The two works represent a large number of similar marbles after Pergamene originals scattered through the galleries of Europe. They lead us at once to inquire into the historical events they clearly incarnate. The story of the foundation of Pergamus is full of interest. During the years following Alexander’s death, Lysimachus had accumulated a vast treasure in the impregnable Acropolis of Pergamus. He placed his lieutenant Philetairus in charge, occupying himself with schemes of conquest. But Lysimachus was human and late in life took to himself a young wife. To humour her he assented to the murder of a son by a former marriage. The atrocity finally alienated Philetairus. He headed a rebellion, seized the treasure under his charge and founded the kingdom of Pergamus in 283 B.C. The dynasty founded in this dramatic fashion was destined to a stormy history. As early as 280 B.C. fresh danger threatened from the hordes of Gauls, who began to pour across the passes of the Balkans. Some of these barbarians marched upon Greece. Others crossed the Bosphorus at Byzantium, and eventually founded the Gallo-Greek kingdom of Galatia in the heart of Phrygia. But the king of Pergamus felt that his safety depended upon checking the victorious career of the Gauls. Allying himself with the ruling Seleucus, Attalus I. of Pergamus inflicted a signal defeat. This was about 241 B.C. The victory was not the only one gained by the kingdom of Pergamus. Early in the second century, Eumenes II. (197 B.C.-159 B.C.) gained fresh laurels for his countrymen. The effect of these brilliant victories upon the imagination of the people of Pergamus can only be realized by comparing it with that of Marathon and Salamis upon the fifth-century Athenians. All around them the Pergamenes saw civilized communities acknowledging defeat at the hands of the Gauls. As the Athenians stemmed the tide of Persian invasion at Marathon, so the Princes of Pergamus saved the Greeks in Asia Minor from the barbarian Gauls who seemed destined to sweep away the newly planted Hellenic civilization. The victories made Pergamus the rival of Alexandria and Antioch. As had been the case after Salamis, a long series of public buildings and temples were erected, until the Acropolis at Pergamus threatened to outshine even that at Athens. Among the statues, as we have said, was the bronze original of “The Dying Gaul.”