The ancient Roman town of Nicopolis ad Istrum was founded by Roman emperor Marcus Ulpius Traianus, in honor of the victory of his armies over the Dacians in the second century. The name means the City of Victory near the Danube. The city was built in the classic Romanian urban system of orthogonal type. In the ruins around the central market, called Agora. You can still see the traces of a basilica, a small theater, a public bathroom, other public buildings and shops. There were water pipes in the city, and in some buildings there was central heating through the floor. The town also issued its own currency.The population had a different ethnic composition. Against barbaric attacks at the end of the 2nd century, defense walls were built. Following the invasion of the Atila Huns in the fifth century, as well as the one of the damage from the beginning of the 6th century, the city was destroyed, being relatively abandoned. However, here there was a Bulgarian settlement from the X-XIV centuries of minor importance.