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Lampsacus (; ) was an ancient Greece city located in modern day Turkey, strategically situated 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.
The philosopher Anaxagoras was forced to retire to Lampsacus after a trial in Athens around 434–433 BC. The citizens of Lampsacus erected an altar to Mind and Truth in his honor, and observed the anniversary of his death for many years. Additionally, in his honor, the annual celebration known as the Anaxagoreia was established.
The people of Lampsacus were pro-Persian, or were suspected of doing so and Alexander the Great was furiously angry, and threatened to do them massive harm. They sent Anaximenes of Lampsacus to intercede for them. Alexander knew why he had come, and swore by the gods that he would do the opposite of what he would ask, so Anaximenes said, 'Please do this for me, your majesty: enslave the women and children of Lampsacus, burn their temples, and raze the city to the ground.' Alexander had no way round this clever trick, and since he was bound by his oath he reluctantly pardoned the people of Lampsacus. Suda, al.1989 Pausanias, Description of Greece, 6.18.3
Lampsacus produced a series of notable historians and philosophers. Charon of Lampsacus () composed histories of Persia, Libya, and Ethiopia, and annals of his native town.J. B. Bury, The Ancient Greek Historians, Lecture 1, §4. Metrodorus of Lampsacus (the elder) (5th century BC) was a philosopher from the school of Anaxagoras. Strato of Lampsacus () 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. Anaximenes of Lampsacus, a rhetorician and historian. His nephew (son of his sister), was also named Anaximenes and was a historian. Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Philosophers, § 2.3 Aristocles (Ἀριστοκλῆς) of Lampsacus was a stoic philosopher. Suda, al.3917 Xenophon of Lampsacus was a geographer.
The people of Lampsacus dedicated a statue of Anaximenes of Lampsacus at Olympia, Greece. Pausanias, Description of Greece, 6.18.2
The first known bishop in Lampsacus was Parthenius, under Constantine I. Part of the Hellespont, Lampsacus was subject to the metropolis of Cyzicus. In 364, the Episcopal 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 12th or 13th century. The famous Lampsacus Treasure, now in the British Museum, dates from this period. The bishopric remains a vacant and titular see. Lampsacus at catholic-hierarchy.org.
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