The Green Lecture 2026 - Professor Dr Felix Pirson

In the year 129 AD, the Roman Emperor Hadrian visited the city of Pergamon, today the UNESCO World Heritage Site Bergama/Pergamon on the west coast of Türkiye. In the same year, Aelius Galenus – personal physician to several Roman emperors and one of the most renowned physicians of antiquity – was born in Pergamon. Whilst the emperor’s visit underscores Pergamon’s outstanding significance as a Roman metropolis, several passages in Galen’s work provide a wealth of insights into the culture, society and economy of the Roman metropolis and the surrounding landscape. Both aspects highlight Pergamon’s potential for research into Roman Imperial Asia Minor. However, given its reputation as a prime example of a Hellenistic capital, this potential has not yet been systematically exploited. Since 2019, the German Archaeological Institute and its German, Turkish and international partners have been investigating the transformation of Pergamon and its landscape between the Hellenistic and Roman im