gesting that the
*In the Acta Apost. Apoc. of pseudo-Abdias (embodied in Fabric. Cod. Apoe. vol. i. p. 498 ff.), usually ascribed to the 6th cent., there is an account of another Nicolas, who after a life of Ts said to have been converted in old age by the Apostle Andrew; but, as he does not appear to have been a teacher, he could hardly have founded a sect.
+ It does not follow (though it may be the case) that Nicolas was the only one of the seven who was not a Jew by birth. The designation, ‘ proselyte of Antioch,’ may have been inserted owing to St. Luke's personal acquaintance with Nicolas, both being natives (if Eus., HE iii. 4, can be trusted) of that city.
3 Epiph. (Heer. i. 20) and Ps.-Doroth. include N. among the ‘Seventy’ (Lk 10!); the latter adding that he became bishop of Samaria (see preceding article).
§ Epiph. (adv. Herr. i. 25), under the influence of monasticism, transfers to the Apostolic Age the later unscriptural disparage- ment of married life, and twists the record oP Gisnent into a story of how Nicolas, ‘following the counsels of perfection,’ separated from his wife, but, ‘ being unable to persevere in his resolution, returned to her in, as a dog to his vomit, and then justified his conduct by licentious principles, which sccasioned the foundation of the sect of the Nicolaitans,’
NICOPOLIS
indulgence; but the term παραχρᾶσθαι may well have been employed by him (although not very happily, owing to the ambiguity) in the sense of mortifying the flesh through rigid abstinence, and yet have been taken up by others (inclined towards Antinomianism) in the Gnostic sense of mortifica- tion through inordinate gratification. If, however, Nicolas became eventually a teacher of immoral heresy, the apostasy of the last-named among the Seven constitutes a striking parallel to that of the last-named among the Twelve. For the Literature see previous article. H. Cowan.
NICOPOLIS (Νικόπολις) is mentioned by St. Paul in writing to Titus as a place at which he intended to spend the winter, Tit 3% Of the various cities named Nicopolis, it is nearly certain that Nicopolis in Epirus is meant. That was a city on the promontory which shuts in the gulf cf Ambracia (now called Arta) on the north-west; facing the Nicopolitan promontory was that of Actium, shutting in the gulf on the south-west ; about half a mile of sea separates the two. In September B.c. 31 Augustus lay encamped on the northern promontory, and Antony on the southern, and the decisive battle was fought in the adjacent waters. Augustus founded in honour of the victory a city on the spot where his land army had encamped on the night before the battle, and called his new foundation ‘the city of victory.’ The site is now deserted; and the medieval city Prevesa has taken its place, about 5 miles south on the extreme southern point of the promontory, looking across to Actium, There was a temple of Apollo at Actium, overlooking the scene of the battle; and the sudden storm, which struck the faces of Antony’s sailors and contributed not a little to his defeat, was attributed to the direct intervention of the god on the side of his favoured Augustus. Actium had been previously the more important site; but the victor now resolved to make a great city at Nicopolis. He concentrated there the population of many decaying Greek cities of Acarnania and A®tolia, gave the new cit; the rights and honours of a Roman colony, made it a leading member of the Amphictyonic Council, and instituted a quinquennial festival sacred to Apollo, with musical and athletic sports, and com- petition of ships and of chariots. is festival was placed on the same rank as the four great Greek
ames—the Olympian, Pythian, Isthmian, and Went aan’ and must have attracted crowds to the city every fourth year. The circumstances con- nected with the foundation and Sopling of Nico- polis are very fully discussed by Kuhn, Entstehung der Stadte der Alten.
Nicopolis was thus the coast of Acarnania and Epirus, and was on that account selected by St. Paul for a residence of some duration, in the course of which he hoped to evangelize the entire province of Epirus and Acar- nania: it is indeed not quite certain that that Pravences which existed in Trajan’s reign, had
een constituted in St. Paul’s time ; but the proba- bility is that it had. The selection of Nicopolis as a mission centre proves that the apostle had arranged a methodical scheme of work in order to fill up the gap in his evangelization of the empire: he had founded churches on the eastern or 2gean side of the Epirote-Macedonian penin- sula, but the western side was still a blank, and in this he now proposed to commence work.
The circumstances in which St. Paul formed that resolution and communicated it to Titus can only be guessed at. It is even uncertain whether he actually visited Nicopolis. According to the sub-
eat centre for the west
scription added to the letter, he wrote from Nico- polis to Titus; but that is alate and untrustworthy
addition. The most natural (in fact, almost neces- sary) interpretation is that he wrote from some other place ; he mentions his resolve to spend the winter ‘there,’ not ‘here,’ and the perfect tense κέκρικα Shows that he is wring, not from the point of view of the recipient of the letter, but simply as he thinks and feels. A journey, therefore, lay before him to Nicopolis. daking this in conjunc- tion with the fact that some time later he, from Rome, wrote to Timothy and indicated that he had at no distant time passed through Miletus and Corinth (2 Ti 4), the conjecture is at least a tempting one that he had had in mind to go by Corinth to Nicopolis. Moreover, as the words of 2Ti 4” would ἐτοῖν suggest that he had been arrested in Corinth, the probability is that he reached Nicopolis, and that he was arrested there while prosecuting his work, and sent to Rome to be tried there as a Roman citizen.