Crimean Goths

[Martín Zalacaín]

Crimean Goths were those Gothic tribes who remained in the lands around the Black Sea, especially in Crimea. They were the least-powerful, least-known, and paradoxically longest-lasting of the Gothic communities.
According to Herwig Wolfram, following Jordanes, the Ostrogoths had a huge kingdom north of the Black Sea in the fourth century,[1] which the Huns overwhelmed in the time of the Gothic king Ermanaric (or Hermanric; i.e. "king of noble men")[citation needed] when the Huns migrated to the Russian steppe. The Ostrogoths became vassals of the Huns until the death of Attila when they revolted and regained independence. Like the Huns, the Goths in the Crimea never regained their lost glory.
According to Peter Heather and Michael Kulikowski, the Ostrogoths did not even exist until the fifth century, having emerged from other Gothic and non-Gothic groups.[2] Other Gothic groups may have settled in the Crimea.[3]
During the late fifth and early sixth century the Crimean Goths had to fight off hordes of Huns who were migrating back eastward after losing control of their European empire.[4] In the fifth century Theodoric the Great tried to recruit Crimean Goths for his campaigns in Italy, but few showed interest in joining him.[5]
While initially Arian Christians like other Gothic peoples,[citation needed] by the 500's the Crimean Goths had fully integrated with the Trinitarian Roman Church. Following the split of the Church these peoples would remain loyal to Constantinople as part of the Eastern Orthodox Church. In the eighth century John of Gothia, an Orthodox bishop, led an unsuccessful revolt against Khazar overlordship.

Crimea in the middle of the 15th century


Many Crimean Goths were Greek speakers and many non-Gothic Byzantine citizens settled in the region called "Gothia" by the government in Constantinople. A Gothic principality around the stronghold of Doros (modern Mangup), the Principality of Theodoro, continued to exist through various periods of vassalage to the Byzantines, Khazars, Kipchaks, Mongols, Genoese and other empires until well into the 1500’s, when it was finally incorporated by the Khanate of Crimea and the Ottoman Empire.
Crimean Goths itself were assimilated by Greeks by 8th century as in early 9th several inscriptions found in the area point the word "Goth" only as a personal name, not ethnonym. Meanwhile, some legends about Goth's state in Crimea existed in Europe during all Middle Ages. In 16th century it was reported by Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq that he had a conversation with two Goths in Istanbul. He also left the Gothic-Latin dictionary with few words that are similar to ancient Gothic language. There is no any other sources of Crimean Goths and their language survival. It's possible that Busbecq report is a sort of falsification. Spreading of rumours about Crimean Goths's existance in back areas of Ottoman Empire could have the same goal as spreading of legends about Prester John during Crusades.

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