HISTORY. To the ancients Crimea was known as /'liersouesmrs Tuurica, from the Tauri, a moun tain tribe of the south, who are supposed to have been the remnants of a Cimmerian people driven out by the Scythians in the seventh cen tury n.c. In the sixth century B.C. the Greeks of Miletus founded flourishing colonies at Nym pleum, Theodosia. and Pantieapnum (the pres ent Kertcb). About B.C. 500 these cities, to gether with several other towns, united to form the Kingdom of Bosporus, which existed till the fifth century A.D., and embraced, at the period of its greatest extent, the entire peninsula and the ern coast of the Sea of Azov. The Chersonesus stood in close commercial and social relations with the Greeks of Europe, and especially with the Athenians, who exported from the country great quantities of grain and hides, as well as many slaves. In the first century B.C. Parisades, the ruler of Bosporus. hard by the Scyth inns, acknowledged himself the vassal of Mithri dates of Pontus, and when the latter's son. Phan naces. was deprived of his possessions in Asia =Minor by the Romans. he established himself in the Chersonesus. Under the nominal suzerainty of the Romans, and later of the Byzantines, the Kingdom of Bosporus prospered, till about the beginning probably of the fifth century, when it fell before the Huns. The country, with the exception of the southern coastland, which was held by the Byzantines, was henceforth dev astated by a succession of barbarian invasions. About the middle of the seventh century the Khazars, a fierce tribe from the region of the Volga, took possession of the peninsula and es tablished a powerful kingdom there, chiefly re markable for the fact that the ruler, the entire nobility, and large numbers of the people became zealous adherents of the Jewish faith. In the
thirteenth century the country was conquered by the Mongols, and it constituted till about 1430 a part of the Kbanate of Kiptchak (q.v.). At the same time the Genoese founded a number of trading colonies on the southern coast. which was known as Gotbia. Among these were Caffa (Kaffa), on the site of Panticapfeum, which be came a great emporium of the commeree between Europe and Asia. After forming a part of the independent Khanate of Brim for about forty five years, the Crimea was conquered in 1475 by the Turks, and was ruled by a khan under the suzerainty of the Sultan. In 1571 the Khan raided Moscow and sacked the town. Russian aggressions on the Crimea began in 1735. and in the following year an army under General Mfin nich laid the country waste. By the Treaty of kutchuk-Kainardji. in 1774. the Porte was forced to recognize the independence of the Khan. In 1783 the country was incorporated with Rus sia. In 1854-50 the Crimea was the scene of conflict between the Russian armies and the allied forces of England, France, Sardinia. and Turkey. (See CRINIEAN WAR.) Consult: Telfer, The Crimea and Transcaucasia (London, 1872) ; Wood, The Crimea in 1854 and 1894 (London, 1895) ; Beaulieu. The Empire of Tsars and the Russians (New York, 1893).