Lampsacus

Gold stater of Lampsacus, ca. 360–340 BC, with the laurel-wreathed head of Zeus Lampsacus

Lampsacus (Greek: Λάμψακος, Lampsakos, modern:Lapseki) was an ancient Greek city strategically located on the eastern side of the Hellespont in the northern Troad. An inhabitant of Lampsacus was called a Lampsacene. The name has been transmitted in the nearby modern town of Lapseki.

History

Originally known as Pityusa or Pityussa^[1] (Greek: Πιτυουσα, Pituousa, or Πιτυουσσα, Pituoussa), it was colonized from Phocaea and Miletus. During the 6th and 5th century BC, Lampsacus was successively dominated by Lydia, Persia, Athens, and Sparta; Artaxerxes I assigned it to Themistocles with the expectation that the city supply the Persian king with its famous wine. Lampsacus joined the Delian League after the battle of Mycale, and paid a tribute of twelve talents, a testimony to its wealth, and it had a gold coinage in the 4th century BC, an activity only available to the more prosperous cities.^[2]

Gold stater of Lampsacus with the ivy-wreathed head of Dionysus/Priapus, ca. 360–340 BC

A revolt against the Athenians in 411 BC was put down by force. In 196 BC, the Romans defended the town against Antiochus the Great, and it became an ally of Rome; Cicero (2 Verr. i. 24. 63) and Strabo (13. 1. 15) attest its continuing prosperity under Roman rule. Lampsacus was also notable for its worship of Priapus, who was said to have been born there.

Lampsacus produced a series of notable philosophers. Metrodorus of Lampsacus (the elder) (5th century BC) was a philosopher from the school of Anaxagoras. Strato of Lampsacus (c. 335-c. 269 BC) was a Peripatetic philosopher and the third director of Aristotle's Lyceum at Athens. Euaeon of Lampsacus was one of Plato's students. A group of Lampsacenes were in the circle of Epicurus; they included Polyaenus of Lampsacus (c. 340 – 278 BC) a mathematician, the philosophers Idomeneus of Lampsacus, Colotes the satirist and Leonteus of Lampsacus; Batis of Lampsacus the wife of Idomeneus, was the sister of Metrodorus of Lampsacus (the younger), whose elder brother, also a friend of Epicurus, was Timocrates of Lampsacus.

Christian history

According to legend, St Tryphon was buried at Lampsacus after his martyrdom at Nicaea in 250AD.^[3]

The first known bishop in Lampsacus was Parthenius, under Constantine I. In 364, the see was occupied by Marcian and in the same year a council of bishops was held at Lampsacus. Marcian, was summoned to the First Council of Constantinople of Constantinople in 381, but refused to retract his adherence of the Macedonian Christian sect. Other known Bishops of Lampsacus were Daniel, who assisted at the Council of Chalcedon (451); Harmonius (458); Constantine (680), who attended the Third Council of Constantinople; John (787), at Nicaea; St. Euschemon, a correspondent of St. Theodore the Studite, and a confessor of the Faith for the veneration of images, under Theophilus. The See of Lampsacus is mentioned in the "Notitiae Episcopatuum" until about the twelfth or thirteenth century.^[4]

Modern settlement

The nearby settlement of Lapseki has inherited the name; its population is now in the region of 11,000.

Notes

See also

• List of traditional Greek place names
• Anaximenes of Lampsacus
• Polyaenus of Lampsacus
• Metrodorus of Lampsacus (the younger)