Pages: 291-302

Nowadays there is much less information about relationships between Chersonese and Roman empire on the turn of III - IV and in IV c. than about the second half of II - first half of III cc. That is why many judgements about history of the city in the late ancient period have a debatable and hypothetical character. All these questions we can compare to the question of presence of Roman garrison in Chersonese. That is why the author comes again to this question and tries again to analyse all that information we have about this complicated problem. Basing on analysis of epigraphic sources and all the most recent findings we can say that during the IV century, relationships between Chersonese and the empire presented an alliance, and formally the city was not within the empire. Its defense was secured by garrison subsidised by the central power and formed of the residents of the city. This garrison was organized by model of legions of ballistaries of late Roman army, but actually it was a city militia which was well known in a number of centers on the Balkans. As epigraphic records tell us, the administration of the empire helped the garrison with specialists, and, as Konstantin Bagryanorodniy tells us, with  materials for ballistics. All said above complies very well with the results of archeological researches held on the territory of  Chersonese citadel, where a lot of reconstruction activities took place in the second half of III - IV cc., which tells us about changes in functional use of this part of the city.