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CHERSONESE, CHERSONESUS

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Originally appearing in Volume V06, Page 86 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CHERSONESE, CHERSONESUS , Or CHERRONESUS (Gr. xipuo1, dry, and vi ios, See also:island), a word See also:equivalent to See also:peninsula." In See also:ancient See also:geography the Chersonesus Thracica, Chersonesus Taurica or Scythica, and Chersonesus Cimbrica correspond to the peninsulas of the See also:Dardanelles, the See also:Crimea and See also:Jutland; and the See also:Golden Chersonese is usually identified with the peninsula of Malacca. The Tauric Chersonese was further distinguished as the See also:Great, in contrast to the Heracleotic or Little Chersonese at its S.W. corner, where See also:Sevastopol now stands. The Tauric Chersonese 1 (from .2nd See also:century A.D. called Cherson) was a Dorian See also:colony -of See also:Heraclea in See also:Bithynia, founded in the 5th century B.C. in the Crimea about 2 M. S. of the See also:modern Sevastopol. After defending itself against the See also:kingdom of See also:Bosporus (q.v.), and the native Scythians and See also:Tauri, and even extending its See also:power over the See also:west See also:coast of the peninsula, it was compelled to See also:call in the aid of See also:Mithradates VI. and his See also:general See also:Diophantus, c. IIo B.C., and submitted to the Pontic See also:dynasty. On regaining a nominal See also:independence, it came more or less under the See also:Roman See also:suzerainty. In the latter See also:part of the 1st century A.D., and again in the succeeding century, it received a Roman See also:garrison and suffered much interference in its See also:internal affairs. In the See also:time of See also:Constantine, in return for assistance against the Bosporans and the native tribes, it regained its See also:autonomy and received See also:special privileges. It must, however, have been subject to the See also:Byzantine authorities, as See also:inscriptions testify to restorations of its walls by Byzantine officials. Under See also:Theophilus the central See also:government sent out a See also:governor to take the See also:place of the elected See also:magistrate. Even so it seems to have preserved a measure of self-government and may be said to have been the last of the See also:Greek See also:city states.

Its ruin was brought about by the commercial rivalry of the Genoese, who forbade the Greeks to See also:

trade there and diverted its See also:commerce to Caffa and Sudak. Previous to this it had been the See also:main See also:emporium of Byzantine commerce upon the N. coast of the Euxine. Through it went the communications of the See also:empire with the See also:Petchenegs and other native tribes, and more especially with the Russians. The commerce of Cherson is guaranteed in the See also:early See also:treaties between the Greeks and Russians, and it was in Cherson, according to Ps. See also:Nestor's See also:chronicle, that See also:Vladimir was baptized in 988 after he had captured the city. The constitution of the city was at first democratic under Damiorgi, a See also:senate and a general See also:assembly. Latterly it appears to have become aristocratic, and most of the power was concentrated in the hands of the first See also:archon or Proteuon, who in time was superseded by the See also:strategus sent out from See also:Byzantium. Its most interesting See also:political document is the See also:form of See also:oath sworn to by all the citizens in the 3rd century B.C. The remains of the city occupy a space about two-thirds of a mile See also:long by See also:half a mile broad. They are enclosed by a Byzantine See also:wall. See also:Foundations and considerable remains of a Greek wall going back to the 4th century B.C. have been found beneath this in the eastern or See also:original part of the site. Many Byzantine churches, both cruciform and basilican, have been excavated.

The latter survived here into the 3th century when they had long been See also:

extinct in other Greek-speaking lands. The churches were adorned with frescces, wall and See also:floor mosaics, some well preserved, and See also:marble carvings similar to See also:work found at See also:Ravenna. The fact that the site has not been inhabited since the 14th century makes it important for our knowledge of Byzantine See also:life. The city was used by the See also:Romans as a place of banishment: St See also:Clement of See also:Rome was exiled hither and first preached the i In See also:Pliny " Heraclea Chersonesus," probably owing to a confusion with the name of the See also:mother city. See also:Gospel; another See also:exile was Justinian IL, who is said to 'hive destroyed the city in revenge. We have a considerable See also:series of coins from the 3rd century B.C. to about A.D. 200, and also some of Byzantine date. See B. Koehne, Beitrage zur Geschichte von Chersonesus in Taurien (St See also:Petersburg, 1848) ; See also:art. " Chersonesos " (20) by C. G. Brandisin Pauly-Wissowa,.

Realencyclopadie, vol. iii. 221; A. A. Bobrinskoj, Chersonesus Taurica (St Petersburg, 1905) (See also:

Russian); V. V. Latyshev, Inscrr. Orae Septentr. Penti Euxini , vols. i. and iv. Reports of excavations appear in the See also:Corn See also:pie rendu of the Imperial Archaeological See also:Commission of St Petersburg from 1888 and in its Bulletin. See E. H. Minns, Scythians and Greeks (See also:Cambridge, 1907).

(E. H.

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