Ancient Nicopolis lies about seven kilometres north of modern Preveza, on the low peninsula between the Ionian Sea and the Ambracian Gulf. This is the Greek city founded by Octavian, later Augustus, after his victory at the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE. The name means “City of Victory.” It is sometimes confused with Nicopolis ad Istrum in Bulgaria; this article concerns the much larger archaeological landscape in Epirus, not the Bulgarian site.
Octavian’s victory reshaped Roman politics, and the new city turned that event into a permanent civic statement. The official UNESCO Tentative List says Nikopolis was founded after Actium and describes a planned city with a central crossing of the Decumanus and Cardo, its principal east–west and north–south streets. The same entry records the city’s place at land and sea routes, its harbours and an aqueduct that carried water from the Louros springs over a route of about 50 kilometres.
