Lampsacus
Encyclopedia
Lampsacus 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
.
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
. When Lampsacus joined the Delian League
after the battle of Mycale
(479 BC), it paid a tribute of twelve talent
s, a testimony to its wealth; it had a gold coinage in the 4th century, an activity only available to the more prosperous cities.
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 historians and philosophers. Charon of Lampsacus (c. 500 BC) composed histories of Persia, Libya, and Ethiopia, and annals of his native town. 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
.
was buried at Lampsacus after his martyrdom at Nicaea in 250AD.
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.
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
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
Lapseki
Lapseki is a town and district of Çanakkale Province, Turkey. As of 2010, it has a population of 10,889. The mayor is Gani Mehmet Ekim .The district of Lapseki is famous for its cherries; a cherry festival is held annually in this town.-History:...
.
Ancient history
Originally known as Pityusa or Pityussa , it was colonized from PhocaeaPhocaea
Phocaea, or Phokaia, was an ancient Ionian Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia. Greek colonists from Phocaea founded the colony of Massalia in 600 BC, Emporion in 575 BC and Elea in 540 BC.-Geography:Phocaea was the northernmost...
and Miletus
Miletus
Miletus was an ancient Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia , near the mouth of the Maeander River in ancient Caria...
. During the 6th and 5th century BC, Lampsacus was successively dominated by Lydia
Lydia
Lydia was an Iron Age kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the modern Turkish provinces of Manisa and inland İzmir. Its population spoke an Anatolian language known as Lydian....
, Persia, Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
, and Sparta
Sparta
Sparta or Lacedaemon, was a prominent city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the banks of the River Eurotas in Laconia, in south-eastern Peloponnese. It emerged as a political entity around the 10th century BC, when the invading Dorians subjugated the local, non-Dorian population. From c...
; Artaxerxes I assigned it to Themistocles
Themistocles
Themistocles ; c. 524–459 BC, was an Athenian politician and a general. He was one of a new breed of politicians who rose to prominence in the early years of the Athenian democracy, along with his great rival Aristides...
with the expectation that the city supply the Persian king with its famous wine
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...
. When Lampsacus joined the Delian League
Delian League
The Delian League, founded in circa 477 BC, was an association of Greek city-states, members numbering between 150 to 173, under the leadership of Athens, whose purpose was to continue fighting the Persian Empire after the Greek victory in the Battle of Plataea at the end of the Greco–Persian Wars...
after the battle of Mycale
Battle of Mycale
The Battle of Mycale was one of the two major battles that ended the second Persian invasion of Greece during the Greco-Persian Wars. It took place on or about August 27, 479 BC on the slopes of Mount Mycale, on the coast of Ionia, opposite the island of Samos...
(479 BC), it paid a tribute of twelve talent
Talent (weight)
The "talent" was one of several ancient units of mass, as well as corresponding units of value equivalent to these masses of a precious metal. It was approximately the mass of water required to fill an amphora. A Greek, or Attic talent, was , a Roman talent was , an Egyptian talent was , and a...
s, a testimony to its wealth; it had a gold coinage in the 4th century, an activity only available to the more prosperous cities.
A revolt against the Athenians in 411 BC
411 BC
Year 411 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Mugillanus and Rutilus...
was put down by force. In 196 BC
196 BC
Year 196 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Purpureo and Marcellus...
, the Romans
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
defended the town against Antiochus the Great, and it became an ally of Rome; Cicero
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
(2 Verr. i. 24. 63) and Strabo
Strabo
Strabo, also written Strabon was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus , a city which he said was situated the approximate equivalent of 75 km from the Black Sea...
(13. 1. 15) attest its continuing prosperity under Roman rule. Lampsacus was also notable for its worship of Priapus
Priapus
In Greek mythology, Priapus or Priapos , was a minor rustic fertility god, protector of livestock, fruit plants, gardens and male genitalia. Priapus is marked by his absurdly oversized, permanent erection, which gave rise to the medical term priapism...
, who was said to have been born there.
