Everything about Taurica totally explained
Taurica () also known as
Tauris,
Taurida,
Tauric Chersonese, and
Chersonesus Taurica was the name of
Crimea in
Antiquity.
Etymology of the name
The
Greeks named the region after its inhabitants, the
Tauri. As the Tauri inhabited only mountainous regions of southern Crimea at first the name Tauris was used only to this southern part, but later it was extended to name the whole peninsula.
Sometimes Taurica is referred to as
Tauric Chersonese or
Chersonesus Taurica. This name is Greek for the "Tauric peninsula" (
Chersonese literally means "peninsula"). This variant of the name shouldn't be confused with the city of
Chersonesos. /chersonesus mean ~cserzett=tawny or chornij=black too./
Legends about Tauris
According to
Greek legends, Tauris is the place to which
Iphigeneia was sent after the
goddess Artemis rescued her from the human sacrifice her
father was about to perform. The goddess swept the young princess off to Tauris where she became a priestess at her
temple. Here, she was forced by the Taurian king Thoas to perform human sacrifices on any foreigners who came ashore.
See the plot of Iphigeneia in Tauris for more details.
Chronology
Taurica was inhabited by a variety of peoples. The inland regions were inhabited by
Scythians and the mountainous south coast by the
Taures, an offshoot of the
Cimmerians. Greek settlers inhabited a number of colonies along the coast of the peninsula, notably the city of
Chersonesos near modern
Sevastopol.
In the
2nd century BCE the eastern part of Taurica became part of the
Bosporan Kingdom, before being incorporated into the
Roman Empire in the
1st century BC.
The land of Tauris and its rumored customs of killing Greeks are also described by
Herodotus in his
histories, Book IV, 99-100 and 103.
De Facto Roman Province
» See Charax, Crimea.
During the first, second, and third centuries CE, Taurica was host to Roman legions and colonists in
Charax, Crimea. The Charax colony was founded under
Vespasian with the intention of protecting
Chersonesos and other Bosporean trade emporiums from the
Scythians. The Roman colony was protected by a
vexillatio of the
Legio I Italica; it also hosted a detachment of the
Legio XI Claudia at the end of the 2nd century. The camp was abandoned by the Romans in the mid-3rd century. This de facto province would have been controlled by the
legatus of one of the Legions stationed in Charax.
Modern name
Taurica was eventually renamed by the
Crimean Tatars, from whose
language the Crimea's modern name derives. The word "Crimea" comes from the Crimean Tatar name
Qırım, via
Greek Krimeia (Κριμαία).
Russian governorate
After the annexation of Crimea in
1783 the newly-installed Russian authorities made an attempt to revive the ancient name, and the former lands of the Crimean Khanate were organized into the
Taurida Governorate. But this name was used only in the official documents and "Crimea" remained a common name for the country.
Following the
1917 October Revolution, the Taurida Governorate was briefly reformed as the
Taurida Soviet Socialist Republic (
Russian: Советская Социалистическая Республика Тавриды -
Sovetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika Tavridy) in early
1918 before being overrun by the
World War I Central Powers. After the reassertion of
Soviet control in
1921, the governorate was divided between the peninsular
Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic under the
Russian SFSR and the mainland portions which were incorporated into the
Ukrainian SSR.
See Taurida Governorate for more details.
Modern use of the name
Since 1921 the name Taurida has no official status in Crimea and is used almost only in historical context. However, some institutions of the republic still use it, for example Taurida National University (the main university in Crimea).
Further Information
Get more info on 'Taurica'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://taurica.totallyexplained.com">Taurica Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
