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

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

-era city in the southern

Crimea Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrain ...

. 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 ( ; 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 national monument of Crimean Kar ...

and Kyz Kermen near

Bakhchysarai Bakhchysarai is a city in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Bakhchysarai Raion (district), as well as the former capital of the Crimean Khanate. Its main landmark is Hansaray, the only extant ...

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 Byzan ...

'', "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; or Προτέκτωρ) was a Byzantine historian, born in Constantinople in the middle of the 6th century AD. The little that is known of his life is contained in the account o ...

. It occurs next in the hagiography of the late 8th-century saint John of Gothia, 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'') were official documents that furnished for Eastern countries the list and hierarchical rank of the metropolitan and suffragan bishoprics of a church. In the Roman Church (the mos ...

'' of the

Patriarchate of Constantinople The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (, ; ; , "Roman Orthodox Patriarchate, Ecumenical Patriarchate of Istanbul") is one of the fifteen to seventeen autocephalous churches that together compose the Eastern Orthodox Church. It is headed ...

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

Khazars The Khazars ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a nomadic Turkic people who, in the late 6th century CE, established a major commercial empire covering the southeastern section of modern European Russia, southern Ukraine, Crimea, a ...

(''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 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 Byzan ...

, 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