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. Metrodorus of Lampsacus (the elder)
Metrodorus of Lampsacus (the elder)
Metrodorus of Lampsacus was a Presocratic philosopher from the Greek town of Lampsacus on the eastern shore of the Hellespont. He was a contemporary and friend of Anaxagoras. He wrote on Homer, the leading feature of his system of interpretation being that the deities and stories in Homer were to...
(5th century BC) was a philosopher from the school of Anaxagoras
Anaxagoras
Anaxagoras was a Pre-Socratic Greek philosopher. Born in Clazomenae in Asia Minor, Anaxagoras was the first philosopher to bring philosophy from Ionia to Athens. He attempted to give a scientific account of eclipses, meteors, rainbows, and the sun, which he described as a fiery mass larger than...
. Strato of Lampsacus
Strato of Lampsacus
Strato of Lampsacus was a Peripatetic philosopher, and the third director of the Lyceum after the death of Theophrastus...
(c. 335-c. 269 BC) was a Peripatetic philosopher and the third director of Aristotle's Lyceum
Lyceum
The lyceum is a category of educational institution defined within the education system of many countries, mainly in Europe. The definition varies between countries; usually it is a type of secondary school.-History:...
at Athens. Euaeon of Lampsacus
Euaeon of Lampsacus
-References:*Diogenes Laertius, Life of Plato. Translated by ....
was one of Plato
Plato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
's students. A group of Lampsacenes were in the circle of Epicurus
Epicurus
Epicurus was an ancient Greek philosopher and the founder of the school of philosophy called Epicureanism.Only a few fragments and letters remain of Epicurus's 300 written works...
; they included Polyaenus of Lampsacus
Polyaenus of Lampsacus
Polyaenus of Lampsacus , also spelled Polyenus, son of Athenodorus, was an ancient Greek mathematician and a friend of Epicurus. His friendship with Epicurus started after the latter's escape from Mytilene in 307 or 306 BC when he opened a philosophical school at Lampsacus associating himself with...
(c. 340 – 278 BC) a mathematician, the philosophers Idomeneus of Lampsacus
Idomeneus of Lampsacus
Idomeneus of Lampsacus was a friend and disciple of Epicurus. We have no details of his life, except that he married Batis of Lampsacus, the sister of Metrodorus, and he was a court dignitary at Lampsacus around 306-301 BC...
, Colotes
Colotes
Colotes of Lampsacus was a pupil of Epicurus, and one of the most famous of his disciples. He wrote a work to prove That it is impossible even to live according to the doctrines of the other philosophers . It was dedicated to king Ptolemy Philopator...
the satirist and Leonteus of Lampsacus
Leonteus of Lampsacus
Leonteus of Lampsacus, was a pupil of Epicurus early in the 3rd century BCE. He was the husband of Themista, who also attended Epicurus' school. Such was the esteem in which they held Epicurus that they named their son after him....
; Batis of Lampsacus
Batis of Lampsacus
Batis of Lampsacus, was a student of Epicurus at Lampsacus in the early 3rd century BC. She was the sister of Metrodorus and wife of Idomeneus...
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
Timocrates of Lampsacus
Timocrates of Lampsacus was a renegade Epicurean who made it his life's mission to spread slander about Epicurus' philosophy and way of life. He was the elder brother of Metrodorus, Epicurus' best friend and most loyal follower, who was born in Lampsacus in the late 4th century BC. He studied with...
.
Christian history
According to legend, St TryphonTryphon, Respicius, and Nympha
Saints Tryphon , Respicius, and Nympha are Christian saints who were formerly celebrated jointly on 10 November in the liturgical calendar of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church from the eleventh century until the twentieth...
was buried at Lampsacus after his martyrdom at Nicaea in 250AD.
The first known bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
in Lampsacus was Parthenius, under Constantine I
Constantine I
Constantine the Great , also known as Constantine I or Saint Constantine, was Roman Emperor from 306 to 337. Well known for being the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity, Constantine and co-Emperor Licinius issued the Edict of Milan in 313, which proclaimed religious tolerance of all...
