Its ruins are situated 2 km (1.2 mi) south of the present-day town of Bitola, North Macedonia.

[5] In the early Christian period, Heraclea was an important Episcopal seat and a waypoint on the Via Egnatia that once linked Byzantium with Rome through the Adriatic seaport of Dyrrachium.

Heraclea was a strategically important town in classical antiquity, as it controlled one of the major east-west routes between Illyria and Macedonia.

[6] The city was involved in the Macedonian Wars until the middle of the 2nd century BC, when the Romans conquered Macedon and destroyed its political power.

Objects discovered from the time of Roman rule in Heraclea are votive monuments, a portico, thermae (baths), a theatre and town walls.

Discovered in 1931, a small bone ticket for a seat in the 14th (out of 20) row is the earliest known proof of the theatre's existence.

[7] Subsequently, at the eve of the 7th century, the Dragovites, a Slavic tribe pushed down from the north by the Avars, settled in the area.

[8] The so-called Small Basilica was discovered in excavations made before the outbreak of World War II between 1936 and 1938.

There are birds, trees, bushes, a red dog, which is a symbol of paradise, and animals beasts as a domain of the earth.

The Great Basilica's mosaic floor is depicted on the reverse of the Macedonian 5000 denars banknote, issued in 1996.