Nicopolis ex Bessia
Nicopolis ex Bessia

Summary/Abstract: In the article, after the analysis of already existing hypotheses about the date of foundation of Nicopolis ad Nestum, a new date is proposed. It is connected with the revolt of the Thracian tribes of Bessi and its suppression by the united forces of the Thracian Odrysian-Sapaeian dynasty and the Roman army, lead by Lucius K. Piso, which gave the possibility of founding ‘the city of the victory over the Bessian Ares’. The artifacts from pre-Roman times discovered under the site of the ancient Nicopolis suggest that here, even before the transformation of Thrace into a Roman province, there was a settlement, with probably aristocratic or even royal residence, turned after 11 BC into ‘the city of the victory over the Bessian Ares’; inhabited decades later by strategos Flavius Dizalas. It is assumed that the settlement close to Nicopolis in the ‘Gradishteto’ locality, near the village of Dabnitsa is possibly the original aristocratic residence of the Thracians-Bessi; as well as the site of the founded / restored sanctuary of Artemis; i.e., this is the settlement of Keirpara mentioned in the inscription of the strategos Flavius Dizalas. The analysis of the strategies in the inscription of Flavius Dizalas shows, that they have been listed in the direction from south to north; from west to northwest; and finally from east to southeast. We follow the connection of the strategies, governed by Dizalas, with the strategy of Bessika, mentioned by Claudius Ptolemy, and the place of Nicopolis ad Nestum in it.

• Details
• Contents