The classical town was planned according to the orthogonal system. The network of streets, the forum surrounded by an Ionic colonnade and many buildings, a two-nave room later turned into a basilica and other public buildings have been uncovered. The rich architectures and sculptures show a similarity with those of the ancient towns in Asia Minor.
The agora contained a statue of Trajan on horseback as well as other marble statues and an Ionic colonnade. The city also had a three-nave basilica, a bouleuterion, a temple of Cybele, a small odeon, thermae (public baths) as well as a unique Roman building inscribed with termoperiatos, a heated building with shops and enclosed space for walks and business meetings. Some town houses and buildings have also been excavated.
The site was at the junction of the Iatrus (Yantra) and the Rositsa rivers, where the Roman army under Emperor Trajan had been amassed in readiness for the attack in the winter of 101-2 to the Roxolani tribe from north of the Danube and who were allied to the Dacians.
The city was founded by Trajan around 102–106, as indicated on scene XXXIX of Trajan’s Column, in memory of his victory in the Dacian Wars over the Roxolani and also later victories in 105, and as Ulpia Nicopolis in his honour using his family name, or nomen. However the name Nicopolis ad Haemum was used in Ptolemy’s Geographia dating from before 130.
