Professor Helmut Müller, an acknowledged specialist in the epigraphs of Pergamum and, more generally, in the history of Greco-Roman Asia Minor, has given a rich overview, in four lessons, of the contribution of inscriptions - many of which are new or even as yet unpublished - to the unusual history of this city in western Anatolia, which, from the middle of the 3rd century BC, was destined to become the capital of the powerful Attalid kings and then, under the High Empire, one of the metropolises of the Roman province of AsiaC., the capital of the powerful Attalid kings and, under the High Empire, one of the metropolises of the Roman province of Asia.
The epitaph of a man from Chalcis in Euboea, for example, sheds light on the presence of a ruling family of Euboean origin in the region in 399 BC, when the city was still ruled by Greek dynasts under the control of the King of the Persians. Much later inscriptions may also be of interest in this respect: for example, an abridgement of the history of Pergamon, written in the 2nd century AD, tells of the two successive transfers (from the acropolis to the plain, then in the opposite direction!) imposed by the Persians on the local population, as well as the appearance of the first political bodies characteristic of a Greek city.