Leiden conventions rendered as EpiDoc: restorations as supplied(reason=lost), gaps as gap, abbreviations as expan(abbr+ex), omitted letters as supplied(reason=omitted), surplus as surplus, corrections as corr. Critical apparatus as listApp. The facing translation is div type=translation; the historical commentary is div type=commentary.
[… that this decree be] inscribed on a stele of white stone and set up in the sanctuary of Athena …; and that this decree be entered also into the sacred laws of the city, and that they use it as a valid law for all time.
King Attalus to Athenaeus his cousin, greeting. Sosander, our 'comrade' (syntrophos) and your son-in-law, was appointed by the king my brother priest of Dionysus Cathegemon and performed the sacred offices in very many trieteric festivals reverently and worthily of the god, and with affection toward my brother and toward us and toward all other men; it happened that in the preceding festivals, hampered by a complaint of the sinews, he carried out the sacrifices with us but was unable to perform the processions and certain other things pertaining to the rites — (so that) we decided that his son Athenaeus should act as deputy-priest, in order that what could not be done by Sosander might be accomplished by him. Since, therefore, at that time the proper rites were duly performed with piety, and since now, on the death of Sosander, someone must be appointed priest, I and my brother's son Attalus have decided that the priesthood should remain with his son Athenaeus — this priesthood too, since by coincidence, while his father was still living, he had already been consecrated upon the sacred rites — for we suppose that Dionysus himself has so willed and that he is worthy both of the office of the god and of our whole house. In order that you also may know that we have invested Athenaeus with this honour too, I decided to write to you. Year 18, Audnaeus 19; Athenagoras (delivered it) from Pergamum.
King Attalus to the council and the people of Cyzicus, greeting. That Athenaeus the son of Sosander — the former priest of Dionysus Cathegemon and 'comrade' of my father — is our relative, I am sure you are not unaware, seeing that Sosander married the daughter of Athenaeus the son of Midias, that Athenaeus who was the cousin of my father, and begot him. To him, since he had proved worthy of our house, first my uncle Attalus, with my approval too, while Sosander was still living, gave the hereditary priesthood of Zeus Sabazius, which is held in highest honour with us; and afterward, on the death of Sosander, because of the nobility that is in him and his piety toward religion and his good-will and faith toward us, we thought him worthy of the priesthood of Dionysus Cathegemon as well, judging him worthy of this honour and able fittingly to preside over mysteries so great — I and Attalus my uncle, as is set out in the eighteenth year of his reign. Knowing then that on his mother's side he is also a citizen of yours, I decided to write to you, sending also the other ordinances and benefactions which have been written by us concerning him, so that you may know what affection we have toward him. Year 4, Dius 7; Menes (delivered it) from Pergamum.
King Attalus to the council and the people of Pergamum, greeting. Since queen Stratonice my mother, having proved the most pious of all women and surpassingly the most loving toward my father and toward me, was reverently disposed toward all the gods and especially toward Zeus Sabazius — having brought him, an ancestral god, into our fatherland; and since he had become for us a supporter and helper in many deeds and many dangers, we decided, because of the manifestations of his power, to enshrine him together with Athena Nicephorus, judging this to be for him a worthy and fitting place; and we have given orders accordingly also concerning the sacrifices and processions and mysteries that are to be performed for him before the city at the proper times and places; and we have appointed for him a hereditary priest, my own Athenaeus, who excels in piety and nobility and in faith toward us. And we decree these things in order that, for all time, both the honours paid to the god and the benefactions toward Athenaeus may remain unmoved and unaltered — that the ordinances written by us be borne (entered) among your sacred laws. Year 4, Dius 4; Lytus (delivered it) from Pergamum.
