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Lampsacus

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Lampsacus
Λάμψακος (Ancient Greek)
Pityusa, Pityussa, Lampsakos
Gold stater of Lampsacus, c. 360–340 BC, with the laurel-wreathed head of Zeus Lampsacus
Gold stater of Lampsacus, c. 360–340 BC, with the laurel-wreathed head of Zeus Lampsacus
40°20′48″N 26°41′57″E / 40.34667°N 26.69917°E
Type Settlement
Location Lapseki, Çanakkale Province, Turkey
Region Troad
History
Built by Colonists from Phocaea and Miletus

Lampsacus (/ˈlæmsəkəs/; Ancient Greek: Λάμψακος, romanized: Lampsakos) was an ancient Greek city located in modern day Turkey, situated on the eastern side of the Hellespont in the northern Troad.[1] An inhabitant of Lampsacus was called a Lampsacene. The name has been transmitted in the nearby modern town of Lapseki.

Ancient history

Originally known as Pityusa or Pityussa[2] (Ancient Greek: Πιτυούσ(σ)α), it was colonized from Phocaea and Miletus. In the 6th century BC Lampsacus was attacked by Miltiades the Elder and Stesagoras, the Athenian tyrants of the nearby Thracian Chersonese.[3] During the 6th and 5th centuries BC, Lampsacus was successively dominated by Lydia, Persia, Athens, and Sparta. The Greek tyrants Hippoclus and later his son Acantides ruled under Darius I.[4] Artaxerxes I assigned it to Themistocles with the expectation that the city supply the Persian king with its famous wine. When Lampsacus joined the Delian League after the battle of Mycale (479 BC), it paid a tribute of twelve talents, a testimony to its wealth; it had a gold coinage in the 4th century, an activity only available to the more prosperous cities.[5]

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.

The philosopher Anaxagoras was forced to retire to Lampsacus after a trial in Athens around 434–433 BC. The citizens of Lampsacus erected an altar to Mind and Truth in his honor, and observed the anniversary of his death for many years. Additionally, in his honor, the annual celebration known as the Anaxagoreia was established.

The people of Lampsacus were pro-Persian, or were suspected of being so and Alexander the Great was furiously angry, and threatened to do them massive harm. They sent Anaximenes of Lampsacus to intercede for them. Alexander knew why he had come, and swore by the gods that he would do the opposite of what he would ask, so Anaximenes said, 'Please do this for me, your majesty: enslave the women and children of Lampsacus, burn their temples, and raze the city to the ground.' Alexander had no way round this clever trick, and since he was bound by his oath he reluctantly pardoned the people of Lampsacus.[6][7]

Lampsacus produced a series of notable historians and philosophers. Charon of Lampsacus (c. 500 BC) composed histories of Persia, Libya, and Ethiopia, and annals of his native town.[8] 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. Anaximenes of Lampsacus, a rhetorician and historian. His nephew (son of his sister), was also named Anaximenes and was a historian.[9] Aristocles (Ἀριστοκλῆς) of Lampsacus was a stoic philosopher.[10] Xenophon of Lampsacus was a geographer.

The people of Lampsacus dedicated a statue of Anaximenes of Lampsacus at Olympia, Greece.[11]

Christian history

According to legend, St Tryphon was buried at Lampsacus after his martyrdom at Nicaea in 250.[12]

The first known bishop in Lampsacus was Parthenius, under Constantine I. Part of the Hellespont, Lampsacus was subject to the metropolis of Cyzicus. 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 12th or 13th century.[13] The famous Lampsacus Treasure, now in the British Museum, dates from this period. The bishopric remains a vacant and titular see.[14]

