Lampsacus
Lampsacus, located in northwestern Asia Minor at the eastern entrance to the Hellespont, was a historically significant city known for its strategic harbor and economic prosperity. The city's origins are debated, with some attributing its founding to Phocaea rather than Miletus. Throughout its history, Lampsacus changed hands multiple times, falling under the control of various powers, including the Lydians, Persians, and Athenians, reflecting its importance in regional politics. Notably, during the fourth century BC, it minted a series of renowned gold staters featuring a winged horse, which became influential in Mediterranean trade.
In the Hellenistic period, Lampsacus allied with the Romans, gaining some autonomy and experiencing a brief period of prosperity. The city is also associated with the worship of Priapus, a garden deity, which was reflected in its coinage. Although it faced challenges, including the impacts of conflict and governance, it maintained its economic activities until the Roman Empire's decline. By Christian times, Lampsacus transformed into a bishopric, and its harbor remained significant during the Middle Ages. Today, the remnants of its walls and structures are largely overgrown, marking the city's rich yet complex history.
Lampsacus
Lampsakos (Lapseki)
A city of the Troad (northwestern Asia Minor). Its strategic situation at the eastern entrance to the Hellespont (Dardanelles), together with the possession of a good harbor, guaranteed economic success and historical significance. In contradiction to Strabo's statement that its founders came from Miletus, other writers, like the Lampsacenes themselves, believed that they had come from another Ionian city, Phocaea (Foca). During the sixth and fifth centuries BC Lampsacus fell successively under the control of the Lydians, the Persians (whose King Artaxerxes I assigned it c 464 to the Athenian exile Themistocles), the Delian League controlled by Athens, the Spartans (who used it as an operational base in 405), at the end of the Peloponnesian War and then the Persians once more. During the first half of the fourth century its earlier coinage (first electrum and then silver) was replaced by a famous series of gold staters, displaying a winged horse, which, together with Persian issues, constituted for a time the principal gold coinage of most of the Mediterranean world.
Free again for a short period, c 362 Lampsacus fell once more under Athenian control (355). Then came a resumption of Persian domination (340) (exercised by Memnon, governor of the Troad), from which it was detached by Alexander the Great (334), becoming one of his mints. Its prosperity continued during the Hellenistic Age, in which it shared the vicissitudes of other cities of the Troad (qv), allying itself with the Romans c 190 and receiving autonomy, but suffering from the depredations of their governor Verres (80). According to Appian, Lampsacus received a draft of Italian settlers from Julius Caesar, and they may (although this is a matter of discussion) have constituted a formal Roman colony, to which a series of coins describing some foundation as Gemina (twin with Parium) has been tentatively attributed. In 35, however, Sextus Pompeius, fleeing to Asia Minor after his defeat by Octavian (the future Augustus) and Agrippa at Naulochus, obtained control of the place by treachery, and after his suppression and death shortly afterward nothing more was heard of the colony, if it had ever existed.
Under the Principate, however, Lampsacus continued to prosper, issuing coinage with Greek inscriptions until the time of Gallienus (AD 253–68). One of its most frequent coin-types was a statue (sometimes in a temple) of the ithyphallic garden-god Priapus, who is described as `Hellespontine’ by Virgil, since one of the leading seats of his worship was located at Lampsacus. Nevertheless, in Christian times the city possessed a bishopric, and its harbor played an important part in the Middle Ages. Remains of walls and other structures are mostly overgrown or have vanished.