The dossier was headed on the stele by a decree of the city of Pergamon, of which only the last lines survive (Welles: 'Of this there remain only the three last lines'). Even in its fragment the clause is legible and decisive: the document is to be inscribed on a stele of white stone, set up in the sanctuary of Athena, and — the operative act — entered also into the sacred laws of the city (εἰς τοὺς ἱεροὺς νόμους), to be used 'as valid laws for all time'. This is the legal hinge of the whole dossier and of Hellenistic cult-foundation generally: a king's grant is made permanent not by the king's word alone but by being absorbed into the city's own statute law. The same demand returns, in the king's own voice, at the close of RC 67. The royal letters are the substance; this civic decree is the machinery that makes them stick.
Attalus II Philadelphos writes to the elder Athenaios — his cousin (ἀνεψιός) and the father-in-law of Sosandros, the king's 'foster-brother' (σύντροφος). The letter is a small masterpiece of dynastic feeling: Sosandros had served as priest of Dionysos Kathegemon 'in very many trieteric festivals, reverently and worthily of the god, and with affection toward my brother and toward us and toward all'; in old age, 'hampered by a complaint of the sinews' (νευρικῆς διαθέσεως), he could still offer the sacrifices but not lead the processions, so it was decided that his son young Athenaios should act as deputy-priest. Now Sosandros is dead and a priest must be appointed — and the king records that he and 'my brother's son Attalus' (the future Attalus III) have decided that the priesthood is to remain with the son (διαμεῖναι), 'since Dionysus himself has so willed and he is worthy both of the office of the god and of our whole house'. The joint decision of uncle and nephew, taken seven years before Attalus III's own letters below, fixes the dynastic succession in the cult. Dated 25 December 142 BCE (Year 18, Audnaios 19); the courier was Athenagoras.
Seven years on, the nephew is king, and writes to the council and people of Cyzicus — because Athenaios is one of their citizens on his mother's side. Attalus III traces the descent precisely: Sosandros married the daughter of the elder Athenaios son of Midias, 'the cousin of my father', and begot the honorand; the kinship of the Pergamene noble house to both the royal family and to Cyzicus is thus laid out. The king rehearses the cursus he and his uncle built for Athenaios: 'first my uncle Attalus (Ἄτταλος ὁ θεῖός μου), with my approval, while Sosander was still living, gave him the hereditary priesthood of Zeus Sabazius, which is held in highest honour with us'; then, on Sosandros's death, 'we thought him worthy of the priesthood of Dionysus Cathegemon as well … able fittingly to preside over mysteries so great' (μυστηρίων τηλικούτων). He encloses 'the other ordinances and benefactions' for Cyzicus's information. Welles renders ὁ θεῖός μου as 'my uncle Attalus, the god', taking θεῖος ('uncle') to pun on θεός: the now-dead Attalus II is the deified predecessor in whose name the reigning Attalus III honours the court family. Dated 8 October 135 BCE (Year 4, Dios 7); courier Menes.
Three days before the Cyzicus letter, Attalus III had written to his own city. RC 67 is the theological centre of the dossier. Queen Stratonike his mother — 'the most pious of all women and surpassingly loving toward my father and toward me' — had brought Zeus Sabazios into Pergamon as an ancestral god (πατροπαράδοτος) of her family; and because the god had proved 'a supporter and helper in many deeds and many dangers' through his manifestations of power (ἐπιφάνειαι), the king now enshrines him together with Athena Nikephoros (συγκαθιερῶσαι τῆι Νικηφόρωι Ἀθηνᾶι), installing a new royal god in the sanctuary of Pergamon's supreme civic goddess. He regulates the god's sacrifices, procession and mysteries 'before the city', appoints Athenaios his hereditary priest, and — closing with the dossier's permanence-formula — decrees that the honours of the god and the privileges of Athenaios 'remain unmoved and unaltered for all time', the ordinances entered into the city's sacred laws. It is among the clearest surviving windows onto how a Hellenistic dynasty founded and entrenched a state cult. Dated 5 October 135 BCE (Year 4, Dios 4); courier Lytos.