Tauric Chersonesus, Panticapaeum 4th-3rd cent. BC, AE 16x17, 4.63g

Chersonesus,^[a] contracted in medieval Greek to Cherson (Χερσών), was an ancient Greek colony founded approximately 2,500 years ago in the southwestern part of the Crimean Peninsula. Settlers from Heraclea Pontica in Bithynia established the colony in the 6th century BC.

The ancient city was located on the shore of the Black Sea on the outskirts of present-day Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula, where it is referred to as Khersones. The site is part of the National Preserve of Tauric Chersonesos. The name Chersonesos in Greek means "peninsula" and aptly describes the site on which the colony was established. It should not be confused with the Tauric Chersonese, a name often applied to the whole of the southern Crimea.

During much of the classical period, Chersonesus operated as a democracy ruled by a group of elected archons and a council called the Demiurgoi. As time passed, the government grew more oligarchic, with power concentrated in the hands of the archons.^[1] A form of oath sworn by all the citizens from the 3rd century BC onwards has survived to the present day.^[2][3] In 2013 UNESCO listed Chersonesus as a World Heritage Site.^[4]