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THEODOSIA

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 770 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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THEODOSIA , formerly KAPPA, a seaport and watering-See also:

place of See also:South See also:Russia, on the See also:east See also:coast of the See also:Crimea, 66 m. E.N.E. of See also:Simferopol and 72 M. by a See also:branch See also:line from the Sebastopol-See also:Ekaterinoslav railway. It has an excellent See also:modern See also:harbour, and its roadstead, which is never frozen, is well protected from east and See also:west winds, and partly also from the south, but its See also:depth is only 11 to 14 ft., reaching 35 ft. in the See also:middle. The See also:population was Io,800 in 1881, and 27,236 in 1897. Among the See also:motley population of Russians, See also:Tatars, Armenians, Germans and Greeks are several See also:hundred Qaraite See also:Jews. Few remains of its former importance exist, the See also:chief being the Citadel built by the Genoese and still showing Latin See also:inscriptions on some of its towers, the one or two detached towers See also:left when the See also:town walls were pulled down, and two or three mosques, formerly Genoese churches. The town also possesses a museum of antiquities and a picture See also:gallery containing the See also:works of the marine painter Ayvazovsky. Theodosia is an episcopal see of the Orthodox See also:Greek See also:Church. Gardening is one of the leading See also:industries; fishing, a few manufactures, and See also:agriculture are II carried on. Theodosia has gained much of the See also:trade of See also:Sevastopol since that town was made a military See also:port in 1894, and the value of its exports (12—21 millions See also:sterling annually), principally See also:grain and oil-seeds, is increasing See also:year by year. A See also:bronze statue of See also:Alexander III. was put up on the See also:sea-front in 1896. The See also:ancient Theodosia, the native name of which was Ardabda, was a See also:colony founded from See also:Miletus.

Archaic terraccttas show it to have been inhabited in the 6th See also:

century B.C., but it is first heard of in See also:history as resisting the attacks of Satyrus, ruler of the Cimmerian See also:Bosporus, c. 390 B.C. His successor Leucon took it and made it a See also:great port for See also:shipping See also:wheat to See also:Greece, especially to See also:Athens. This export of wheat continued until the days of See also:Mithradates VI. of See also:Pontus, against whom the See also:city revolted. Later it became a See also:special See also:part of the Bosporan See also:kingdom with its own See also:governor. In the 3rd century A.D. it was still inhabited, but seems to have been deserted not See also:long afterwards. Besides the terra-cottas and pottery very beautiful Greek See also:jewelry has been found near Theodosia. It coined See also:silver and See also:copper during the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. The name Kaff a (Genoese Capha, See also:Turkish Kefe) first occurs in a writer of the 9th century. The Genoese established them-selves on the site shortly after 1266, and the See also:settlement flourished exceedingly, being the See also:depot of a trade route reaching to See also:China. It became the See also:head of the Genoese establishments in Gazaria, the see of a See also:bishop, and the chief port on the See also:northern See also:shore of the See also:Black Sea, far surpassing the Venetian See also:Tana. Its population is said to have reached 8o,000 souls of many See also:creeds and nationalities.

There was a citadel (still remaining) and magnificent walls. These were rendered necessary by the occasional hostility of the Tatar khans. When the See also:

Turks took See also:Constantinople the colony was almost cut off from the See also:mother city, which handed it over to the enterprising See also:bank of St See also:George; but it could not be saved and See also:fell in 1495 to the Turks, who sometimes called it Kuchuk-Stambul (Little Stambul or Constantinople) or Krym-Stambul (Stambul of Crimea). Its new masters kept it under their own See also:direct See also:rule and its prosperity was not entirely destroyed. In 1771 it was taken by the Russians, and in 1783 annexed by them, whereupon the greater part of its population deserted it. Its prosperity did not return until about 1894, when new harbour works made it a convenient port for grain See also:ships coming See also:light out of the Sea of See also:Azov and wishing to See also:complete their cargoes. See E. von Stern, Theodosia (See also:German and See also:Russian, See also:Odessa, 1906); E. H. Minns, Scythians and Greeks (See also:Cambridge, 19o9); for the history of See also:Kaffa see Heyd, Histoire du See also:commerce du See also:Levant au moyen See also:age (See also:Paris, 1886), vol. ii. (E. H.

End of Article: THEODOSIA

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