Dobrudja

   Region between the lower Danube (q.v.) and the Black Sea (q.v.). The Romans called it "Little Scythia" (Scythia Minor); in the fourth-sixth centuries its metropolis was Tomis (qq.v.). Largely agricultural, it became in the Middle Ages a magnet for nomadic peoples from the Eurasian steppe (q.v.) who sought a more settled life south of the Danube. In 578 the Avars (q.v.) crossed the Danube and marched through the Dobrudja. In 680 Asparuch (q.v.) gained Dobrudja through treaty with Byzantium (q.v.), by which time it had been settled by Slavs (q.v.). In 967 it was occupied by Svjatoslav of Kiev (qq.v.), but in 971 John I Tzimiskes (q.v.) defeated him, forcing Svjatoslav to withdraw. Thereafter, John I and Basil II (q.v.) strengthened the defenses of the Dobrudja, which included restoring the fortress of Päcuiul lui Soare. Nevertheless, in the 11th century the Dobrudja suffered from Pecheneg (q.v.) raids. From the 12th through the 14th centuries, Byzantine control of Dobrudja's ports was lost to the Venetians and Genoese, while the interior was claimed by proto-Romanian and Slavic rulers who acknowledged Byzantine sovereignty. The region fell into the hands of the Ottomans (q.v.) after the battle of Varna (q.v.) in 1444.