The foregoing discussion necessitates a more detailed look at the Hellenistic city; this is where the results of the munificence of the elite were most apparent. An increase in scale led to the development of real metropolises, cities with thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands, of inhabitants. Such cities offered every form of modern convenience, although, of course, not every dwelling was comfortable! Smaller towns, too, were fitted out with an agora with stoas and prestigious public buildings, wide streets with arcades, fine sanctuaries, a water supply system, bathhouses, and—the pride of every town—city walls with towers,
Figure 35 A model of the acropolis of Pergamon as it looked in the first half of the 2nd c. BC. In the Staatliche Museen in Berlin, one can find a large-scale model of the acropolis of Pergamon, illustrated here. In 282 BC, the stadtholder of Pergamon rejected Seleucid rule and founded his own royal dynasty, the Attalids. In the 2nd century BC, large parts of Asia Minor came under Pergamene rule. In this period, the embellishment of the acropolis of Pergamon was taken in hand, and it was developed into an impressive, monumental ensemble. The Pergamene acropolis is a hill that rises 274 m above the surrounding plain. From the south and the west, it slopes upward, and on the northern and eastern sides it has sheer cliffs. On the model, we look up the slope, from the southwest (above) and from the southeast (overleaf): at the bottom left, there is a rectangular agora partly surrounded by stoas; from there, a staircase leads to the next rectangular terrace, which carries the enormous altar of Zeus, a masterpiece of Hellenistic architecture (now in Berlin). To its left, along the western flank of the acropolis, the huge so-called theater terrace, with a Dionysus temple at its far end, and the theater behind it. To its right, at the eastern rim of the acropolis, there is the heroon, the sanctuary of the deified members of the Attalid dynasty. Above the Altar of Zeus stands the temple of Athena, patron goddess of the city; it is surrounded by huge stoas. Above that there is another temple: it was built in Roman days for the deified emperor Trajan, so it is an anachronistic element in this reconstruction of the Hellenistic layout. Between the two temples stands what was probably the library. The other buildings crowding the eastern half of the slope are part of the palace complex, while the top of the hill is occupied by military barracks and arsenals. Photos: a) Christa Begall. © 2013. Photo Scala, Florence/BPK, Bildagentur fur Kunst, Kultur und Geschichte, Berlin; b) © 2013. Photo Scala, Florence/BPK, Bildagentur flir Kunst, Kultur und Geschichte, Berlin
Figure 35 (Continued)
All this at the expense of the rich. Many of the newly founded cities were built according to the Hippodamic system, the checkerboard pattern that was at the time associated with the 5th-century architect Hippodamus of Miletus although the concept was much older (it had already been applied at the time of the Archaic colonization). For the first time, urban public space was treated as a valuable entity in its own right: main streets were clearly distinguished from narrower side streets, and the agora became a purely representative area in the center of town, so that separate marketplaces had to be created for commercial activities. All subsequent European urban planning derives from these developments, especially that of the Romans, who perfected Hellenistic ideas about town building.
The erection of an impressive urban facade fitted the oligarchic context. A concentration of public buildings around a central square lined with monuments mainly dedicated to the local elite was exactly the right stage setting for the exertion of power by that same elite. The power of the monarch could be expressed in the same way; at the residences of Hellenistic princes, such as Alexandria or Pergamon, temples, altars, theater, odeion (the hall for music and recitation), mouseion (“sanctuary of the muses”), library, gumnasion, and agora with public buildings were centered around, or even integrated into, the royal palace. In Alexandria, even the hippodrome, the track for chariot races, was situated in the city center and closely associated with the palace. In this way, the monarch presented himself as the protector of religion, maecenas toward scholarship and art, provider of public entertainment, and, of course, administrator. This ideology was an incentive for elites and
Princes to energetically embark on major construction works, and cities competed with each other in architectural tours de force. The monumentalism of Hellenistic cities often resulted in architectural ensembles that met certain esthetic standards. On the other hand, cities ran the risk of being no more than theatrical backdrops for the rule of the elite, another sign that the days of the Classical polis were gone.
World History
