Ulpia Oescus

a city in the Roman province of Lower Moesia, near the present-day village of Gigen, Pleven District, northern Bulgaria. Founded during the reign of Emperor Augustus, Ulpia Oescus became an important administrative, military, and artisan center during Trajan’s rule. Excavations in the 1940’s and 1950’s uncovered massive walls and the central quarter (third and fourth centuries), with paved streets, dwellings, workshops, and a temple. Especially interesting is a building whose numerous rooms are decorated with marble and colored stucco; one room contains a mosaic of a scene from Menander’s comedy The Achaeans, a work not known before the discovery of Ulpia Oescus.