be paying penalty for his crimes to the manes of those whom he had murdered. Abandoning the government of his kingdom, too, he employed himself in digging and sowing in his garden, mixing noxious herbs with harmless ones, and sending them all indiscriminately, moistened with poisonous juices, as special presents to his friends. From this employment he turned to that of working in brass, and amused himself with modelling in wax, and casting and hammering out brazen figures. He then proceeded to make a monument for his mother, but while he was busy about the work, he contracted a disorder from the heat of the sun, and died on the seventh day afterwards. By his will the Roman people was appointed his heir.12
"There was however a son of Eumenes, named Aristonicus, not born in wedlock, but of an Ephesian mistress, the daughter of a player on the harp; and this young man, after the death of Attalus, laid claim to the throne of Asia as having been his father’s. When he had fought several successful battles against the provinces, which, from fear of the Romans, refused to submit to him, and seemed to be established as king. Asia was assigned by the senate to the command of Licinius Crassus, who, being more eager to plunder the treasures of Attalus than to distinguish himself in the field, and fighting a battle, at the end of the year, with his army in disorder, was defeated, and paid the penalty for his blind avarice by the loss of his life. The consul Perperna being sent in his place, reduced Aristonicus, who was defeated in the first engagement, under his power, and carried off the treasures of Attalus, bequeathed to the Roman people, on ship-board to Rome. Marcus Aquilius, Perperna’s successor, envying his good fortune, hastened, with the utmost expedition, to snatch Aristonicus from Perperna’s hands, as if he ought rather to grace his own triumph. But the death of Perperna put an end to the rivalry between the consuls. Asia, thus becoming a province of the Romans, brought to Rome its vices together with its wealth.
[edit] Strabo (17-23 AD)
Strabo in his Geography, tells us that: (Strabo, Geography, 14.1.38 [2])
After Smyrna one comes to Leucae, a small town, which after the death of Attalus Philometor was caused to revolt by Aristonicus, who was reputed to belong to the royal family and intended to usurp the kingdom. Now he was banished from Smyrna, after being defeated in a naval battle near the Cymaean territory by the Ephesians, but he went up into the interior and quickly assembled a large number of resourceless people, and also of slaves, invited with a promise of freedom, whom he called Heliopolitae. Now he first fell upon Thyateira unexpectedly, and then got possession of Apollonis, and then set his efforts against other fortresses. But he did not last long; the cities immediately sent a large number of troops against him, and they were assisted by Nicomedes the Bithynian and by the kings of the Cappadocians. Then came five Roman ambassadors, and after that an army under Publius Crassus the consul, and after that Marcus Perpernas, who brought the war to an end, having captured Aristonicus alive and sent him to Rome. Now Aristonicus ended his life in prison; Perpernas died of disease; and Crassus, attacked by certain people in the neighborhood of Leucae, fell in battle.
[edit] Eutropius, Abridgement of Roman History (4th century)
Eutropius, Abridgement of Roman History, translated, with notes, by the Rev. John Selby Watson, London: Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Convent Garden (1853).
[3]:
"About this time Attalus, king of Asia, the brother of Eumenes, died, and left the Roman people his heir. Thus Asia was added to the Roman empire by will.
"Shortly after, also, Decimus Junius Brutus triumphed with great glory over the Gallaecians and Lusitanians; and Publius Scipio Africanus had a second triumph over the Numantines, in the fourteenth year after his first triumph for his exploits in Africa.
"A war in the meantime was kindled in Asia by Aristonicus, the son of Eumenes by a concubine: this Eumenes was the brother of Attalus. Against him was sent out Publius Licinius Crassus, who had ample assistance from several kings, for not only Nicomedes, the king of Bithynia, supported the Romans, but also Mithridates king of Pontus, with whom they had afterwards a very great war, as well as Ariarathes, king of Cappadocia, and Pylaemenes of Paphlagonia. Crassus notwithstanding was defeated, and killed in battle; his head was carried to Aristonicus, and his body buried at Smyrna. Soon after Perperna, the Roman consul, who was appointed successor to Grassus, hearing of the event of the war, hastened to Asia; and defeating Aristonicus in battle, near the city Stratonice to which he had fled, reduced him by famine to surrender. Aristonicus, by command of the senate, was strangled in prison at Rome; for a triumph could not be celebrated on his account, because Perperna had died at Pergamus on his return
[edit] Brittanica
"Attalus III Philometor Euergetes, born c. 170 BC, died 133, king of Pergamum from 138 to 133 BC who, by bequeathing his domains to Rome, ended the history of Pergamum as an independent political entity. He was the son of Eumenes II (reigned 197–159) and nephew of Attalus II Philadelphus (reigned 159–138). Little is known of his reign. Attalus is said to have behaved tyrannically at first, but he evidently settled down to a quiet and studious life. His motives for bequeathing Pergamum to Rome are obscure. In 129 Rome organized the kingdom into the province of Asia.
