Persepolis
Darius I built the greatest palace at Persepolis on the western side of platform. This palace was called the "Apadana". The King of Kings used it for official audiences. The work began in 518 BC, and his son, Xerxes I, completed it 30 years later. The palace had a grand hall in the shape of a square, each side long with seventy-two columns, thirteen of which still stand on the enormous platform. Each column is high with a square Taurus (bull) and plinth. The columns carried the weight of the vast and heavy ceiling. The tops of the columns were made from animal sculptures such as two-headed lions, eagles, human beings and cows (cows were symbols of fertility and abundance in ancient Iran). The columns were joined to each other with the help of oak and cedar beams, which were brought from Lebanon. The walls were covered with a layer of mud and stucco to a depth of 5 cm, which was used for bonding, and then covered with the greenish stucco which is found throughout the palaces.
Nicopolis (theme)
It is in this context that the theme of Nicopolis was established, although the exact date is unclear. It was founded sometime in the latter half of the 9th century, between 843 and 899, when it is first attested in the "Kletorologion" of Philotheos. The most probable date is some time after 886, in the reign of Emperor Leo VI the Wise (r. 886–912). Sigillographic evidence suggests that the theme may have resulted from a previously-existing subordinate division ("tourma") of the theme of the Peloponnese, although the historian Warren Treadgold has suggested that it formed part of the theme of Cephallenia. The exact boundaries of the Theme of Nicopolis are not known in detail, but must have been approximately coterminous with the territory of the Metropolis of Naupaktos, which was reorganized at the same time: but probably matched the extent of the Metropolis of Naupaktos, established at about the same time, and which encompassed the suffragan sees of Vonditsa, Aetos, Acheloos, Rogoi, Ioannina, Hadrianopolis, Photike, and Buthrotum.