AIBABIN A.I. Controversy About the Date of Termination of the Rule of the Eastern Roman Empire in the Klimata of Gothia
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/jvolsu4.2023.6.1
Aleksandr I. Aibabin
Doctor of Sciences (History), Professor, Director of the Research Centre of History and Archaeology of Crimea, Chief Researcher,
Laboratory of Byzantine Crimea, V.I. Vernadsky Crimean Federal University,
Prosp. Akademika Vernadskogo, 4, 295007 Simferopol, Russian Federation
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4116-8198
Abstract. Introduction. Crimean historians dated the liberation of the Klimata of Gothia from the control of the Eastern Roman Empire to the end of the 12th century, 1204 or 1070. Anna Komnene wrote about Cherson belonging to Byzantium in 1092. A.A. Vasiliev, as well as A.A. Kunik and V. Heid, saw in the text of the Alexei III Angel’s chrysoboullos in 1198 a proof of the “liberation” of Crimean Gothia from political dependence on Byzantium. A.L. Jacobson joined this opinion.
Analysis. According to the conclusion of A.P. Kazhdan, the Metropolitan of Athens Michael Choniates’s letter no. 3 to Pegonites fixes the dispatch of tax collectors from Constantinople to the Klimata of Gothia and thus is evidence of the real power of Byzantium in the Klimata and the Cimmerian Bosporus around 1180. The term θέμα acquires its former administrative meaning after the reform of the Komnenoi, which restored, at least in Asia Minor, the old principle of dividing the territory of the empire into administrative units, again called themes and controlled by a high-ranking military officer – the doux, who again controlled the civil administration. These military districts formed the core of the Komnenian provincial administration. The 12th-century-seals of Byzantine aristocrats originating from the territory of the Klimata of Gothia testify to the possible sale of administrative positions in the Crimea by the Komnenoi to representatives of aristocratic families.
Results. The administration of the Eastern Roman Empire in the region was interrupted by its defeat in 1204 by the Crusaders. Throughout the entire period of their existence in the Klimata of Gothia, there is no evidence of their autonomy. In 1261, the emperor of the Nicaean Empire, Michael VIII Palaiologos, captured Constantinople and restored the Eastern Roman Empire. The Empire of Trebizond continued to live an isolated life, and Cherson with Klimata of Gothia paid tribute to it.
Key words: Klimata, Crimea, Gothia, theme, doux, katepano, krites, praetor.
Citation. Aibabin A.I. Controversy About the Date of Termination of the Rule of the Eastern Roman Empire in the Klimata of Gothia. Vestnik Volgogradskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriya 4. Istoriya. Regionovedenie. Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniya [Science Journal of Volgograd State University. History. Area Studies. International Relations], 2023, vol. 28, no. 6, pp. 6-12. (in Russian). DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/jvolsu4.2023.6.1.
Controversy About the Date of Termination of the Rule of the Eastern Roman Empire in the Klimata of Gothia by Aibabin A.I. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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