NICOPOLIS (NucbroXts, 'City of Victory ; ' a city only mentioned once by the sacred writers. In the epistle to Titus, iii. 12, the apostle Paul says, When I shall send Artemas unto thee,. or Tychicus, be diligent to come unto me to Nico polls ; for I have determined there to winter.' It does not appear where Paul was when he wrote these words, nor is there any direct evidence to show what Nicopolis is meant. The postscript to the epistle says it was written from Nicopolis of Macedonia ;' but it is of a comparatively late date, and is of no critical value. The language quoted above shows plainly enough that Paul was not at Nicopolis when he wrote the words, but was on his way thither ; though Winer and others take it for granted that he wrote from the city (R. LVaerterbnch, ii. 153). It is of importance, as tend ing to fix the site of the Nicopolis here referred to, to trace the apostle's route. This, however, can not be done with absolute certainty. Conybeare and Howson (with whom Alford substantially agrees, Prolegom. Past. Epist. vii.) say, We learn from an incidental notice elsewhere, that the route he pursued was from Ephesus to Miletus (2 Tim. iv. 20), and thence to Corinth, where he left Erastus ;' thence he proceeded to Nicopolis. It is assumed that the Nicopolis spoken of is the city of that name in Epirus (Life and Epist. of St. Paul, ii. 481, 1st ed.) There were several other cities also called Nicopolis, some of which were small' and of little note, so that they cannot possibly have been referred to here. Two, however, may be mentioned. s. Nicopolis in Thrace on the river Nessus, and hence termed by Ptolemy NtaroNts. it rept NkcroP (Geogr. iii. r) ; Chrysostom and Theodoret supposed this to be the place intended by Paul. It was a small unimportant town. 2. Nicopolis in Cilicia, supposed by Schrader to be the place, to suit his theory that the apostle was on his way to Jerusalem (Schrader, Paulus, i. 118).
There can be little doubt that the apostle in this passage refers to Nicopolis of Epirus. It was an important city ; its position rendered it a good centre from which to perform evangelistic work throughout the adjoining provinces ; and from it too he might make excursions to those churches in Illyricum which he perhaps founded at an earlier period (Conybeare and Howson, ii. 128, 192, 481). This city was founded by Augustus in commemo ration of the battle of Actilim, and stood upon the place where his land-forces encamped before that battle. From the mainland of Epirus, on the north, a promontory projects some five miles in the line of the shore, and is there separated by a chan nel half a mile wide from the opposite coast. This
channel forms the entrance of the Gulf of Ambra cius, which lies within the promontory. The naval battle was fought at the mouth of the gulf, and Actium, from which it took its name, and where Antony's camp was stationed, stood on the point forming the south side of the channel. The pro montory is connected with the mainland by a nar row isthmus. Upon it Augustus encamped, his tent standing upon a height, from which he could command both the gulf and the sea. After the victory he enclosed the place where his tent was pitched, dedicated it to Neptune, and founded on the isthmus the city of Nicoldis (Dion Cas., li. ; Strabo, vii., p. 324), and made it a Roman colony. It was not more than some thirty years old when visited by the apostle, and yet it was then the chief city of western Greece. It would appear that Paul was not permitted to spend the winter at Nicopo lis as he had intended. The Christians were hated by the Roman authorities ; Paul was regarded as their leader, and he was arrested by the Duuntviri of this city and sent to Rome for trial, on the charge of having instigated the burning of the capital (Conybeare and Howson, H. 482). Nico polis is thus interesting as the last scene of the great apostle's labours.
The prosperity of Nicopolis was of short dura tion. It had fallen to ruin, but was restored by the Emperor Julian. After being destroyed by the Goths, it was again restored by Justinian, and con tinued for a time the capital of Epirus (Mamertin. 7u/ian, 9 ; Procopius, Bel. Goth., iv. 22 ; Smith, Did. of Gr. and Rom. Geoff , s. v.) During the middle ages, the new town of Prevesa was built at the point of the promontory, and Nicopolis was deserted.
The remains of the city still visible show its former extent and importance. They cover a large portion of the isthmus. Wordsworth thus describes the site :—'.A lofty wall spans a desolate plain ; to the north of it rises, on a distant hill, the shattered scena of a theatre ; and to the west the extended, though broken, line of an aqueduct connects the distant mountains with the main sub ject of the picture—the city itself' (Wordsworth's Greece, pp. 229, seq.) There are also the ruins of a mediaeval castle, a quadrangular structure of brick, and a small theatre, on the low marshy plain an which the city chiefly stood, and which is now dreary and desolate (Yortrnal of R. G. S., iii., p. 92, seq.; Leake, Northern Greece, i., p. 185, sea. ; Cellarius, Geogr. i., to89). The name given to the ruins is Paleoprevesa, ' Old Prevesa.'—J. L. P