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KhersonesTauric Chersonesos, Greek Χερσονασος (Chersones, Khersones, Korsun, Russian: Херсонес) was the Greek settlement founded approximately 2500 years ago in the southwestern part of Crimean (Taurian) Peninsula. During much of the classical period the town was a democracy ruled by a group of elected archons and a council called the Damiorgi. As time went on the government grew more oligarchic, with power concentrated in the hands of the archons. A form of oath sworn by all the citizens in the 3rd century BCE has survived to the present day. In the late second century BCE Khersones became a dependency of the Bosporan kingdom. It was subject to Rome from the middle of the first century BCE until the 370's CE, when it was captured by the huns. It became a Byzantine possession during the early Middle Ages, but Byzantine rule was light; according to Theophanes and others, Cherson was the residence of a Khazar tudun in the late 600's. Kherson was a popular place of exile for those who angered the Roman and later Byzantine governments; among its more famous "inmates" were Popes Clement I and Martin I, and the deposed Byzantine Emperor Justinian II. In 838 Emperor Theophilus sent the nobleman Petronas Kamateros, who had recently overseen the construction of the Khazar fortress of Sarkel, to take direct control over the city and its environs. It remained in Byzantine hands until the 980's, when it fell to Kiev. It was there that Vladimir the Great was baptized in 988, paving the way to the Christianization of Kievan Rus. It was returned to Byzantine control at the end of the tenth century CE. After the Fourth Crusade Chersones became dependent on Empire of Trebizond, and then fell under Genoese control in the early 1300's. In 1399 the town was sacked and destroyed by the armies of the Golden Horde, and was never resettled. The Tatars founded a village called Akhtiar some miles distant, which became the site for the modern city of Sevastopol. Khersones' ancient ruins are presently located in Sevastopol's suburbs. External link * Cherson Taurica
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