Pergamon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Pergamon or Pergamum is an ancient city on the coast of Asia Minor that became an important kingdom during the Hellenistic period, under the Attalid dynasty.

Pergamon had the second best library in the ancient world, after Alexandria. When the Ptolemies stopped exporting papyrus, partly because of competitors and partly because of shortages, they invented a new substance to use in codexes, called pergamum or parchment after the city. This was made of fine calf skin, a predecessor of vellum and paper.

The present-day, Turkish, name of the city is Bergama.