Naupactus

Naupactus or Naupaktos (Ancient Greek: Ναύπακτος) was an important town of the Locri Ozolae, and the best harbour on the northern coast of the Corinthian Gulf, was situated just within the entrance of this gulf, a little east of the promontory Antirrhium. It is said to have derived its name from the Heracleidae having here built the fleet with which they crossed over to Peloponnesus.[1][2][3]

Though Naupactus was indebted for its historical importance to its harbour at the entrance of the Corinthian gulf, it was probably originally chosen as a site for a city on account of its strong hill, fertile plains, and copious supply of running water. After the Greco-Persian Wars it fell into the power of the Athenians, who settled there the Messenians, who had been compelled to leave their country at the end of the Third Messenian War, in 455 BCE; and during the Peloponnesian War it was the headquarters of the Athenians in all their operations in Western Greece,[4][5] and the scene of the Battle of Naupactus in 429 BCE. After the Battle of Aegospotami the Messenians were expelled from Naupactus, and the Locrians regained possession of the town.[6] It afterwards passed into the hands of the Achaeans, from whom, however, it was wrested by Epaminondas.[7] Philip II of Macedon gave it to the Aetolians,[8][9] and hence it is frequently called a town of Aetolia.[10][11][12] The Aetolians vigorously defended Naupactus against the Romans for two months in 191 BCE.[13][14] Ptolemy calls it a town of the Locri Ozolae,[15] to whom it must therefore have been assigned by the Romans after Pliny's time.

Pausanias saw at Naupactus a temple of Poseidon near the sea, a temple of Artemis, a cave sacred to Aphrodite, and the ruins of a temple of Asclepius.[16] Naupactus is mentioned by Hierocles;[17] but it was destroyed by an earthquake in the reign of Justinian.[18]

Its site is at the modern town of Nafpaktos[19][20]

References

  1. ↑ Strabo. Geographica. ix. p.426. Page numbers refer to those of Isaac Casaubon's edition.
  2. ↑ Pausanias. Description of Greece. 10.38.10.
  3. ↑ Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus), 2.8.2.
  4. ↑ Pausanias. Description of Greece. 4.24.7.
  5. ↑ Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War. 1.103, 2.83, et seq.
  6. ↑ Pausanias. Description of Greece. 10.38.10.
  7. ↑ Diodorus Siculus. Bibliotheca historica (Historical Library). 15.75.
  8. ↑ Strabo. Geographica. ix. p.427. Page numbers refer to those of Isaac Casaubon's edition.
  9. ↑ Dem. Phil. iii. p. 120.
  10. ↑ Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax, p. 14
  11. ↑ Pomponius Mela. De situ orbis. 2.3.
  12. ↑ Pliny. Naturalis Historia. 4.2.3.
  13. ↑ Livy. Ab Urbe Condita Libri (History of Rome). 36.30, et seq.
  14. ↑ Polybius. The Histories. 5.103.
  15. ↑ Ptolemy. The Geography. 3.15.3.
  16. ↑ Pausanias. Description of Greece. 10.38.12. -13.
  17. ↑ Hierocles. Synecdemus. p. 643.
  18. ↑ Procop. B. Goth. 4.25.
  19. ↑ Richard Talbert, ed. (2000). Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. Princeton University Press. p. 55, and directory notes accompanying.
  20. ↑ Lund University. Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1854–1857). "Naupactus". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: John Murray.

Coordinates: 38°23′36″N 21°49′42″E / 38.393272°N 21.828396°E / 38.393272; 21.828396

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