Hystory of Nikopolis

Nikopolis ad Istrum is a Roman and an early Byzantian town founded in 101-106 AD by the Roman emperor Trajan to honour the victories over the Daci tribes, which lived in the lands of today’s Romania.
During the reign of Emperor Mark Avrelii, after the attacks of the Costobocks in 170 AD, the town was defended by a stone wall fortress from which the North, South and East gateways are discovered. The greatest prosperity the town was during the reign of the emperors Trojan, Hadrian, the Antonines and the Severs (98-235 AD). During the reign of Antonin Pii and Gordian II (138-244 AD) they even cut their own metal coins on which are images of public buildings. The official language was ancient Greek, but also there are some signs in Latin. The town was populated by Thracians (the main population of the region) as well as settlers of Greek origin from Asia Minor, Italians and others. They worshipped gods both from the Greek and the Roman Pantheon, as well as some local Thracian gods. The town perished under the attacks of the Avars and the Slavs at the beginning of the 7th century and after some time over the ruins of the town an early Bulgarian village emerged. Apparently after a period of abandonment, there grew up a Bulgarian medieval settlement in the 9th century. Finally, the site was occupied by a post-medieval village, which was destroyed violently at the end of the 18th century.