Philetaerus was the founder of the Attalid dynasty of Pergamum. In 301 BC, Lysimachus appointed him to guard a treasury of
9,000 talents of silver at Pergamum. Amid the dynastic turmoil in Lysimachus' kingdom in 281 BC, Philetaerus invited Seleucus
I to kill his master and take possession of the kingdom. After the deaths of Lysimachus and Seleucus I, he became an increasingly
independent dynast. He was a eunuch and had no children of his own, adopting his nephew Eumenes I as his successor.