{In Pergamum} (en Pergam(9369)). In a north-easterly direction
from Smyrna in the Caicus Valley, some fifty-five miles away, in
Mysia, on a lofty hill, a great political and religious centre.
Ramsay (_Op. cit._, p. 281) calls it "the royal city, the city of
authority." Eumenes II (B.C. 197-159) extended it and embellished
it with many great buildings, including a library with 200,000
volumes, second only to Alexandria. The Kingdom of Pergamum
became a Roman province B.C. 130. Pliny termed it the most
illustrious city of Asia. Parchment (charta Pergamena) derived
its name from Pergamum. It was a rival of Ephesus in the temples
to Zeus, Athena, Dionysos, in the great grove Nicephorium (the
glory of the city). Next to this was the grove and temple of
Asklepios, the god of healing, called the god of Pergamum, with a
university for medical study. Pergamum was the first city in Asia
(A.D. 29) with a temple for the worship of Augustus (Octavius
Caesar). Hence in the Apocalypse Pergamum is a very centre of
emperor-worship "where Satan dwells" ( 2:13 ). Here also the
Nicolaitans flourished ( 2:15 ) as in Ephesus ( 2:6 ) and in
Thyatira ( 2:20f. ). Like Ephesus this city is called
temple-sweeper (
e(936b)oros) for the gods. {The sharp two-edged
sword} (	(886e) romphaian t(886e) distomon t(886e) oxeian). This item
repeated from  1:16  in the same order of words with the article
three times (the sword the two-mouthed the sharp) singling out
each point.