Lappa

LAPPA, LAMPA(Λάππα, Ptol. 3.17.10; Λάμπα, Λάμπαι, Hierocl.; Λάμπη, Steph. B.: Eth. Λαππαῖος, Λαμπαῖος), an inland town of Crete, with a district extending from sea to sea (Scylax, p. 18), and possessing the port Phoenix. (Strab. 10. p. 475.) Although the two forms of this city's name occur in ancient authors, yet on coins and in inscriptions the word Lappa is alone found. Stephanus of Byzantium shows plainly that the two names denote the same place, when he says that Xenion, in his Cretica, wrote the word Lappa, and not Lampa. The same author (s. v. Λάμπη) says that it was founded by Agamemnon, and was called after one Lampos, a Tarrhaean; the interpretation of which seems to be that it was a colony of Tarrha.
When Lyctus had been destroyed by the Cnossians, its citizens found refuge with the people of Lappa (Plb. 4.53). After the submission of Cydonia. Cnossus, Lyctus, and Eleutherna, to the arms of Metellus, the Romans advanced against Lappa, which was taken by storm, and appears to have been almost entirely destroyed. (Dio Cass..) Augustus, in consideration of the aid rendered to him by the Lappaeans in his struggle with M. Antonius bestowed on them their freedom, and also restored their city. (Dio Cass..) When Christianity was established, Lappa became an episcopal see; the name of its bishop is recorded as present at the Synod of Ephesus, A.D. 431, and the Council of Chalcedon, A.D. 451, as well as on many other subsequent occasions. (Cornelius, Creta Sacra, vol. i. pp. 251, 252.)
Lappa was 32 M.P. from Eleutherna and 9 M. P. from Cisamus, the port of Aptera ( Peut. Tab. ); distances which agree very well with Pólis, the modern representative of this famous city, where Mr. Pashley ( Travels, vol. 1. p. 83) found considerable remains of a massive brick edifice, with buttresses 15 feet wide and of 9 feet projection ; a circular building, 60 feet diameter, with niches round it 11 feet wide; a cistern, 76 ft. by 20 ft.; a Roman brick building, and several tombs cut in the rock. (Comp. Mus. Class. Antiq. vol. 2. p. 293.) One of the inscriptions relating to this city mentions a certain Marcus Aurelius Clesippus, in whose honour the Lappaeans erected a statue. (Gruter, p. 1091; Chishull, Antiq. Asiat. p. 122; Mabillon, Mus. Ital. p. 33; Böckh, Corp. Inscr. Gr. vol. 2. p. 428.)
The head of its benefactor Augustus is exhibited on the coins of Lappa: one has the epigraph, ΘΕΩΚΑΙΣΑΝΙ ΣΕΒΑΣΤΩ;others of Domitian and Commodus are found. (Hardouin, Num. Antiq. pp. 93, 94; Mionnet, vol. 2. p. 286; Supplém. vol. 4. p. 326 ; Rasche, vol. ii. pl. 2. p. 1493.) On the autonomous coins of Lappa, from which Spanheim supposed the city to have possessed the right of asylum, like the Grecian cities enumerated in Tacitus, see Eckhel, vol. 2. p. 315. The maritime symbols on the coins of Lappa are accounted for by the extension of its territory to both shores, and the possession of the port of Phoenix.
[E.B.J]