Greek city of Lampsakos in Mysia -
Bronze 8mm (1.1 grams) Struck 190-85 B.C.
Head of Priapos right, horned and wreathed with ivy.
ΛΑ within ivy wreath.
You are bidding on the exact item pictured,
provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of
Authenticity.
In
Greek mythology, Priapos
(Ancient
Greek: Πρίαπος), Latinized as
Priapus, was a minor rustic fertility god, protector of
livestock,
fruit plants, gardens and male
genitalia. His
Roman equivalent was
Mutunus Tutunus. He was best noted for his huge, permanent
erection,
which gave rise to the medical term
priapism.
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]
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.
|