THEODO´SIA
THEODO´SIA (
Θεοδοσία,
Ptol. 3.6.3), a flourishing colony of the Milesians, on the coast of the Chersonesus Taurica, in European Sarmatia, with a harbour capable of containing 100 ships. (Strab. 7.309; Arrian,
Per. P. Eux. p. 20.)
In the dialect of the natives, it was called Ardabda (
Ἀρδάβδα, Anon.
Per. P. Eux. p. 5), which is said to have signified, in the dialect of the Taurians, “seven gods” (Pallas, i. p. 416), and at a later period Kapha (
Κάφα, Const. Porphyr.
de Adm. Imp. 100.53); whilst by the Geogr. Rav. (4.3, 5.11) we find it named Theodosiopolis.
It enjoyed an extensive commerce, particularly in corn (Dem.
adv. Lept. p. 255), but appears to have been ruined before the age of Arrian, in the beginning of the second century. (Arrian,
l.c.) Yet it continues to be mentioned by later writers (
Polyaen. 5.23;
Amm. Marc. 22.8.36;
Oros. 1.2;
Steph. B. sub voce &c.) Yet we should not, perhaps, allow these writers much authority; at all events the very name of the Milesian colony appears to have vanished in the time of the emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, under whom the site on which it stood was already called Kaffon (
de Adm. Imp. 100.43; cf. Neumann,
Die Hellenen im Skythenlande, p. 469.) Clarke imagined that he had discovered its ruins at
Stara Crim, where there are still some magnificent remains of a Greek city (
Tray. ii. p. 154, sq.; cf. p. 150 and note); but the more general, and perhaps better founded opinion is, that it stood, near its namesake, the modern
Caffa or
Theodosia. (Cf. Raoul-Rochette,
Ant. du Bosp. Cimm. p. 30; Dubois, v. p. 280.) For coins and inscriptions, see Köhler,
Nov. Act. Acad. Petrop. xiv. p. 122, and
Mém. de St. Petersb. ix. p. 649, sq.; Clarke,
Trav. 2.148, sq.
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