LA´MPSACUS
LA´MPSACUS (Λάμψακος: Eth. Λαμψακηνός, Eth. Lampsacenus), sometimes also called Lampsacum (Cic. in Verr. 1.24; Pomp. Mela, 1.19), was one of the most celebrated Greek settlements in Mysia on the Hellespont. It was known to have existed under the name of Pityusa or Pityussa before it received colonists from the Ionian cities of Phocaea and Miletus. (Strab. xiii. p.589; Steph. B. sub voce Plin. Nat. 5.40; Hom. Il. 2.829 ; Plut. de Virt. Mul. 18.) It was situated, opposite to Callipolis, in the Thracian Chersonesus, and possessed an excellent harbour. Herodotus (6.37) relates that the elder Miltiades, who was settled in the Thracian Chersonesus, made war upon the Lampsaceni, but that they took him by surprise, and made him their prisoner. Being threatened, however, by Croesus, who supported Miltiades, they set him free. During the Ionian revolt, the town fell into the hands of the Persians. (Hdt. 5.117.) The territory about Lampsacus produced excellent wine, whence the king of Persia bestowed it upon Themistocles, that he might thence provide himself with wine. (Thuc. 1.138; Athen. 1.29; Diod. 11.57; Plut. Them. 29; Nepos, Them. 10; Amm. Marc. 22.8.) But even while Lampsacus acknowledged the supremacy of Persia, it continued to be governed by a native prince or tyrant, of the name of Hippocles. His son Aeantides married Archedice, a daughter of Pisistratus, whose tomb, commemorating her virtues, was seen there in the time of Thucydides (6.59). The attempt of [p. 2.119]Euagon to seize the citadel, and thereby to make himself tyrant, seems to belong to the same period. (Athen. 11.508.) After the battle of Mycale, in B.C. 479, Lampsacus joined Athens, but revolted after the failure of the great Athenian expedition to Sicily; being, however, unfortified, it was easily reconquered by a fleet under Strombichides. (Thuc. 8.62.) After the time of Alexander the Great, the Lampsaceni had to defend their city against the attacks of Antiochus of Syria; they voted a crown of gold to the Romans, and were received by them as allies. (Liv. 33.38, 35.42, 43.6; Plb. 21.10.) In the time of Strabo, Lampsacus was still a flourishing city. It was the birthplace of many distinguished authors and philosophers, such as Charon the historian, Anaximenes the orator, and Metrodorus the disciple of Epicurus, who himself resided there for many years, and reckoned some of its citizens among his intimate friends. (Strab. 1. c.; D. L. 10.11.) Lampsacus possessed a fine statue by Lysippus, representing a prostrate lion, but it was removed by Agrippa to Rome to adorn the Campus Martius. (Strab. l.c.) Lampsacus, as is well known, was the chief seat of the obscene worship of Priapus, who was believed to have been born there of Aphrodite. (Athen. 1.30; Paus. 9.31.2; Apollon. 1.983 ; Ov. Fast. 6.345; Verg. G. 4.110.) From this circumstance the whole district was believed to have derived the name of Abarnis or Aparnis (ἀπαρνεῖσθαι), because Aphrodite denied that she had given birth to him. (Theophr. Hist. Plant. 1.6, 13.) The ancient name of the district had been Bebrycia, probably from the Thracian Bebryces, who had settled there. (Comp. Hecat. Fragm. 207; Charon, Fragm. 115, 119; Xenoph. Anab. 7.8.1; Plb. 5.77; Plin. Nat. 4.18, 5.40; Ptol. 5.2.2; Steph. B. sub voce The name of Lamsaki is still attached to a small town, near which Lampsacus probably stood, as Lamsaki itself contains no remains of antiquity. There are gold and silver staters of Lampsacus in different collections ; the imperial coins have been traced from Augustus to Gallienus. (Sestini, Mon. Vet. p. 73.) |
| COIN OF LAMPSACUS. |
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