About the year 726 Leo the Isaurian, Emperor of
Byzantimn, published at Constantinople his celebrated
Edict against Image Worship. The clergy and monks
rebelled, and the Emperor was on all sides denounced
as a Jew. In order to show that, notwithstanding his
enlightened opposition to miracle-working fetishes lie
was in other respects a good Christian, Leo attempted
to persecute the Jews into embracing the Cross. Many



128 The Life of Sir Moses Montefiore. [ch. x

conversions were effected ; but a large number of the
Hebrews, whose ancestors had established themselves
in the land long before Christianitj', fled further afield,
to seek an as3'lum among the more tolerant pagans.
Thus it came about that Jewish settlements were
formed in the Cimmerian Peninsula of Tauris (the
modem Crimea), and Hebrew communities were
founded at Theodosia (now Kaffa), Kareonpolis (Eski
Krim), Phanegoria (Taman), and Bosphorus (Kertch).
From the Crimea these Grseco-Jewish communities
spread to the Caucasus, the Caspian Sea, and the
Mouth of the Volga. These are the first authentic
appearances of the Jews on Bussian soil.
The inhabitants of the region thus invaded were the
Khozars, or Togarmi (as they subsequently called
themselves), a Finnish tribe, who, after the break-up
of the Empire of the Huns, had established themselves
in the neighbourhood of Astrachan, whence they had
gradually extended a powerful dominion. Successful
in a war with the Persians, they disputed the
sovereignty of the East with the Byzantine Emperors,
and both the Bulgars and Russins paid them tribute.
