Nafpaktos (“shipyard”) was an important naval base for millenia. The ancient Greeks believed that the Dorians, one of the four major ethnic groups among which they considered themselves divided, built the ships for their invasion of the Peloponnese here. The Athenians, the Macedonians and the Romans took advantage of its strategic location to control the entrance of the Gulf of Corinth. In the 6th century AD the town was devastated by the earthquake and remained relatively obscure for many centuries. Around the year 1000 the Byzantines based their fleet here. In 1407 the Venetians purchased the city from the Albanian Paul Spata and turned it into a fortified harbour called Lepanto.