Pergamos was celebrated for its extensive collections of libraries and for the patronage of art and science at its court. All the ruins now found are of the Roman period except a tunnel over the river Selinus, now a small stream. This double tunnel appears to be extremely ancient, and is supposed to be of the time of Attalus. It runs under the present town of Bergamah for 600 feet, with arches of 40 feet diameter and 20 feet high. The present town contains about 30,000 inhabitants. As the artisans were skilled in preparing skins for manuscripts, the skins themselves were known by the name of the place, and hence the name “parchment,” which is only a change of the ancient name of Pergamos. =10. Thyatira= is now called Ak-hissar, “the white castle,” from a castle on the white hill back of the plain upon which the city is built. The plain has always been inhabited, and was celebrated at and long before the period of the apostles for its manufacture of dyes,[206] and this art is alluded to in Acts 16:14. It never had any reputation otherwise, but was always a busy trading city. It is 52 or 53 miles northeast of Smyrna, and was a Macedonian colony in the time of Strabo,[207] but before his time it was called Pelopia,[208] upon which site the colony was placed by the Syrian king Seleucus Nicator, a general of Alexander the Great. =11. Sardis=, the once proud capital of Lydia, the residence of Crœsus, the wealthiest monarch of his age, and “the queen of Asia,”[209] is now utterly desolate. The site is about 50 miles east of Smyrna, and the river Pactolus is on the west. It is now called Sart, and there are to be found only two or three huts and a water-mill. If Smyrna be taken as a centre of a great circle, the three cities last mentioned will be nearly on the circumference: Pergamos north, Thyatira northeast, and Sardis east, each about 50 miles from the centre. =12. Philadelphia=, the next in order as mentioned in Revelation, is east of Sardis about 30 miles, on the northeastern slope of Mt. Tmolus, near the little stream of the Cogamus, which winds about on the plain and falls into the Hermus near Sardis. It received its name from its founder, Attalus Philadelphus, king of Pergamos, B. C. about 140 years. Strabo says that the city was subject to frequent earthquakes,[210] and Tacitus says that Philadelphia was nearly entirely destroyed by an earthquake in the reign of Tiberius.[211] Although never a city of much prominence, it has outlasted Ephesus, Sardis, and Laodicea. One-third of the present population, 15,000, are Christians of the Greek Church. It is still surrounded by walls, but they are very much dilapidated. =13. Laodicea= was once a rich and flourishing city, but nothing remains of it but a vast stadium, a theatre, and a gymnasium. Laodicea is nearly 100 miles due east of Ephesus, Colosse is 10 or 12 miles southeast, and Hierapolis about the same distance nearly north.