Zichia

Zichia (Greek: Ζιχία) or Zekchia (Ζηκχία), was a medieval region on the northeastern shore of the Black Sea.

The exact location of the area is unknown. According to the 10th-century Byzantine emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos (r. 913–959), it lay south of Tamatarcha (Tmutorokan), separated from it by the river Oukrouch (possibly to be identified with the Kuban River), and had a city called Nikopsis.^[1] According to a legend about a visit of the Apostle Andrew there, it lay between Abasgia (Abkhazia) and the Cimmerian Bosporus (Strait of Kerch).^[1]

In historical sources, the area first appears in the 6th century, when the Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea (Wars, VIII.4.2) records that the people of the Zechoi used to have a king appointed by the Roman Emperor, but that they had since become independent.^[1] The Notitiae Episcopatuum of the Patriarchate of Constantinople mention an autocephalous archbishopric of Zichia from the 7th century on, associated with Tamatarcha or the Cimmerian Bosporus.^[1]

At the time of Constantine VII, Byzantine dealings with the area were carried out by the inhabitants of Cherson.^[1] In the 11th century, the Byzantines may have established control over the region, as attested by the seal of a Michael, "archon of Zichia, Khazaria, and Gothia", but this is disputed among modern scholars. In the 12th century, Emperor Manuel I Komnenos (r. 1143–1180) used the title "emperor of Zichia, Khazaria, and Gothia", but it is unclear to which extent this claim corresponded to reality.^[1]

In the 13th century, the area was visited by Hungarian and Italian travellers, who called it Sychia (and other variants thereof). These travellers located Matrica (Tmutorokan) within Sychia.^[1]

References

Sources

• Pritsak, Omeljan (1991). "Zichia". In Kazhdan, Alexander. The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 2226–2227. ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6.