Nicopolis
NICOPOLIS
A city where Paul spent probably the last winter of his life, having previously written to Titus, at Crete, to meet him there, 1Ti 3:12 . He is supposed to refer to the Nicopolis of Thrace, situated on the river Nestus, near the borders of Macedonia, and hence called, in the subscription to the epistle, Nicopolis of Macedonia. Others, however, suppose him to have meant Nicopolis in Epirus, which stood near the mouth of the Ambracian gulf, opposite to Actium, and which was built by Augustus in honor of his decisive victory over Antony.
Fuente: American Tract Society Bible Dictionary
Nicopolis
(, City of victory)
In days of almost constant warfare, when many triumphs had to be commemorated, this was a favourite name for newly founded cities. T. Zahn enumerates no fewer than nine Nicopoleis (Introd. to NT, Eng. translation , 1909, ii. 53 f.), of which one in Cappadocia, a second in Egypt, and a third in Thrace had some importance. Chrysostom and Theodoret took the last of these to be the place referred to in Tit 3:12. But by far the most famous Nicopolis was the city in Epirus which Augustus founded after the battle of Actium. He intended it to be at once a permanent memorial of the great naval victory and the centre of a newly flourishing Hellenic life (T. Mommsen, Provinces of Rom. Empire, new ed., 1909, i. 295). It was laid out where the victors headquarters had been stationed just before the battle, at the narrowest part of the promontory which separates the Ambracian Gulf from the Ionian Sea. Augustus peopled it, after the fashion set by Alexanders successors, by uniting the inhabitants of a large number of minor townships in one great urban domain. He made it a free city like Athens or Sparta, and instituted so-called Actian Games, which he put on the same level as the four ancient Hellenic festivals. Nicopolis became the foremost city of Western Greece, and (at some uncertain date) the capital of the new province of Epirus. Tacitus calls it urbem Achaiae (Ann. ii. 53, for the year a.d. 18), but Epictetus, its most famous citizen (born c. [Note: . circa, about.] a.d. 60), speaks of an residing in Nicopolis and governing the land (Diss. III. iv. 1).
It was natural that St. Paul should sooner or later think of this splendid Graeco-Roman city and its neighbourhood as a field for evangelistic work. In an epistolary fragment which has been preserved, he bids Titus, who has been labouring in Crete, give diligence to join him at Nicopolis, as he has decided to winter there (Tit 3:12). Some Manuscripts of the epistle (A and P) have the subscription, It was written from Nicopolis, and these are followed by the Greek commentators (Chrys. Theod. et al.); but the Apostle would have said , not , if he had been actually writing in the city. It has been generally assumed that St. Paul, after being acquitted by his Roman judges, resumed his labours in the East, and that his letter summoning Titus to Nicopolis belongs to this period. It has further been conjectured that the Apostle made his way, as he intended, to Nicopolis, and that his second arrest took place there (Conybeare-Howson, St. Paul, new ed., 1877, ii. 571 f.). But the evidence for a release is far from convincing, and the question arises whether the Nicopolis episode can be fitted into his biography without this doubtful final phase. In reference to Tit 3:12 f., H. von Soden says: This is all intelligible in itself and as a part of the life of St. Paul, and the fulness of particulars gives an impression of authenticity (The History of Early Christian Literature, Eng. translation , 1906, p. 316). It seems certain that Titus work in Crete (Tit 1:5) cannot have begun till after the writing of 2 Cor., for he was occupied with the settlement of difficulties in the Corinthian Church. But St. Paul may have visited the island with his fellow-worker, and left him to labour there, shortly before his final visit to Corinth. As regards Act 20:2, it has been suggested that the writer knew very little about the details of St. Pauls life at the time to which this passage refers (A. C. McGiffert, A History of Christianity in the Apostolic Age, 1897, p. 411 n. [Note: . note.] ), and a short campaign in Crete may well have been one of his activities during that period. On this hypothesis, the letter to Titus, in its original, comparatively brief form, must have been written before St. Pauls stay of three winter months in Corinth (20:3). Titus probably hastened, as directed, to Nicopolis, but some new turn of events prevented St. Paul from carrying out his purpose of wintering in that city, though he may have paid it a brief visit. Nothing is known about its actual evangelization, either at that time or later. After falling into decay, the city was restored by Julian; and Justinian repaired the havoc wrought by the Goths; but in the Middle Ages it was supplanted by Prevesa, three miles to the south. Its ruins are extensive.
James Strahan.
