Chersonesos, or simply Chersonese (al-Greek. Hersonesos - "Peninsula", in Byzantine times - Kherson) - a city founded by the ancient Greeks Heracleian peninsula on the southwest coast of Crimea. Now Chersonesus mound is located on the territory of the Gagarin district of Sevastopol. For two thousand years was a major political, economic and cultural center of Northern Black Sea region.
Hersones in VI-beg. IV centuries BC Establishment and formation of policy. City Chersonesos was founded in the VI. BC Greek Dorians, settlers from Herculean Pont - policy, located on the southern coast of the Black Sea in Asia Minor, in what is now Turkey. The word "Chersonese" in translation from Greek means "the peninsula". These words are called many Greek cities, appropriately located, and that they do not confuse the names of these cities have been double. A colony of Heraclea in the Crimea was called Chersonese Taurian, because the Crimean peninsula Greeks have long called Tavrika.
a long time regarded as the founding date Chersonesus 422-421 GG BC This hypothesis was suggested in the nineteenth century, and still finds its adherents. However, studies in recent years led experts to conclude that the city was founded a century earlier - in the 528-527 GG BC At this thought historians suggest periodic findings in the earliest layers of Chersonesus Archaic black-figure pottery, which dates from the time not later than in the VI. BC During the VI-V century BC Chersonese was a small settlement, where lived no more than 2-3 thousand people.
first Chersonesus engaged in transit trade between the cities of Greece, Scythia, and then subordinate nomads Olbia. They had to deliver bread, wine and olive oil. Finally, in the beginning of IV century. BC They decided to start developing choirs - agricultural region.
Chersonesus territorial state in IV-II century BC Education and the collapse of the agricultural power. eye is not clear why the second quarter of IV. BC Chersonesites have been added so the forces that they have decided on a major expansion and the seizure throughout Heracleian peninsula. Part Tauri pushed, and since the settlement of Greeks dense chain stretched along the border: from Balaklava to Inkerman bays.
planters had to defend themselves from the enslaved and the local population, and from the hostile mountainous Tauri, and from the Scythian raids, which, starting from III century. BC becoming more frequent.
Chersonesus doing, of course, and fishing, and handicrafts, and trade. When they dissociate Heracleian peninsula of land and planted their vineyards, they set about commodity production of wine and have been widely exported it in Olbia, Scythia, on the Bosporus on the west coast of the Black Sea, and even in Greece. But they could not yet take part in the profitable business of ancient times - the export of its own bread, which in our time to benefit and value can be compared only with the export of oil: on the Heracleian soil grain grows very poorly, Chersonesites was not enough even for themselves. < / p>
barely over demarcation of adjacent territories and strengthening the defense Heracleian peninsula, in the middle of IV century. BC Chersonesus began its expansion to the north, along the coast of saving them for the Black Sea (or Scythians, or Fleet Taurs seriously did not have). They seized the inhabitants of Olbia-based colony Kerkinitida (current Evpatoria), survived, apparently, fought to Cape Tarkhankut, and founded on the site of the current Black Sea town new town - Kalos Lyman (excellent harbor). Land West of the Crimea and in our times are good for growing the most valuable varieties of wheat, as in antiquity, when the climate here was wetter and softer, and forest steppe steppe Tarkhankut was abounded in springs and streams - even more so. Here, the Greeks got fine fertile soil, and the Chersonese evolved from a small insurance policy in a strong and fast bogatevshee state.
By III in. BC city of Chersonese, originally occupied a piece of land around the current Port and North-East settlement areas, significantly expands its territory. His encompass new defensive walls, and the city is located on an area of more than 30 hectares, almost equal to that at which it existed all the subsequent 1700 years. Chersonese was built from local limestone on the regular "gippodamovoy" system (in honor of its creator - the Greek architect Hippodamus of Miletus). Streets intersect at right angles, dividing it into rectangles of equal size. Through the entire city was Main Street in the center of which (in the present Vladimir's Cathedral) was the acropolis. Citizens honored all the Olympian gods, but the main deity was Chersonesus Taurus Virgo - the same one that makes eyelids sacrificed captured by Greek sailors. Virgin Greeks identified with the hunter-goddess Artemis and portrayed her as a young girl with a deer. That it appears on numerous Chersonesus coins. By the number of pedestals found you can judge that the city was adorned with numerous statues of gods, heroes and honorable citizens of the city. At the turn of the IV and III centuries BC townspeople are building a large theater, housed, according to various estimates, from 1500 to 3000 spectators.
Since mid III century. BC city had to fight a fierce and unequal combat with the Scythian expansion.
Hersones in II-I cc BC War with the Scythians, the loss of independence. By III BC new Scythian state (or Scythia Minor), with its capital in Scythian Neapolis finally formed. In the middle of the III. BC Scythians are making the first attempt to seize ownership of Chersonese in the North West and even South-western Crimea. On the eve of the decisive battle, at the beginning of II century BC. BC, both the enemy tried to enlist allies: Chersonese in 179 BC concluded a military defense treaty with Pharnaces I - king of the kingdom of Pontus, one of the Hellenistic states of Asia Minor with its capital at Sinope. Scythians tried to get support Roxolans Sarmatian tribe, wandering north of the Crimea. Chersonesus also tried to attract the Sarmatians on their side, and sometimes they succeeded. Once, in agreement with the Greeks defeated the Sarmatians even bet Scythian king.
