Theodoro

Nomenclature

The name "Theodoro" (in the corrupted form Θεοδωραω) appears for the first time in a Greek inscription also dated to c. 1361/1362, and then again as "Theodoro Mangop" in a Genoese document of 1374. It was suggested by A. Mercati that the form is a corruption of the Greek plural Theodoroi 'the Theodores', meaning Saints Theodore Stratelates and Theodore Tiro, but N. Bănescu proposed the alternative explanation that it resulted from the definitive Greek name τὸ Δόρος (to Doros) or τὸ Δόρυ (to Dory), after the early medieval name of the region. Whatever its provenance, the name stuck: by the 1420s the official titulature of the prince read "Lord of the city of Theodoro and the Maritime Region" (αὐθέντης πόλεως Θεοδωροῦς καὶ παραθαλασσίας), while colloquially it was called Θεοδωρίτσι (Theodoritsi, 'little Theodoro') by its inhabitants. Local Greeks called the narrow strip of the coastal land from Yamboli (Balaklava) in the west to Allston (Alushta) in the east Parathalassia (Greek: Παραθαλασσια, "seashore"), while under Genoese rule it was known as Captainship of Gothia.