Hellenistic world · 305-133 BC

Pergamon and Rhodes: small states, big ideas

Between the great kingdoms, a hill town and an island grew rich and famous. Students visit Pergamon, with its library, altar and parchment, and Rhodes, whose Colossus stood at the harbor for only 54 years, and ask how small states survived among giants.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
45 minutes
Ages
11–14
On the map
3 steps, 280 BC to 133 BC
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

Between the great kingdoms, a hill town and an island grew rich and famous. Students visit Pergamon, with its library, altar and parchment, and Rhodes, whose Colossus stood at the harbor for only 54 years, and ask how small states survived among giants.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Locate Pergamon and Rhodes and describe one famous thing from each.
  • Explain how the Attalids of Pergamon used art, a library and an alliance with Rome to stay independent.
  • Explain why Rhodes was important for trade and what the Colossus was.
2

Explore the map

12 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

280 BC

A fortress treasury

Open the map in 280 BC on the west coast of Anatolia and find Pergamon, inland from the Aegean. A treasurer named Philetaerus kept 9,000 talents of a dead king's silver here and used it to make himself independent. Zoom in: the city sits on a steep hill. Why does a treasure need a hill?

Open this view on the map
b

200 BC

A kingdom of its own

Jump to 200 BC. Pergamon now appears on the map as a kingdom. Its king Attalus I had beaten the Galatians and taken the title of king; Eumenes II would build the Great Altar and a library second only to Alexandria's. Find the island of Rhodes to the south, its trading partner and ally.

Open this view on the map
c

133 BC

Left to Rome

Go to 133 BC. That year King Attalus III died and left his kingdom to Rome in his will; the map shows it inside the Roman Republic. Zoom out to see how much of the Aegean world Rome now controlled. Why would a king give his country away?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

14 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. The Attalids paid for statues of dying Gauls to celebrate their victory over the Galatians. Why show your enemy as brave and tragic rather than weak?
  2. The story goes that when Egypt stopped selling papyrus to Pergamon, its scribes perfected writing on animal skin, which we call parchment after the city. True or not, why would a library want its own writing material?
  3. Rhodes kept a fleet to hunt pirates and wrote sea laws that the Romans later copied. Why would merchants everywhere want one island to police the sea?
  4. The Colossus fell in an earthquake in 226 BC and the Rhodians left it lying, because an oracle told them not to rebuild. What does a ruin do for a city that a statue cannot?
  5. Attalus III willed Pergamon to Rome; Rhodes lost its trade when Rome made Delos a free port. Can a small state ever really be independent next to a giant?
4

Game round

9 min

Play one round of Rule History as Hannibal Barca, who in his last years took refuge with the kings of the east and advised them against Rome. Discuss: Pergamon chose friendship with Rome, Hannibal chose war. Which choice served a small state better?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

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