Nicopolis of Epirus

NICOPOLIS OF EPIRUS. - City founded by Augustus as a monument to his victory at Actium. Favored by the Emperor and by its excellent position, it soon became and long remained the metropolis of Epirus proper, that is, of what from Diocletian onward was called the province of Lower Epirus (Epirus vetus) and later the "theme of N."

Devastated by an earthquake in 358 and by the Goths in 551, but rebuilt by Julian the Apostate in 361 and then by Justinian, it was definitively ruined by the Bulgarians in 829; from that time the remainder of its population, whose nationality at that period is not known with certainty, moved a short distance away to the present modest city which bears, perhaps from that time already, the name of Prevesa, commonly recognized as Albanian, while the ancient settlement is called Paleoprevesa.

It is highly probable that St. Paul evangelized it, as is shown by his intention in the Epistle to Titus (3, 9) inviting him to join him there where he indeed intended to spend the winter; its bishop Heliodorus took part in the Council of Nicaea and perhaps also in that of Sardica; having become the metropolis of the ecclesiastical province modeled on the civil one, it appears at the head of eight suffragan sees in the 5th-8th century: Phoenice, Anchiasmus, Corcyra, Hadrianopolis (of Epirus), Photice, Euroea, Dodona, Buthrotum (Butrinto); in 595 it appears invested with the pallium.

The attitude of this Church and of its province with regard to orthodoxy is characteristic of the mentality of Illyrian Christianity: normally it is found ranged on the orthodox side, as in 367 in the person of its bishop Heliodorus, faithful to the Nicene definitions; his successor Donatus in 431 at Ephesus is consistently with Cyril; Eugenius with all his suffragans in 458 responds orthodoxly to the circular of Leo I; nevertheless, a phenomenon equally typical of ecclesiastical Illyricum, such orthodoxy depends more on juridical than on theological reasons: Epirus depended ecclesiastically on Thessalonica, and this in turn held in the 4th-5th centuries the office of vicariate over the whole of eastern Illyricum on behalf of Rome, not depending on Constantinople; when Thessalonica strayed, N. also wavered: thus in the Acacian crisis (516-19); thus in the iconoclastic one (787); nevertheless, in both cases N. proves more attached to orthodoxy, resisting it longer and returning to it sooner.

Indeed, the bishop Alcison dies in prison at Constantinople in 516 for having condemned Dorotheus of Thessalonica, while his suffragans are likewise all in exile for the same reason; his successor John is put to death in 519 by the same Dorotheus; when, moreover, in the various questions the Roman See has not yet pronounced, the Nicopolitan, like the other Illyrians, wavers, only to range himself afterward with Roman orthodoxy as soon as instructions are received; thus Atticus takes part in the "Robber Council of Ephesus" in 449, but in 451 rectifies his position at Chalcedon, and Anastasius in 787 makes an act of repentance at Nicaea II.

It happens therefore that at certain moments the Pope entrusts the metropolitan of N. with direct commissions, bypassing Thessalonica, as in 517. In any case this metropolitan see is considered of a certain importance, so much so that one might say that in the order of precedence of episcopal sees its place is the 54th (at Chalcedon, since not all were present, it normally occupies the 46th; at Ephesus, among the Cyrillians, the 16th). Once the city was destroyed, it is seen shortly afterward dependent on Constantinople under Photius (858-86). From that time among the metropolises there appears in the 35th place Naupactus called "Naupactus of N." and then simply Naupactus, which would also be the metropolitan see, with a certain splendor, in the era of the Despotate of Epirus.

Giuseppe Valentini

ARCHAEOLOGY

In N. explorations were carried out by the Greek Government in the years 1912-16; besides pagan buildings, in 1914 two basilicas were discovered, the one more ancient to the west and the other to the east called, it seems, Ἀνάληψις (Assumption), of later appearance (9th-10th century) and with later restorations. In 1915 the remains of the churches of St. Athanasius, of St. Basil and of St. Nicholas were brought back to light, along with the oratories of St. John Chrysostom and of St. Spyridon with remains of Byzantine paintings (now in the Museum of Preveza). A large basilica with three naves with an apse and transept with a kind of portico. The hall has in its floor about 250 figures of animals, plants and flowers, with decorations of crosses and rosettes. An apsidal hall to the right of the basilica is likewise decorated in mosaic with 150 small scenes of animals, fruits and flowers. In the apsidal part are nine peacocks with tail in a wheel and a handled vase from which a vine springs, on whose branches are birds pecking at the clusters. In another hall, the mosaic represents an expanse of waters with fish, water birds and sixteen small panels with hunting scenes and two combatants. The inscription says that Dometius, chief of the blameless priests, excellent in every respect, distinguished ornament of the fatherland, built with divine help, adorned and brought to perfect splendor the church which shrinks from all its parts. In a third hall, in the mosaic the same subjects are repeated and in the center three trees with fruits and animals, with below an inscription in four hexameters from which it is gathered that Dometius was to dwell near the Basilica situated not far from the sea; the third hexameter depends on Homer's Odyssey (XVIII, v. 131).

Enrico Josi