See also

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

A titular see of Hellespont, suffragan of Cyzicus. The city is situated in Mysia, at the entrance to the Hellespont, opposite Callipolis, in a region known as Bebrycia, which seems to indicate an establishment of Bebryces from Thrace. It was probably called Pityussa prior to its colonization by the Ionian cities of Phocaea and Miletus. The elder Miltiades, when he had been established in possession of Thracian Chersonesus, declared war against the inhabitants of Lampsacus, who made him prisoner, and released him only in submission to the threats of Croesus. During the Ionian revolt Lampsacus fell into the power of the Persians. The "great king" gave its territory to Themistocles that he might supply himself with its wine, which was very famous; but the city itself continued to be governed by native tyrants. After the battle of Mycale (479 B.C.), Lampsacus joined the Athenians, but revolted after the unsuccessful expedition to Sicily; being unfortified, however, it was easily recaptured by the fleet of Strombichides. After the death of Alexander, it was forced to defend itself against the attacks of Antiochus of Syria. It voted a golden crown to the Romans and became their ally. Its prosperity continued under the empire; gold and silver staters of Lampsacus are extant, and its coins of the imperial period range from Augustus to Gallienus. The city possessed a fine piece of sculpture by Lysippus, representing a lion couchant, which was carried off by Agrippa to grace the Campus Martius at Rome It was the home of many famous men, e.g. the historian Charon, Anaximenes the orator, Adimantus, and Metrodorus, a disciple of Epicurus who himself lived at Lampsacus for three years. It must be added that the city was also notorious for the obscene worship that was paid to Priapus. Its name has been conjecturally introduced into the Vulgate (I Mach., xv, 23) in place of the Greek name Sampsace, or Sampsame, in the list of the cities to which the letter of the consul Leucius was sent; and this correction is an excellent one, since no city was known by the name of Sampsace or Sampsame.

St. Trypho, martyred at Nicaea, was, according to the legend, buried at Lampsacus. Its first known bishop was St. Parthenius, under Constantine. In 364 the see was occupied by Marcian, a Semi-Arian or Macedonian; in that year there was held at Lampsacus a council of bishops the majority of whom belonged to that party. Marcian, summoned to the (Ecumenical Council of Constantinople, in 381, refused to retract. Other known bishops of Lampsacus were Daniel, who assisted at the Council of Chalcedon (451); Harmonius (458); Constantine (680), present at the 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. Lampsacus is now a village of about two thousand inhabitants, the chief place of a caza in the sanjak of Bigha; it is called in Greek Lampsaki, and in Turkish Lepsek.

Smith, Dict. of Greek and Roman Geography, s. v., LEQUIEN Oriens Christianus, I, 771.

References

  1. Back to citation Borza, E., DARMC, R. Talbert, J. Becker, S. Gillies, G. Reger, T. Elliott. "Places: 501570 (Pityoussa/Lampsacus)". Pleiades. Retrieved November 20, 2013.
  2. Back to citation There were numerous pre-Hellenic or non-Hellenic places with this name, especially in modern Turkey and Greece Archived 2009-08-30 at the Wayback Machine: the pre-Hellenic name of Miletus of the Leleges was also Pityussa (Strabo, 14.1.3); Spetses' ancient name was Pityoussa; during the Roman Civil Wars Sertorius with some Cilician pirates effected a landing at an island of Pityussa on the North African coast of Mauretania, and was driven off (Plutarch, Life of Sertorius 7).
  3. Back to citation Herodotus 6.37-38
  4. Back to citation Tuplin, Christopher (2007). Persian Responses: Political and Cultural Interaction with(in) the Achaemenid Empire. ISD LLC. p. 126. ISBN 9781910589465.
  5. Back to citation Asia Minor Coins – ancient coins of Lampsacus
  6. Back to citation Suda, al.1989
  7. Back to citation Pausanias, Description of Greece, 6.18.3
  8. Back to citation J. B. Bury, The Ancient Greek Historians, Lecture 1, §4.
  9. Back to citation Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Philosophers, § 2.3
  10. Back to citation Suda, al.3917
  11. Back to citation Pausanias, Description of Greece, 6.18.2
  12. Back to citation Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Tryphon, Respicius, and Nympha". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  13. Back to citation Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Lampsacus". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  14. Back to citation Lampsacus at catholic-hierarchy.org.

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