Euchaita

   A rural pilgrimage center in Pontos (q.v.), west of Amaseia (q.v.) on the road to Gangra (q.v.). Anastasios I (q.v.) enclosed it with walls in the early sixth century, and in the seventh century it became part of the theme of Armeniakon (qq.v.). One of the most famous commanders of the Armeniakon, the future Leo V (q.v.), was exiled there for a time in the early ninth century. The cult of St. Theodore Teron provided an important source of revenue for the city, and in the 11th century, according to its metropolitan John Mauropous (qq.v.), the city's annual festival for the saint coincided with a great fair that transformed the city from a wasteland to a bustling marketplace. Much of recent scholarly discussion about the town has focused on the extent to which, despite having been burned by the Persians (q.v.) in 615 and occupied briefly by the Arabs (q.v.) in 663-664, its survival was an exception to the more general rule of urban decline in Asia Minor (q.v.) in the seventh century. Nevertheless, by the eighth century the city seems to have shrunk from its Anastasian walls to a fortified acropolis, becoming more of a stronghold than an actual city.