Eumenes

(kindly disposed) (1 Macc. 8:8) — king of Pergamum, son of Attalus I. During the war of Rome with Antiochus the Great, king of Syria, he rendered great service to the Romans, especially at the battle of Magnesia, for which the Roman senate granted him the regions of Mysia, Lydia, Ionia, Phrygia, the Thracian Chersonese, and others. He enlarged and adorned the city of Pergamum, patronized the sciences, and enlarged the library founded by his father, which by then could rival the famous library of Alexandria.

His favor with Rome, however, continued only until the war of the Romans with Perseus, king of Macedon, with whom, according to the testimony of Livy, he carried on a secret correspondence. Eumenes II died, it is supposed, about 151 B.C. His extensive dominions, received from the Romans, are mentioned in 2 Maccabees (8:8).