Throughout II in. BC rivals merilis forces in small wars and mutual raids. The Scythians, led in mid II century. BC legendary king Skilur, intensified the pressure on the Greeks, depriving them of one settlement after another. Chersonesus gradually handed over their positions, and the last quarter in II. BC already left and Kalos-Lyman, and Kerkinitida, retaining only Herakleian peninsula. The decisive battle has started in 110 BC, when, led by an energetic and talented king Palak, son Skilur, the Scythians took all Chersonesus ownership and besieged the city itself.
Like the defenders of Sevastopol in the first defense, the defenders of Chersonese, the characters in his first defense, cut off from food sources, from the quarries, to strengthen the walls of the city than would have: a stone, harvested directly at the foot of walls, and even tombstones from a city cemetery. That's probably within days, was built the famous tower of Zeno (its so-called "core"). It was clear that the city does not stand alone. However, the assistance provided in the agreement with Ponte, concluded 69 years earlier, the city was provided. Set in train by the time of Pontic throne, the young and ambitious King Mithridates VI Eupator sent to help Chersones army under the command of one of his best generals - Diophantus. Army Diophantine mercenaries defeated a horde of Scythian tribal militias, liberated the whole territory of Kherson State, stormed the city and the Scythian Palak forced to sign a contract with Pontus. Confident that the Scythians did not soon recover from the defeat, the autumn of 110 years Diophantus left Chersonese, he returned to Sinop.
However, the Scythians are very easy to carry such destruction: their cities were not the focus of their power, wealth and knowledge, but simply a religious, administrative and commercial center. The real strength of the Scythian army was in the steppe nomads. In the autumn of next year Scythians united with Roxolans, recaptured Chersonesus land and again besieged himself Chersonese.
city was doomed. Doomed, but clung to the last. Therefore, when the winter over the horizon appeared Pontiac vehicles, it can be perceived only as a miracle. Mithridates showed unheard of in those days, audacity, sending in the midst of winter storms his squadron to help the allied city. At this time, the defeat of the Scythians was complete. And Pontiacs troops remained in the Crimea for a long time, taking part in suppressing the popular uprising in 107 BC in the Bosporus.
As a result of the above events Chersonese became a vassal kingdom of Pontus. However, the fight Mithridates against Rome, which lasted for several decades, it ended in complete defeat. Broken and betrayed by all (including his own son), Mithridates committed suicide in the palace of the kings of the Bosporus at the top of the mountain, which has since been named after him. Chersonese as a result of these events, was under the authority of the Bosporus.
Hersones in I - V cc AD Revival under the protection of the Roman Empire. Fifteen years after accession to the throne, the king Bosporan Pharnaces II spoke out against Rome. He quickly seized all the Caucasian coast and the former ownership of Pontus in Asia Minor, but lost vchistuyu 2 августа 47 BC decisive battle, which gave him an invincible Julius Caesar. This helped Chersones get rid of the burdensome yoke of the Bosporus, having had in 46 BC Caesar's policy to incorporate them into the empire of the most profitable rights - the status of the "union town". This status provides Chersones military defense of Rome, but retained him and the right of coinage, which began in the IV. BC, internal self-government, militia, trading rights and privileges. But only 200 years later, in II. AD Hersones finally got rid of the Bosporus protectorate. In 145 AD city were granted the right "eleutheria" - something like the status of "free city".
This status Chersonesus maintained and repeatedly reaffirmed by the emperors until the V in. AD I to III centuries AD in the city, albeit with interruptions, there were Roman troops. Four centuries under the protection of Rome were the most calm and stable in the history of Chersonese.
ruined and many farms. At this time there is an integration of land holdings on the Heracleian Peninsula and the creation of estates, even by Roman standards, and small. Because of constant raids of the Scythians Chersonesus could not continue farming in West and North-Western Crimea is already in the I. BC Their former towns and villages in the region finally moving to the Scythians, who lived and manage the economy in these places before the end of III. BC
to prevent robbery and piracy at sea the Romans built a series of fortresses along the southern coast of Crimea: the fortress in Balaklava, Charax at Cape Ai-Todor and several other fortifications. And only a punitive expedition of Tiberius Plautia Silvana about 65 AD Romans and the establishment of a number of border forts made Scythians leave the city alone. So much did the Romans and the urban economy: built an aqueduct, which filed the Chersonese drinking water, rebuilt theater, erected a Roman bath.