Fuente: Dictionary of the Apostolic Church
Nicopolis
A titular see, suffragan of Sebasteia, in Armenia Prima. Founded by Pompey after his decisive victory over Mithridates, it was inhabited by veterans of his army and by members of the neighboring peasantry, and was delightfully situated in a beautiful, well-watered plain lying at the base of a thickly-wooded mountain. All the Roman highways intersecting that portion of the country and leading to Comana, Polemonium, Neocaesarea, Sebasteia, etc., radiated from Nicopolis which, even in the time of Strabo (XII, iii, 28), boasted quite a large population. Given to Polemon by Anthony, in 36 B.C., Nicopolis was governed from A.D. 54, by Aristobulus of Chalcis and definitively annexed to the Roman Empire by Nero, A.D. 64. It then became the metropolis of Lesser Armenia and the seat of the provincial diet which elected the Armeniarch. Besides the altar of the Augusti, it raised temples to Zeus Nicephorus and to Victory. Christianity reached Nicopolis at an early date and, under Licinius, about 319, forty-five of the city’s inhabitants were martyred; the Church venerates them on 10 July. St. Basil (P.G., XXXII, 896) calls the priests of Nicopolis the sons of confessors and martyrs, and their church (P. G., XXXII, 834) the mother of that of Colonia. About 472, St. John the Silent, who had sold his worldly goods, erected a church there to the Blessed Virgin.
In 499 Nicopolis was destroyed by an earthquake, none save the bishop and his two secretaries escaping death (Bull. Acad. de Belgique, 1905, 557). This disaster was irreparable, and although Justinian rebuilt the walls and erected a monastery in memory of the Forty-five Martyrs (Procopius, “De Ædificiis”, III, 4), Nicopolis never regained its former splendour. Under Heraclius it was captured by Chosroes (Sebeos, “Histoire d’Heraclius”, tr. Macler, p. 62) and thenceforth was only a mediocre city, a simple see and a suffragan of Sebasteia in Lesser Armenia, remaining such at least until the eleventh century, as may be seen from the various “Notitiae episcopatuum”. To-day the site of ancient Nicopolis is occupied by the Armenian village of Purkh, which has a population of 200 families and is near the city of Enderes, in the sanjak of Kara-Hissar and the vilayet of Sivas. Natable among the eight bishops mentioned by Le Quien is St. Gregory who, in the eleventh century, resigned his bishopric and retired to Pithiviers in France. The Church venerates him on 14 March.
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LE QUIEN, Oriens christianus (Paris, 1740), I, 427-30; Acta Sanctorum, July, III, 34-45; CUMONT, Studica Pontica (Brussels, 1906), 304-14.
S. VAILHÉ Transcribed by Joseph E. O’Connor
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XICopyright © 1911 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, February 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Nicopolis (1)
(NICOPOLITANA)
Diocese in Bulgaria. The city of Nicopolis (Thrace or Moesia), situated at the junction of the Iatrus with the Danube, was built by Trajan in commemoration of his victory over the Dacians (Ammianus Marcellinus, XXXI, 5; Jornandes, “De rebus geticis”, ed. Savagner, 218). Ptolemy (III, xi, 7) places it in Thrace and Hierocles in Moesia near the Haemus or Balkans. In the “Ecthesis” of pseudo-Epiphanius (Gelzer, “Ungedruckte . . . Texte der Notitiae episcopatuum”, 535), Nicopolis figures as an autocephalous archbishopric about 640, and then disappears from the episcopal lists, owing to the fact that the country fell into the hands of the Bulgarians. Le Quien (Oriens christianus, I, 1233) has preserved the names of two ancient bishops: Marcellus in 458, and Amantius in 518. A list of the Latin titulars (1354-1413) may be found in Eubel (Hierarchia catholica medii aevi, Münster, I, 381). The city is chiefly noted for the defeat of the French and Hungarian armies (25 September, 1396) which made the Turks masters of the Balkan peninsula. The Latin mission of Bulgaria, subject during the sixteenth century to the Archbishops of Antivari, afterwards received Franciscan missionaries from Bosnia, and in 1624 formed an independent province called “custodia Bulgariae”. In 1763 it was confided to the Baptistines of Genoa and in 1781, to the Passionists who have no canonical residences in the country, simply parishes. One of them is usually appointed Bishop of Nicopolis. The Franciscan bishops formerly resided at Tchiprovetz, destroyed by the Turks in 1688, but after the war and the pestilence of 1812, the bishop established himself at Cioplea, a Catholic village which the Bulgarians had just founded hear Bucharest and where his successors resided until 1883, when the Holy See created the Archbishopric of Bucharest. The Bishop of Nicopolis, ceasing then to be apostolic administrator of Wallachia, chose Roustchouk as his residence and still lives there. In the diocese there are 13,000 Catholics; 24 priests, 5 of whom are seculars; 17 Passionists and 2 Assumptionists; 15 churches, and 3 chapels. The Assumptionists have a school at Varna, the Oblates of the Assumption a boarding-school in the same city, and the Sisters of Our Lady of Sion a boarding-school at Roustchouk.
