Phoulloi ( gr, Φοῦλλοι), also known as Phoulla or Phoullai (Φοῦλλα � , , or ), was a

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

-era city in the southern

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

. The location of Phoulloi remains unknown, and a subject of differing opinions among historians. Proposed identifications with modern settlements include Solkhat and Tepsen in the eastern part of the Crimea, as well as

Chufut-Kale __NOTOC__ Chufut-Kale ( crh, Çufut Qale, italic=yes ; Russian and Ukrainian: Чуфут-Кале - ''Chufut-Kale''; Karaim: Кала - קלעה - ''Kala'') is a medieval city-fortress in the Crimean Mountains that now lies in ruins. It is a nati ...

and Kyz Kermen near Bakhchysarai in the western part of the peninsula. According to O. Pritsak in the ''

Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium The ''Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium'' (ODB) is a three-volume historical dictionary published by the English Oxford University Press. With more than 5,000 entries, it contains comprehensive information in English on topics relating to the Byzant ...

'', "it was probably located on the trans-Crimean route, approximately halfway between Cherson and Cimmerian Bosporos". The city is first mentioned by the 6th-century Byzantine historian

Menander Protector Menander Protector (Menander the Guardsman, Menander the Byzantian; el, Μένανδρος Προτήκτωρ or Προτέκτωρ), Byzantine historian, was born in Constantinople in the middle of the 6th century AD. The little that is known of ...

. It occurs next in the hagiography of the late 8th-century saint

John of Gothia John of Gothia ( el, ᾿Ιωάννης ἐπίσκοπος τῆς Γοτθίας, Iōánnēs epískopos tēs Gotthiás ; ? – 791 AD) was a Crimean Gothic metropolitan bishop of Doros, and rebel leader who overthrew and briefly expelled the ...

, who was held prisoner in the city in 787, and baptized and cured the child of the local lord, before escaping to Amastris. In the 9th century, the hagiography of Constantine the Philosopher mentions the "nation of Phoulloi", who venerated an oak tree and were ruled by an elder. The ''

Notitiae Episcopatuum The ''Notitiae Episcopatuum'' (singular: ''Notitia Episcopatuum'') are official documents that furnish Eastern countries the list and hierarchical rank of the metropolitan and suffragan bishoprics of a church. In the Roman Church (the -mostly Lat ...

'' of the

Patriarchate of Constantinople The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople ( el, Οἰκουμενικὸν Πατριαρχεῖον Κωνσταντινουπόλεως, translit=Oikoumenikón Patriarkhíon Konstantinoupóleos, ; la, Patriarchatus Oecumenicus Constanti ...

in the late 8th and 9th centuries record that the bishop of the

Khazars The Khazars ; he, כּוּזָרִים, Kūzārīm; la, Gazari, or ; zh, 突厥曷薩 ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a semi-nomadic Turkic people that in the late 6th-century CE established a major commercial empire coverin ...

(''Chotziroi'') resided near Phoulloi and another place with the Turkic name ''Kara Su'' ("Black Water"), hellenized as ''Charasion'' (Χαράσιον) or translated as ''Mabron Neron'' (Μάβρον Νερὸν) in the ''Notitiae''. In subsequent ''Notitiae'', Phoulloi itself appears as the sea of an archbishop. By the 14th century, the local see had been merged with that of Sougdaia, and a

metropolitan bishopric A metropolis religious jurisdiction, or a metropolitan archdiocese, is an episcopal see whose bishop is the metropolitan bishop or archbishop of an ecclesiastical province. Metropolises, historically, have been important cities in their provinces. ...

of Sougdaia and Phoulloi is well attested in 14th–15th century documents. The fate of the city after that is unknown.

References

Sources

* {{cite encyclopedia , last = Pritsak , first = Omeljan , title = Phoulloi , page = 1670 , editor-last=Kazhdan , editor-first=Alexander , editor-link=Alexander Kazhdan , encyclopedia=

The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium The ''Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium'' (ODB) is a three-volume historical dictionary published by the English Oxford University Press. With more than 5,000 entries, it contains comprehensive information in English on topics relating to the Byzant ...

, location=New York and Oxford , publisher=Oxford University Press , year=1991 , isbn=978-0-19-504652-6 Medieval Crimea Populated places of the Byzantine Empire Defunct dioceses of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople Former populated places in Crimea