NICOPOLIS, "The City of Victory," a town of ancient Greece, stood on the promontory of Epirus, on the low isthmus which separates the Ionian Sea from the Ambracius Sinus (Gulf of Arta). It was erected by Augustus in 31 B.C. to perpetuate the fame of the victory which he had gained at the neighbouring headland of Actium. Special care was taken to render it worthy of its imperial founder. A large population was drawn within its walls from the adjacent cities; it was admitted into the Amphictyonic Council; the privileges of a Roman colony were conferred upon it; and it became the scene of a quinquennial festival, called Aetia, in honour of the above-mentioned battle. Under the successors of Augustus, Nicopolis continued to be the capital of Epirus. It was, however, gradually sinking into decay; and during the dark ages its dilapidated buildings were finally abandoned. About three miles north of the modern town of Prevesa, a line of ruins, stretching across the isthmus, and containing the remains of a larger and a smaller theatre, a palace, a stadium, and an aqueduct, still indicates the site of the ancient city of Nicopolis.