NICOPOLIS, or ACTIA NICOPOLIS  , an ancient city of Epirus, founded 31 B.C. by Octavian (Augustus) in memory of his victory over Antony and Cleopatra at Actium . The colony, composed of settlers from a great many of the towns of the neighbouring countries (Ambracia, Anactoriuna, Calydon, Argos Amphilochicum, Leucas, &c.), proved highly successful, and the city was considered the capital of southern Epirus and Acarnania, and obtained the right of sending five representatives to the Amphictyonic council . On the spot where Octavian's own tent had been pitched he erected a sanctuary to Neptune adorned with the beaks of the captured galleys; and in further celebration of his victory he instituted the so-called Actian games in honour of Apollo Actius . The city was restored by the emperor Julian, and again after the Gothic invasion by Justinian; but in the course of the middle ages it was supplanted by the town of Prevesa . The ruins of Nicopolis, now known as Palaeoprevesa (Old Prevesa), lie about 3 M. north of that city, on a small bay of the Gulf of Arta (Sinus Ambracius) at the narrowest part of the isthmus of the peninsula which separates the gulf from the Ionian Sea . Besides the acropolis, the most conspicuous objects are two theatres (the larger with twenty-seven rows of seats) and an aqueduct which brought water to the town from a distance of 27 M . Nicopolis was also the name of (I) a city in Cappadocia in the valley of the Lycus, founded by Pompey on the spot where he defeated Mithradates; (2) a city in Egypt, founded by Octavian 24 B.C. to commemorate his final victory over Antony; and (3) a city in Thrace (Nikup) at the junction of the latrus with the Danube, founded by Trajan in memory of his victory over the Dacians .