Reception of Crimea in Byzantine Sources (the Case of Toponymics)

Abstract

The article traces the history of the names of the Crimean peninsula and its main regions in the Greek-language literature of the Byzantine period, from late Antiquity to the end of the Middle Ages (4th — 15th centuries). During this thousand-year period, the political and ethnic history of Crimea was characterized by large-scale transformations, accompanied by significant changes in the ethno-population structure of both mountainous and lowland populations. Nevertheless, Byzantine sources demonstrate a persistent desire to archaize and artificially “stabilize” the Crimean realities by describing them within the framework of the classical antique ethnogeographic nomenclature (Taurica, Scythia, etc.). The reflection of the actual linguistic usus in Byzantine time is typical, with rare exceptions, only for written monuments of the so called middle style, and even then mainly during the period of cultural decline of the “dark ages” (8th — 9th centuries).