Naupactus

, or Naupactum , a city of Ætolia, at the mouth of the Evenus, now called Lepanto . The word is derived from ναυς and πηγνυμι because it was there that the Heraclidæ built the first ship , which carried them to Peloponnesus. It first belonged to the Locri Ozolæ, and afterwards fell into the hands of the A then i ans, who gave it to the Me enians, who had been driven from Peloponnesus by the Lacedæmonians. It became the property of the Lacedæmonians, after the battle of Ægospotamos, and it was restored to the Locri. Philip of Macedonia afterwards took it, and gave it to the Ætolians, from which circumstance it has generally been called one of the chief cities of their country. Strabo , bk. 4 .— Pausanias , bk. 4 , ch. 25 .— Mela , bk. 2 , ch. 3 .— Ovid , Fasti , bk. 2 , li. 43 .