Principality of Theodoro
| Lordship of the city of Theodoro and the Maritime Region | ||||||||||
| Αὐθεντία πόλεως Θεοδωροῦς καὶ παραθαλασσίας | ||||||||||
| Principality | ||||||||||
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 Crimea in the middle of the 15th century.
Theodoro shown in green
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| Capital | Mangup (Doros, Theodoro) | |||||||||
| Languages | Greek (official), also Crimean Gothic, Kipchak and others | |||||||||
| Religion | Orthodox Christianity | |||||||||
| Government | Monarchy | |||||||||
| Prince | ||||||||||
| • | 1475 | Alexander of Theodoro | ||||||||
| Historical era | Late Middle Ages | |||||||||
| • | First mention of the principality | early 14th century | ||||||||
| • | Ottoman conquest | 1475 | ||||||||
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| Today part of |
 Ukraine/ Russia
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Coat of arms
The Principality of Theodoro, also known as Gothia (Greek: Γοτθία) or Gotho-Byzantine principality of Theodoro-Mangup, was a small principality in the south-west of Crimea and both the final rump state of the Roman Empire and vestige of the Crimean Goths until its conquest by the Ottoman Turks in 1475. Its capital was Doros, which was also sometimes called Theodoro and is now known as Mangup. The state was closely allied with the Empire of Trebizond and was distinctive for its East Germanic (albeit heavily Hellenized) population.
Its population was a mixture of Greeks, Crimean Goths, Alans, Bulgars, Cumans, Kipchaks and other ethnic groups, which confessed Orthodox Christianity. The principality's official language was Greek. The territory was initially under the control of Trebizond as part of its Crimean possessions, the Gazarian Perateia.
The Principality of Gothia is first mentioned in the early 14th century, with the earliest date offered by the post-Byzantine historian Theodore Spandounes, who records the existence of a "Prince of Gothia" in the reign of Andronikos III Palaiologos (1328–1341). Further references occur over the course of the 14th century, with several scholars identifying the "Dmitry", one of the three Tartar princes in the Battle of Blue Waters (ca. 1362/3), with a Prince of Gothia. The name in this case may possibly be the baptismal name of a Tartar lord of Mangup, named Khuitani (see below). The name "Theodoro" (in the corrupted form Θεοδωραω) appears for the first time in a Greek inscription also dated to ca. 1361/2, 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 titelature of the prince read "Lord of the city of Theodoro and the Maritime Region" (αὐθέντης πόλεως Θεοδωροῦς καὶ παραθαλασσίας), while colloquially it was called "Theodoritsi" (Θεοδωρίτσι, "little Theodoro") by its inhabitants.
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