"Then, in 133, Attalus III of Pergamum (c. 170–133) bequeathed his kingdom to Rome—an odd, though perhaps realistic bequest. It aroused opposition, led by a pretender named Aristonicus, who was driven by a combination of personal ambition, nationalist resentment, and utopian idealism. The movement was backed by a stoic philosopher named Blossius, who had been concerned with the reforms of the Gracchi in Rome. It spread among the oppressed and aimed to establish a utopian “City of the Sun.” Roman military power, however, was too strong. Aristonicus was defeated and killed; Pergamene territory became the Roman province of Asia.
"In 130 Crassus—the first pontifex maximus to undertake a military command outside Italy—was defeated and killed by Aristonicus of Pergamum, in northwestern Asia Minor.
[edit] Timeline Acnient Rome
[4]:
"Upon his death, Attalus III of Pergamum bequeathed his kingdom to Rome. This was resisted, and a rebellion ensued, led by Aristonicus, who enlisted slaves and the dispossessed into his rebel army. Along with the philosopher Blossius, who had tutored and supported Tiberius Gracchus, and had fled to Pergamum after Tiberius' death, Aristonicus sought to establish an idealistic utopian kingdom which he called the City of the Sun, withits inhabitants whom he called Heliopolitae, followers of the sun god Helios.
"Blossius committed suicide, Pergamum became the Roman province of Asia.
[edit] University of Alberta, Class 366
[5]:
"Rome's inheritance of Attatlus III's kingdom was not well received among all the natives. The cities tended to remain loyal to Rome, but Aristonicus, the illegitimate son of Attalus' predecessor, started a revolt in 132. He seems on the whole to have enjoyed the support of the poor. One of the consuls of 131, L. Licinius Crassus Mucianus (C. Gracchus' father-in-law and member of the land commission) went east with a hastily raised force and was killed in battle. M. Perperna (cos. 130 and the first Etruscan consul) took over the war and killed Aristonicus in battle in 130. The settlement of the province fell to M.' (=Manius) Aquilius cos. 129. Rome now had a third province that exceeded the number of available praetors to serve as governors and multi-year prorogations would become obligatory.
[edit] www.fsmitha.com
"In 133, while the slave revolt in Sicily was still alive, Rome acquired its first possession in Asia Minor. This was Pergamum, whose king ruled and received tribute from much of western Asia Minor. Pergamum was a prosperous state, receiving income from state owned, slave powered, textile and parchment workshops and income from cattle raising and agriculture. Pergamum had been allied with Rome and was ruled by an eccentric king named Attalus III. Near death and childless, Attalus willed that his kingdom to Rome. It has been surmised that he did so to prevent a relative, Aristonicus, from succeeding him. At the time, the slave unrest had spread east of the Adriatic. And Pergamum was also shaken by a wider social unrest. Perhaps Attalus believed that only Rome would be able to maintain law and order in his empire. At any rate, Attalus died in 133, and Rome accepted Pergamum as its inheritance.
"The slave revolt that had spread to western Asia Minor was joined by serfs. Aristonicus, perhaps believing himself the rightful heir to the throne in Pergamum, appealed to slaves and serfs and joined forces with them in a common cause against Roman authority. After Tiberius' murder, his old stoic tutor and aide, Blossius, fled from Rome and joined Aristonicus and his movement. Aristonicus warred against Rome's allies in Asia Minor -- the rulers of Pontus, neighboring Bithynia and Paphlagonia, and Cappadocia -- and he easily defeated them. In Sicily, after three years of struggle, the Romans finally broke the back of the slave uprising there, leaving only mopping up operations to carry out. And Roman legions went to Asia Minor where they defeated Aristonicus and isolated him in a region in Caria. Aristonicus surrendered, and the Romans took him and the treasure of Pergamum's ruling family to Rome, where Aristonicus was paraded through the streets, thrown into prison and executed by strangulation. The Romans pursued the remnants of Aristonicus' army, which was fighting a guerrilla war. The Romans poisoned the water wells that local people and the guerrillas depended upon, which brought an end to the war and brought Roman control over much of western Asia Minor.
[edit] www.usd.edu
[7]: "A threat to the Roman appropriation had to be quelled when Aristonicus, claiming Eumenes II as his father, lead an uprising of the poor of the city after being rejected by the Greek allies to wrest control from Rome. Aristonicus fought a valiant cause, his rebel army proved strong and enjoyed several victories before he was captured and his army later disbanded.
[edit] The Hutchinson Dictionary of World History, 01-01-1998
Aristonicus (died 128 BC) Illegitimate son of Eumenes II of Pergamum