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Ptolemy, ed. MULLER, I (Paris), 481; LE ROULX, La France en Orient au XIVe siecle, I (Paris, 1886), 211-99; Echos d’Orient, VII (Paris), 207-9; Missiones catholicae (Rome, 1907).
S. VAILHÉ Transcribed by Joseph E. O’Connor
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XICopyright © 1911 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, February 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Nicopolis (2)
A titular see and metropolis in ancient Epirus. Augustus founded the city (B.C. 31) on a promontory in the Gulf of Ambracia, in commemoration of his victory over Anthony and Cleopatra at Actium. At Nicopolis the emperor instituted the famous quinquennial Actian games in honor of Apollo. The city was peopled chiefly by settlers from the neighboring municipia, of which it was the head (Strabo III, xiii, 3; VII, vii, 6; X, ii, 2). According to Pliny the Elder (IV, 2) it was a free city. St. Paul intended going there (Tit., iii, 12) and it is possible that even then it numbered some Christians among its population; Origen sojourned there for a while (Eusebius, “Hist. eccl.”, VI, 16). Laid waste by the Goths at the beginning of the fifth century (Procopius, “Bell. goth.”, IV, 22), restored by Justinian (Idem “De Ædificiis”, IV, 2), in the sixth century it was still the capital of Epirus (Hierocles, “Synecdemus”, ed. Burchhardt, 651, 4). The province of ancient Epirus of which Nicopolis was the metropolis, constituted a portion of the western patriarchate, directly subject to the jurisdiction of the pope; but, about 732, Leo the Isaurian incorporated it into the Patriarcate of Constantinople. Of the eleven metropolitans mentioned by Le Quien (Oriens christianus, II, 133-38) the most celebrated was Alcison who, early in the sixth century, opposed the Monophysite policy of Emperor Anastasius. The last known of these bishops was Anastasius, who attended the Ecumenical Council in 787, and soon afterwards, owing to the decadence into which Nicopolis fell, the metropolitan see was transferred to Naupactus which subsequently figured in the Notitiae episcopatuum. Quite extensive ruins of Nicopolis are found three miles to the north of Prevesa and are called Palaio-Prevesa.
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SMITH, Dict. Greek and Roman Geography, II (London, 1870), 426; LEAKE, Northern Greece, I, 185; WOLFE, Journal of Geographical Society,III, 92 sq.
S. VAILHÉ Transcribed by Joseph E. O’Connor
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XICopyright © 1911 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, February 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Nicopolis
(, city of victory), a city mentioned in Tit 3:12 as the place where, at the time of writing that epistle, Paul was intending to pass the coming winter, and where he wished Titus to meet him. Titus was at this time in Crete (Tit 1:5). The subscription to the epistle assumes that the apostle was at.Nicopolis when he wrote; but we cannot conclude this from the form of expression. We should rather infer that he was elsewhere, possibly at Ephesus or Corinth. He urges that no time should be lost ( ); hence we conclude that winter was near.
Nothing is to be found in the epistle itself to determine which Nicopolis is here intended. There were cities of this name in Asia, Africa, and Europe, and many of them have been advocated in this connection. The question, however, is in reality confined to three of these places at most. One Nicopolis was in Thrace, near the borders of Macedonia. The subscription (which, however, is of no authority) fixes on this place, calling it the Macedonian Nicopolis: and such is the view of Chrysostom and Theodoret. De Wette’s objection to this opinion (Pastoral Briefe, p. 21), that the place did not exist till Trajan’s reign, appears to be a mistake. Another Nicopolis was in Cilicia; and Schrader (Der Apostel Paulus, 1:115-119) pronounces for this; but this opinion is connected with a peculiar theory regarding the apostle’s journeys. We have little doubt that Jerome’s view is correct, and that the Pauline Nicopolis was the celebrated city of Epirus ( scribit Apostolus de Nicopoli, quee in Actiaco littore sita, Jerome, Procmm. 9:195). For arrangements of Paul’s journeys, which will harmonize with this, and with the other facts of the Pastoral Epistles, see Birks, Hores Apostolicae, p. 296-304; and Conybeare and Howson, Life and Epistles of St. Paul (2d ed.), 2:564-573. It is very possible, as is observed there, that Paul was arrested at Nicopolis, and taken thence to Rome for his final trial. It is a curious and interesting circumstance, when we look at the matter from a Biblical point of view, that many of the handsomest parts of the town were built by Herod the Great (Josephus, Ant. 16:5,3). It is likely enough that many Jews lived there. Moreover, it was conveniently situated for apostolic journeys in the eastern parts of Achaia and Macedonia, and also to the northward, where churches perhaps were founded. St. Paul had long before preached the Gospel at least on the confines of Illyricum (Rom 15:19), and soon after the very period under consideration Titus himself was sent on a mission to Dalmatia (2Ti 4:10).
This city was founded by Augustus in commemoration of the battle of Actium, 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 channel half a mile wide from the opposite coast. This channel forms the entrance of the Gulf of Ambracius, 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 promontory is connected with the mainland by a narrow 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 Nicopolis (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. The prosperity of Nicopolis was of short duration. 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 continued for a time the capital of Epirus (Mamertin. Julian, 9; Procopius, Bet. Goth. 4:22). 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 theater; and to the west the extended, though broken, line of an aqueduct connects the distant mountains with the main subject of the picture the city itself (Greece, p. 229 sq.). There are also the ruins of a mediaeval castle, a quadrangular structure of brick, and a small theater, on the low marshy plain on which the city chiefly stood, and which is now dreary and desolate (Journal of R. G. S. 3:92 sq.; Leake, Northern Greece, 1:185 sq.; Cellarius, Geogr. 1:1080). The name given to the ruins is Paleoprevesa, or Old Prevesa. See Bowen, Athos and Epirus, p. 211; Merivale, Rome, 3:327, 328; Smith, Diet. of Greek and Roman Geogr. s.v.; Lewin, Life and Epistles of St, Paul (4to ed.), 2:353 sq.; Krenkel, Paulus der Apostel (Leipsic, 1869), p. 108.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Nicopolis
city of victory, where Paul intended to winter (Titus 3:12). There were several cities of this name. The one here referred to was most probably that in Epirus, which was built by Augustus Caesar to commemorate his victory at the battle of Actium (B.C. 31). It is the modern Paleoprevesa, i.e., “Old Prevesa.” The subscription to the epistle to Titus calls it “Nicopolis of Macedonia”, i.e., of Thrace. This is, however, probably incorrect.
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Nicopolis
(“city of victory”.) In Epirus, founded by Augustus to celebrate his victory at Actium. On a peninsula W. of the bay of Actium. Tit 3:12 was written from Corinth in the autumn, Paul then purposing a journey through Aetolia and Acarnania into “Epirus,” there “to winter”; a good center for missionary tours N. to Illyricum (Rom 15:19) and Dalmatia (2Ti 4:10).
Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary
Nicopolis,
NICOPOLIS, or the city of victory, was founded by Augustus in b.c. 31, on the spot where he had had his camp before the battle of Actium. It was made a Roman colony, and was peopled by citizens drawn from various places in Acarnania and tolia.
In Tit 3:12 Samt. Paul writes, Give diligence to come unto me to Nicopolis; for there I have determined to winter. It may be taken as certain that this means Nicopolis in Epirus, from which doubtless St. Paul hoped to begin the evangelization of that province. No other city of the name was in such a position, or so important as to claim six months of the Apostles time.
The importance of Nicopolis depended partly on the Actian games, partly on some commerce and fisheries. It was destroyed by the Goths, and, though restored by Justinian, it was supplanted in the Middle Ages by Prevesa, which grew up a little farther south. There are extensive ruins on its site.
A. E. Hillard.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Nicopolis
From hence Paul wrote to Titus. (See Tit 3:12) It was a province in Macedonia.
Fuente: The Poor Mans Concordance and Dictionary to the Sacred Scriptures
Nicopolis
ni-kopo-lis (, Nikopolis): A city in Palestine, half-way between Jaffa and Jerusalem, now called Ammas, mentioned in 1 Macc 3:40, 57 and 9:50. The earlier city (Emmaus) was burnt by Quintilius Varus, but was rebuilt in 223 AD as Nicopolis.
