Nicomedes, a Christian of some distinction at Rome, who, during the rage of Domitian's persecution, A.D. 98, did all he could to serve the afflicted followers of Christ: comforting the poor, visiting the confined, exhorting the wavering, and confirming the faithful. For tlius acting he was seized by the ferocious hand of po.ver, sentenced as a Christian, and scourged to deatii; through which he passed to meet the approv- ing sentence of his Lord. See Fox, Book of Martyrs, p. 14.
Nicon, a monk of Rhasthus in Palestine, who is said to have compiled, about 1060, a work in Greek contain- ing an abstract of Scripture, ecclesiastical law, etc., which has never l)een published in fidl. See Cotele- rius, .Uomim, Lcrhs. (Jrmc; I'ahncius, Bibl ioth. Grceca, xi, 275. See also Nikon.
Niconians is the name given by Russian dissent- ers to the orthodox members of the Established Church
who accepted the reforms introduced by patriarch Ni- con in 1654. 8ee the article Nikon.
Nicop'olis (NtKoTToXir, citg of victui-y), a city mentioned in Tit. iii, 12 as the place where, at the time of writing that epistle, Paul was intending to pass the coming winter, and where he wished Titus to meet him. Titus was at this time in Crete (Tit. i, 5). The subscri]5tion to the epistle assumes that the apostle was at Nicopolis when he wrote; but we cannot conclude this from the form of expression. AVe should rather in- fer that he was elsewhere, possibly at Ephesus or Cor- inth. He urges that no time should be lost (aizovca- aov iK^iiv) ; hence we conclude that winter was near.
Nothing is to be found in the epistle itself to deter- mine which Nicopolis is here intended. There were cities of this name in Asia, Africa, and Euroi^e, and many of them have been advocated in this connection. The question, however, is in reality confined to three of these places at most. One Nicopolis was in Thrace, near the borders of Macedonia. The subscription (which, however, is of no authority) fixes on this place, calling it the jMacedonian Nicopolis : and such is the view of Chrysostom and Theodoret. De Wette's objection to this opinion {Pastoral Briefe, p. 21), that the place did not exist till Trajan's reign, appears to be a mistake. Another Nicopolis was in Cilicia; and Schrader {Der Apostel Paiilus, i, 115-119) pronounces for this; but this opinion is connected with a peculiar theory regarding the apostle's journeys. We have little doubt that Je- rome's view is correct, and that the Pauline Nicopolis
Coiu of Nicopolis in Epirus. (From the British Museum.)
On the uhverse the hend of Augustus, with the Iceend " Founded by Au- pustus ;" on the reverse a figure of Victory, with the legend " Nicopolis the sacred."
was the celebrated city of Epirus ("scribit Apostolus de Nicopoli, qute in Actiaco littore sita," Jerome, Proam. ix, 19,5). For arrangements of Paul's journeys, which will harmonize with this, and with the other facts of the Pastoral Epistles, see Birks, Horce Ajmstolicce, p. 296-304 ; and Conybeare and Howson, Life and Epistles of St. Paul (2d ed.), ii, 564-573. It is very possible, as is observed there, that Paul was arrested at Nicopolis, and taken thence to Rome for his final trial. It is a curious and interesting circumstance, when wc look at the matter from a Biblical point of view, that many of the handsomest parts of the town were built b}- Herod the Great (Josephus, ,4 nt. xvi, 5, 3). It is likely enough that many Jews lived there. IMoreover, it was conven- iently situated for apostolic journeys in the eastern parts of Achaia and Macedonia, and also to the north- ward, where churches perhaps were founded. St. Paul had long before preached the Gospel at least on the confines of Illyricum (Rom. xv, 19), and soon after the very period imdcr consideration Titus himself was sent on a mission to Dalmatia (2 Tim. iv, 10). — Smith.
This city was founded by Augustus in commemora- tion of the battle of Actium, and stood upon the place where his land-forces encamped before that battle. From the mainland of Ejiirus, on the north, a promontory pro- jects some five miles in the line of the shore, and is there separated by a channel half a mile wide from the opposite coast. This channel forms the entrance of the (iulf of Ambracius, which lies within the promontory. The naval battle was fought at the mouth of the gulf, and Actium, from which it took its name, and where Antony's camp was stationed, stooil on the point form- ing the south side of the channel. The promontory is connected with the mainland by a narrow istlimus. Upon it Augustus encamped, his tent standing upon a
NICOPOLIS
81
NICQUET
Plau of Nicopolis and its Viciuity.
height, from which he could command both the gulf and the sea. After the victory he enclosed the place where his tent was pitched, dedicated it to Neptune, and founded on the isthmus the city of Nicopolis (Dion Cas. li; Strabo, vii, p. 324), and made it a Roman col- ony. It was not more than some thirty years old when visited by the apostle, and j-et it was then the chief city of Western Greece. The prosperity of Nicopolis was of short duration. It had fallen to ruin, but was restored by the emperor Julian. After being destroyed by the Goths, it was again restored by Justinian, and continued for a time the capital of Epirus (Mamertin. Julian, 9; Procopius, Bel. Goth, iv, 22). During the Middle Ages the new town of Prevesa was built at the point of the promontorj', and Nicopolis was deserted. The remains of the city still visible show its former ex- tent and importance. They cover a large portion of the isthmus. Wordsworth thus describes the site: "A lofty wall spans a desolate plain ; to the north of it rises, on a distant hill, the shattered scena of a theatre ; and to the west the extended, though broken, line of an aque- duct connects the distant mountains with the main sub- ject of the picture — the city itself {Greece, p. 229 sq.). There are also the ruins of a mediajval castle, a quad- rangular structure of brick, and a small theatre, on the low marshy plain on which tlie city chiefly stood, and which is now dreary and desolate {Journal of R. G. S. iii, 92 s(i. ; Leake, Northern Greece, i, 185 sq. •, Cellarius, Georjr, i, 1080_). The name given to the ruins is ruleo- VII.— F