On the Question of the Legal Status of Mountainous Southwestern Taurika in the 6th — First Half of the 9th Century

Issue of the legal status (state affiliation) of the mountainous Southwest Crimea is important for better understanding of political, ethnic and religious development of the region in early Middle Ages. The entire set of sources is evidence of its being controlled by the Byzantine Empire. But the issue of the exercise of power by the Romans, its form, as well as the period when the territory began its existence as “interior” part of Byzantine is still a matter of dispute. There are two chronological references. First, “The Buildings”, a treatise by Procopius of Caesarea, who mentioned in it the land of Dory between Chersoneses and Bosporus, whose inhabitants (Goths) had been allies of the Empire before the early 560s. Secondly, a number of sources inform that Byzantine authorities set up the theme of Cherson (Klimata) in the Crimea (about 841). The creation of the theme is certain evidence for incorporation of the former land of Dory (Klimata, Gothia) into the Byzantine Empire. In the author’s opinion, the set of the aforementioned sources has no evidence to conclude that the mountainous Southwest Crimea/Taurica had been a Byzantine “interior” territory before the creation of Klimata.