Prehistory, Classical and Roman Antiquity
The strategic location of Nafpaktos, at the entrance of the Corinthian Gulf, was a a nodal point in the regional defense system across the centuries. Due to this enviable geographical and strategic location, Nafpaktos was the apple of discord among the powerful agents of every age since Antiquity.
Nafpaktos belonged to western Lokris for many centuries, possibly even before the Mycenean period. The coastal town was connected with the large-scale movements of the Herakleids (Dorians) in the late 12th century B.C.: it was used as a site for ship-building for the Dorians to cross the Corinthian Gulf on their way southwards to the Peloponnese. Hence its ancient name derives from να ς (ship) and πήγνυμι (to build a ship). Lokrians, Athenians, Messenians, Achaeans, Thebans, Macedonians and Aitolians alternated in managing its fortune. During the Peloponnesian War (431-404 B.C.) it was the focal point of important military sea and land campaigns as a base of the Athenians.
The historian Thucidides notes that the city had a large defense circuit and possibly a walled harbor. In 338B.C., the Macedonian king Philip delivered to the Aitolians Nafpaktos, which became a member of the Aitolian League. In 191 B.C. Nafpaktos was sieged by the Romans and later it was consigned to the colony of Patras along withother cities of western Lokris. During Pax Romana Nafpaktos went on as an important harbor and station in the land and naval routes of the Empire.
The ancient city lies beneath the beautiful picturesque modern town. The first traces of habitation date to the Middle Bronze Age (2000-1600 B.C.), but the heyday was the time from the Classical to the Roman period. For the first time then Nafpaktos was protected with a strong defense wall. The large number of archaeological finds from the excavated ancient cemeteries, extended habitation remains, villas with central courtyards and peristyles, ceramic workshops and monumental bath complexes, demonstrate the wealth and the high living level of the inhabitants. Today, visible monuments of ancient Nafpaktos are the Sanctuary of Asklepios, the sections of the defense wall preserved beneath the foundations of the medieval wall, as well as a great number of movable find.