NICO´POLIS
NICO´POLIS,
II.
In Africa. A town in Aegypt, founded by Augustus Caesar, in B.C. 24, on the field where he defeated, for the last time, M. Antonius, and in commemoration of the surrender of Alexandreia. (
Strab. xvii. p.795 ;
J. BJ 4.11;
D. C. 51.18;
Steph. B. sub voce The conqueror was at the moment highly incensed with the Alexandrians; and, by the foundation of a Roman town in their immediate neighbourhood, sought to inflict a permanent blow on their political and commercial supremacy. Nicopolis was built a little W. of the Delta proper, on the banks of the canal which connected Canopus with the capital, and about three and a half miles from its eastern gate.
That it was intended for a city of the first rank appears from its ground plan, which, however, was never executed. Its founder built an amphitheatre and a diaulos, and established there Ludi Quinquennales, in honour of his victory (
Ἀλεξανδρεῖα, Spanheim,
Epist. 5.3, ed Morell.); and coins bear on their obverse the legend
ΝΙΚΟΡΟΛΙΣ. ΣΕΒΑΣΤ. ΚΤΙΣΤ.
He also designed to erect several temples, and to transfer to them the principal sacrifices and priest-colleges of the Macedonian capital.
But the whole scheme was a failure; the natural advantages of Alexandreia were incontestable; and the Roman “City of Victory” was never more than than a suburb of its rival. Within less than a century after its foundation, the name of Nicopolis disappears from history.
A town called Juliopolis, mentioned by Pliny alone (6.23. s. 26), as seated on the same canal, and about the same distance (20--30 stades) from Alexandreia, is apparently Nicopolis (see Mannert, vol. x. p. 626).
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W.B.D]
