Nicopolis ad Istrum

Nicopolis ad Istrum (Greek: Νικόπολις ἡ πρὸς Ἴστρον) or Nicopolis ad Iatrum was a Roman and Early Byzantine town.

Its ruins are located at the village of Nikyup, 20 km north of Veliko Tarnovo in northern Bulgaria. The town reached its zenith during the reigns of Hadrian, the Antonines and the Severan dynasty.

Archaeological excavations are continuing to reveal more of the city.

The site was placed on the Tentative List for consideration as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1984.

History

The site at the junction of the Iatrus (Yantra) and the Rositsa rivers was where the Roman army under Emperor Trajan had been amassed in readiness for the attack in the winter of 101-2 by the Roxolani tribe from north of the Danube and who were allied to the Dacians.

The city was founded by Trajan around 102–106, as indicated on scene XXXIX of Trajan’s Column, in memory of his victory in the Dacian Wars over the Roxolani and also later victories in 105, and as Ulpia Nicopolis in his honour using his family name, or nomen. However the name Nicopolis ad Haemum was used in Ptolemy's Geographia dating from before 130.

Trajan clearly intended it to become a magnificent city which is gradually being verified. The monumental character of the city however dates mainly to Hadrian and Antoninus Pius (138-161) and inscriptions found are no earlier than 136 when the name Ulpia Nicopolis ad Istrum was in use. The new agora included a monumental ionic stoa and a sumptuous hall of unknown function.

The city was ransacked by the Costoboci in 170-1, a tribe from today’s Western Ukraine, shortly after which the city walls were built. Many buildings were excluded from the walled area from this time.

The city prospered again in the 2nd and 3rd centuries under the Severan dynasty (193-235). In 193 the city endowed Septimius Severus, then still pretender to the throne, with 700000 denarii (a fortune at the time) for which a copy of the letter of thanks to the city from the emperor, after he succeeded, is recorded in an inscription. He made several visits to the city...