Middle Byzantine Nafpaktos
The rarity of literary accounts and of material evidencewhich characterizes the transitional (7th-8th) centuriesdoes not allow safe conclusions regarding the size ofthe town, apart from the gradual abandonment of thecoastal areas and the lower town. The 7th and 8thcenturies were marked by the moves of Slavs andAvars to southern and western Greece; theseaffected also the region of Nafpaktos.In the 9th century Nafpaktos, included in theadministrative thema of Hellas, is mentionedas a naval base of the Byzantine fleet, managed by an officer ‘exartistes’. In the beginning of the 10th century it becomes the capitalof the newly-founded thema of Nikopolis, according to the Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogennitus(945-959). It also becomes the see of the Archbishopric of Epirus Vetus. Due to its new administrative andecclesiastical role, the town acquiresa new strong defense wall duringthe Middle Byzantine period, whichis erected on the hilltop. In the 12thcentury Nafpaktos becomes prosperous, this new prosperity being reflectedin building remains. Foreign travelerstour through the town, such as theArab geographer Al-Idrisi, who mentions the commercial activity of Nafpaktos, and Benjamin of Tudela, who in 1165 refers to a hundredthriving Jewish merchants residing in the coastal zone.The scholarly Metropolitans of Nafpaktos ConstantineManasses (1175-1187), Andreas Tziros (1187-1199) andJohn Apokaukos (1199-1233) have a prominent positionin the literate life of the town.