NICOPOLIS OF EPIRUS. – A city founded by Augustus as a monument to his victory at Actium. Favored by the Emperor and by its excellent position, it quickly 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 N."
Devastated by an earthquake in 358 and by the Goths in 551, but rebuilt by Julian the Apostate in 361 and later by Justinian, it was definitively ruined by the Bulgarians in 829. From then on, the remainder of its population—whose nationality at that time is not known with certainty—moved a short distance away to the present modest town that has borne, perhaps from that time, the name of Preveza, commonly recognized as Albanian, while the ancient settlement is called Paleopreveza.
It is highly probable that St. Paul evangelized Nicopolis, as is suggested by his intention in the Epistle to Titus (3:9), inviting him to join him there where he intended to 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 headed eight suffragan sees in the 5th–8th centuries: Phoenice, Anchiasmus, Corcyra, Adrianopolis (of Epirus), Photice, Eurea, Dodona, and Buthrotum (Buthrotos). In 595 it is recorded as having been granted the pallium.
The stance of this Church and its province regarding orthodoxy is characteristic of the mentality of Illyrian Christianity: it is normally found aligned with the orthodox side, as in 367 through its bishop Heliodorus, faithful to the Nicene definitions; its successor Donatus at Ephesus in 431 consistently sides with Cyril; Eugenius, with all his suffragans, in 458 responds orthodoxly to the encyclical of Leo I. Yet, a phenomenon equally typical of ecclesiastical Illyricum is that such orthodoxy depends more on juridical than theological grounds: Nicopolis was ecclesiastically dependent on Thessalonica, which in turn in the 4th–5th centuries had been entrusted by Rome with the vicariate over all eastern Illyricum, not being subject to Constantinople. When Thessalonica wavered, so did Nicopolis: thus in the Acacian schism (516–19) and in the iconoclastic controversy (787); yet in both cases Nicopolis proved more attached to orthodoxy, resisting longer and returning to it sooner.
Thus Bishop Alcison died in prison in Constantinople in 516 for having condemned Dorotheus of Thessalonica, while all his suffragans were also exiled for the same reason; his successor John was murdered in 519 by the same Dorotheus. When, in various disputes, the Roman See had not yet pronounced itself, the Nicopolitan, like the other Illyrians, wavered, only to side with Roman orthodoxy as soon as instructions were received. Thus Atticus took part in the "Robber Council" of Ephesus in 449, but in 451 corrected his position at Chalcedon, and Anastasius in 787 made an act of repentance at Nicaea II.
Hence it happens that at certain moments the metropolitan of Nicopolis was entrusted with direct missions by the Pope, bypassing Thessalonica, as in 517. In any case, this metropolitan see was considered of some importance, so much so that one might say that in the order of precedence of episcopal sees, its place was the 54th (at Chalcedon, when not all were present, it normally held the 46th; at Ephesus, among the Cyrillians, the 16th). After the city’s destruction, it soon appears under the jurisdiction of Constantinople under Photius (858–67). From then on, among the metropolitan sees it appears in 35th place as Naupactus of the "Naupactus of Nicopolis," and later simply as Naupactus, which would also become the metropolitan see, with a certain splendor, in the period of the Despotate of Epirus.
ARCHAEOLOGY. – Excavations were conducted in Nicopolis by the Greek government in the years 1912–16. In addition to pagan buildings, two basilicas were discovered in 1914, one older to the west and the other to the east, called, it seems, *Analogos* (Assumption), of later appearance (9th–10th century) with subsequent restorations. In 1915 the remains of the churches of St. Athanasius, St. Basil, and St. Nicholas were brought to light, along with the oratories of St. John Chrysostom and St. Spyridon, featuring advanced Byzantine paintings (now in the Preveza Museum). A large three-aisled basilica with an apse and transept, and a kind of portico, has about 250 figures of animals, plants, and flowers in its pavement, decorated with crosses and rosettes. A hall with an apse to the right of the basilica is also decorated with music, featuring 150 small scenes of animals, fruits, and flowers. In the apse part are nine peacocks with wheel-like tails and a handled vase from which a vine with birds pecking at the grapes extends. In another hall, the mosaic depicts a stretch of water with fish, waterfowl, and sixteen small panels with hunting scenes and two combatants. The inscription states that Domezius, head of the irreproachable priests, excellent in every respect, a distinguished ornament of his homeland, built with divine aid, adorned, and brought to perfect splendor the church, which excels in all its parts. In a third hall, the mosaic repeats the same subjects, and in the center are three trees with fruits and animals, beneath which is an inscription in four hexameters from which it is inferred that Domezius must have lived near the Basilica situated not far from the sea; the third hexameter is taken from Homer’s *Odyssey* (XVIII, V. 131).