. In 364, the see
Episcopal See
An episcopal see is, in the original sense, the official seat of a bishop. This seat, which is also referred to as the bishop's cathedra, is placed in the bishop's principal church, which is therefore called the bishop's cathedral...
was occupied by Marcian
Marcian
Marcian was Byzantine Emperor from 450 to 457. Marcian's rule marked a recovery of the Eastern Empire, which the Emperor protected from external menaces and reformed economically and financially...
and in the same year a council of bishops was held at Lampsacus. Marcian, was summoned to the First Council of Constantinople
First Council of Constantinople
The First Council of Constantinople is recognized as the Second Ecumenical Council by the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox, the Eastern Orthodox, the Roman Catholics, the Old Catholics, and a number of other Western Christian groups. It was the first Ecumenical Council held in...
of Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
in 381, but refused to retract his adherence of the Macedonian
Macedonians (religious group)
The Macedonians were a Christian sect of the 4th century, named after Bishop Macedonius I of Constantinople. They professed a belief similar to that of Arianism, but apparently denying the divinity of the Holy Spirit, and regarding the substance of Jesus Christ as being the same in kind as that of...
Christian sect
Sect
A sect is a group with distinctive religious, political or philosophical beliefs. Although in past it was mostly used to refer to religious groups, it has since expanded and in modern culture can refer to any organization that breaks away from a larger one to follow a different set of rules and...
. Other known Bishops of Lampsacus were Daniel
Daniel (name)
Daniel is a Hebrew masculine given name and a surname. It means, "God is my judge", and derives from two early Biblical figures, primary among them the Prophet Daniel.- Background :...
, who assisted at the Council of Chalcedon
Council of Chalcedon
The Council of Chalcedon was a church council held from 8 October to 1 November, 451 AD, at Chalcedon , on the Asian side of the Bosporus. The council marked a significant turning point in the Christological debates that led to the separation of the church of the Eastern Roman Empire in the 5th...
(451); Harmonius (458); Constantine (680), who attended the Third Council of Constantinople
Third Council of Constantinople
The Third Council of Constantinople, counted as the Sixth Ecumenical Council by the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches and other Christian groups, met in 680/681 and condemned monoenergism and monothelitism as heretical and defined Jesus Christ as having two energies and two wills...
; 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
Theophilos (emperor)
Theophilos was the Byzantine emperor from 829 until his death in 842. He was the second emperor of the Phrygian dynasty, and the last emperor supporting iconoclasm...
. The See of Lampsacus is mentioned in the "Notitiae Episcopatuum
Notitiae Episcopatuum
The Notitiae Episcopatuum are official documents that furnish Eastern countries the list and hierarchical rank of the metropolitan and suffragan bishoprics of a church....
" until about the twelfth or thirteenth century.
See also
- List of traditional Greek place names
- Anaximenes of LampsacusAnaximenes of LampsacusAnaximenes of Lampsacus was a Greek rhetorician and historian.-Rhetorical works:Anaximenes was a pupil of Zoilus and, like his teacher, wrote a work on Homer. As a rhetorician, he was a determined opponent of Isocrates and his school...
- Polyaenus of LampsacusPolyaenus of LampsacusPolyaenus of Lampsacus , also spelled Polyenus, son of Athenodorus, was an ancient Greek mathematician and a friend of Epicurus. His friendship with Epicurus started after the latter's escape from Mytilene in 307 or 306 BC when he opened a philosophical school at Lampsacus associating himself with...
- Metrodorus of Lampsacus (the younger)
- MA in Black Sea Cultural Studies. International Hellenic University-School of Humanities.
- Abramios the RecluseAbramios The RecluseSaint Abramios the Recluse was an early Christian hermit and ascetic from Edessa.-Biography:Abramios was born in 290 AD in Edessa . On the day of his wedding, he left his fiancée and went to the coast of the Sea of Marmara, near Lampsacus...