The Nicopolis, however, to which Paul urges Titus to come ( , , pros me eis Nikopolin, eke gar kekrika paracheimasai (Tit 3:12)) is probably the city of that name situated on the southwest promontory of Epirus. If this view is correct, the statement made by some writers that from Eastern Greece (Athens, Thessalonica, Philippi, Corinth) Paul’s labors extended to Italy, that he never visited Western Greece, requires modification. It is true that we do not hear of his preaching at Patras, Zacynthus, Cephallenia, Corcyra (the modern Corfu), which, as a way-station to and from Sicily, always held preeminence among the Ionian islands; but there can be little doubt that, if his plan of going to Nicopolis was carried out, he desired to evangelize the province of Epirus (as well Acarnania) in Western Greece. Indeed, it was in this very city of Nicopolis, probably, that he was arrested and taken to Rome for trial – during one of the winters between 64-67 AD.
Nicopolis was situated only a few miles North of the modern Prevesa, the chief city of Epirus today, the city which the Greeks bombarded in 1912 in the hope of wresting it from the Turks. The ancient city was founded by Augustus, whose camp happened to be pitched there the night before the famous fight with Antony (31 BC). The gulf, called Ambracia in ancient times, is now known as Arta. On the south side was Actium, where the battle was fought. Directly across, only half mile distant, on the northern promontory, was the encampment of Augustus. To commemorate the victory over his antagonist, the Roman emperor built a city on the exact spot where his army had encamped (Victory City). On the hill now called Michalitzi, on the site of his own tent, he built a temple to Neptune and instituted games in honor of Apollo, who was supposed to have helped him in the sea-fight. Nicopolis soon became the metropolis of Epirus, with an autonomous constitution, according to Greek custom. But in the time of the emperor Julian (362) the city had fallen into decay, at least in part. It was plundered by the Goths, restored by Justinian, and finally disappeared entirely in the Middle Ages, so far as the records of history show. One document has , Nikopolis he nun Prebeza, Nicopolis, which is now Prebeza. In the time of Augustus, however, Nicopolis was a flourishing town. The emperor concentrated here the population of Aetolia and Acarnania, and made the city a leading member of the Amphictyonic Council. There are considerable ruins of the ancient city, including two theaters, a stadium, an aqueduct, etc.
Literature.
Kuhn, Ueber die Entstehung der staate der Alten.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Nicopolis
Nicopolis, a city of Thrace, now Nicopi on the river Nessus, now Karasou, which was here the boundary between Thrace and Macedonia; and hence the city is sometimes reckoned as belonging to the latter. In Tit 3:12, Paul expresses an intention to winter at Nicopolis, an invites Titus, then in Crete, to join him there.
Fuente: Popular Cyclopedia Biblical Literature
Nicopolis
[Nicop’olis]
Place where Paul purposed to winter and where Titus was to meet him. Tit 3:12. The subscription to the epistle refers to the city of Nicopolis of Macedonia; but this has no authority, it was probably the city founded by Augustus on a peninsula in Epirus in Greece. Its ruins are now called Paleoprevesa, 39 N, 20 44′ E.
Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary
Nicopolis
A city of Thrace. Paul lives in.
Tit 3:12
Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible
Nicopolis
Nicopolis (n-cp’o-ls), city of victory. There were many ancient cities which bore this name: three in particular have been supposed by different critics the one meant. Tit 3:12. One of these was in the northeastern corner of Cilicia; another on the Nessus in the interior of Thrace; the third in Epirus (though Pliny assigns it to Acarnania). This last, most probably the Nicopolis intended by Paul, was built by Augustus in commemoration of his victory at Actium.
Fuente: People’s Dictionary of the Bible
Nicopolis
Nicop’olis. (city of victory). Nicopolis is mentioned in Tit 3:12, as the place where St. Paul was intending to pass the coming winter. Nothing is to be found in the Epistle itself to determine which Nicopolis is here intended. One Nicopolis was in Thrace, near the borders of Macedonia.
The subscription, (which, however, is of no authority), fixes on this place, calling it the Macedonian Nicopolis. But there is little doubt that Jerome’s view is correct, and that the Pauline Nicopolis was the celebrated city of Epirus. This city, (the “city of victory”), was built by Augustus, in memory the battle of Actium. It was on a peninsula, to the west of the bay of Actium.
Fuente: Smith’s Bible Dictionary
Nicopolis
a city of Epirus, on the gulf of Ambracia, whither, as some think, St. Paul wrote to Titus, then in Crete, to come to him, Tit 3:12; but others, with greater probability, are of opinion, that the city of Nicopolis, where St. Paul was, was not that of Epirus, but that of Thrace, on the borders of Macedonia, near the river Nessus. Emmaus in Palestine was also called Nicopolis by the Romans.