Nicopsis

Nicopsia on the map of The Kingdom of Georgia. (early 13th century)

Nicopsis, Nikopsis, or Nikopsia (Template:Lang-el/Νικοψις, Georgian: ნიკოფსია) is early medieval fortified town on black sea shore, 45–47 km north-west from current Tuapse (Russia). Town is mentioned in historical sources in the 5th century but according to Arrian there was much earlier settlement named "Lazika". The remains of few orthodox churches and Basilica were found in the region. In the early 13th century Nicopsia belonged to Dadiani, royal house of Georgia.

Nikopsis first appears in the anonymous periplus of the 5th century as a locale also known as Palaia Lazike ("Old Lazica"), a toponym also mentioned in the 2nd-century Periplus of the Euxine Sea by Arrian. This latter name suggests that the area was a scene of a considerable tribal movement or, in the view of Anthony Bryer, could have been the original homeland of the Laz people.

Nikopsis is called a kastron, "fortress", located on the homonymous river between Abasgia and Zichia, by Constantine Porphyrogenitus in the 10th century. According to the 9th-century Byzantine author Epiphanius the Monk, there was a tomb in Nikopsis, containing relics, inscribed "of Simon the Canaanite", an apostle. Nikopsis was the seat of a Byzantine bishop of Zichia, probably founded under Justinian in the 6th century. In the middle of the 10th century, the see of Nikopsis was abolished or moved to Matracha.

The location of Nikopsis is not known. A popular, but not universally accepted hypothesis first advanced by Frédéric Dubois de Montpéreux and followed by Fillip Brun, Boris Kuftin, Zurab Anchabadze, and Leonid Lavrov, places Nikopsis at Novomikhailovsky at the mouth of the Nechepsukho river near Tuapse, where the early medieval imported pottery, roof tiles, and marble pieces have been unearthed. Alternatively, Nikopsis has been identified with Anakopia near present-day New Athos or placed by Yuri Voronov at Tsandripsh/Gantiadi, where there are the ruins of an early medieval basilica.