In the III. AD case in the Roman Empire, which entered its crisis and collapse, went so bad that 244 was a Roman garrison was withdrawn from the Chersonese and the other items home in the Crimea. The Roman troops had returned only in the year 250, and after 275 years (exact date unknown), the army of the empire left the peninsula.
climate change, affecting the whole territory of the planet, causing massive displacement of the barbarian peoples uprooted in search of food. During the migration of Germans to the south, in the III. AD came the Goths in the Crimea. They have virtually destroyed the Scythian kingdom, considerably weakened the Bosporus. Chersonese they do not have, as conquerors of the next century - the Huns, bizarre Union of Mongolian, Turkic, and Finno-Ugric tribes.
In Crimea Huns came through the Kerch Strait, Cimmerian Bosporus. They destroyed the kingdom of Bosporus and all cities of the Bosporus, and the remains of the Scythian people part driven into the mountains, carried away part of his unstoppable movement to the west, to the conquest of Rome. Hersones remained standing.
in 395 the Roman Empire, had long since began to fall apart into pieces, was formally divided into two states: Western and Eastern Roman Empire.
Early-medieval Hersones in VI-IX centuries Life under the rule of Byzantium, the adoption of Christianity. Strong walls saved Chersonese from the acrimonious troubled times. He joined one of the Middle Ages unconquered, but one he would not have survived. Fortunately Chersonesites recovering from the shocks Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) in V. regained power over the South and Mountain Crimea, and the impact throughout the Northern Black Sea coast. Center and an outpost of the Byzantine Empire in the Crimea was Chersonese, which was to last for another 1000 years as the Byzantine city.
new flowering Chersonesus occurs in the VI century, when dedicated to strengthening the borders of Byzantium the great emperor Justinian I put a lot of effort and resources in building the Byzantine presence in the Crimea. Nuashonraithe defensive walls of the city, on the borders of the Byzantine possessions along the South Coast of Crimea and on the slopes of the Inner ridge of Crimean mountains, with the support and assistance to local people, built a number of fortresses, castles and fortified settlements: Full (Chufut-Calais), Doros (Mangup) , Sugdeya (Sudak), Aluston (Alushta), and several others. Was strengthened fortress Bosporus. At the same time in the beginning of active implanted Christianity. Although the early Christians entered the Crimea back in I in. BC, there is no reason to believe that Christianity has enjoyed popularity in these places. The proof is the fact that the Romans sent in Chersonesus quarries third pope, a disciple of St. Peter - Clement.
In VIII century Christianity in Tauris established definitively. This was facilitated by the fact that in the Byzantine Empire in 726 began iconoclastic movement. Thousands of Christians were forced to flee to the outskirts of the empire, including, in Taurica. At this time there are dozens of monasteries, mostly cave. The most famous cave monastery in the vicinity of Sevastopol occurs in Inkerman rocks (now - Monastery of St.. Clement ). At the same time came and the St George Monastery at Cape Feolent. Back in V-VI centuries look Chersonesus began to lose its ancient features.
spiritual influence of Byzantium was undivided. However, Byzantium was not the only force that affects the lives of the Crimea and the Chersonese. In taurian steppes for centuries continued to change nomadic Turkic: black Bulgarians, Torquay, Khazars, Pechenegs, Polovtsy from VI to XI century partly supplanted, partly assimilated predecessors. Chersonese had to constantly juggle between Byzantine rule and the willfulness of nomads, with whom he had to sell to survive.
Kherson in IX-XI centuries Byzantium and Kievan Rus. New upsurge Chersonesus economy began in the tenth century. At this time occurred in the stabilization of the empire, who came to the Crimea nomads Pechenegs in the affairs of the South-West Tavriki especially not ignorant. Emboldened, the Highlanders began to plow the land foothills. But most importantly, the city has a new, every year is becoming stronger trading partner - Kievan Rus. Slavs are in the ninth century appeared in the Crimea. First came here from the merchants of Novgorod and Kiev. They formed in Kherson to the neighborhood, and the Slavic presence in the city became permanent. Here the great Slavic educator Cyril (before the tonsure of the monks - Constantine), who has visited nearly 860 years in Kherson on the way to the Khazars, found on an island in the Bay Cossack relics of St. Clement of Rome, and outflank them procession the city, set in one of Chersonesus temples.
With the growth and strengthening of Kievan Rus and the growing volume of trade between it and the Byzantine Empire, held in Kherson, who in Russia called Korsun. As is known, in the year 988 in Chersonesos Vladimir was baptized, and from this event taken to count the history of Christianity in Russia.
When, several months later, he went home, took with them valuable icons, statues, rare books, church utensils, and even the main relic Chersonesos - relics of St. Clement. After the formal transition of Russia to Christianity, with its diverse Cherson considerably strengthened.
Kherson in XI-XV centuries Decline and death of the city. A few years later a new misfortune befell Kherson - he suffered a devastating earthquake. In any case, the city suffered total destruction, fires, abandonment. A considerable part of its territory not later built up over decades. At the beginning of XI century Rusichi conquered lands of the former Kingdom of the Bosporus on both sides of the strait, founding Tmutarakan principality. The bulk of Russian-Byzantine trade was reoriented to the east of the Crimea.
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