Central Baths of Nicopolis
About
This large bathing complex, with its natatio pool, frigidarium, tepidarium, caldarium and surviving hypocaust, dates on architectural grounds to the reign of Septimius Severus around the turn of the 3rd century CE. A furnace kept fire burning continuously beneath the floors, and the hot air it produced rose through earthen pipes walled into the chambers to heat the warm and hot rooms in sequence. That places its construction roughly eight decades after the 117 CE snapshot — a straightforward dating trap despite being the best-preserved bath structure on the site today.
In ancient writing
- Strabo, Geography 7.7.6
Describes Augustus resettling the depopulated Epirote cities into the single city of Nicopolis, named for his victory at Actium.
Sources
Nearby
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →