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.
S. Pétridès.
