In the late 12th century, the Crimean peninsula had seceded from the Byzantine Empire, but soon after the Sack of Constantinople in 1204, parts of it were included in the Trapezuntine Gazarian Perateia.

[5] This dependence was never very strong and was eventually replaced by the invading Mongols,[6] who in 1238 poured into the peninsula, occupied its east and enforced a tribute on the western half, including Gothia.

[16] The principality had peaceful relations with the Golden Horde to its north, paying an annual tribute as vassals, but was in constant strife with Genoese Gazaria colonies to the south over access to the coasts and the trade that went through the Crimean harbors.

A narrow strip of the coastal land from Yamboli (Balaklava) in the west to Allston (Alushta) in the east initially part of the principality soon fell under Genoese control.

After they had lost harbors on the southern coast Theodorites built a new port called Avlita at the mouth of the Chernaya River and fortified it with the fortress of Kalamata (modern Inkerman).

[17] During 1474, the people of Caffa appeared to have been on the verge of rebellion; official documents from this year describe the damage done to Gothic landowners and farmers or the burning of buildings in the border districts of Alushta and Cembalo.

The Prince at the time, Isaac (Italian documents write him Saichus or Saicus and the Russian Isaiko), presented a formal complaint to the Genoese fearing a war with Caffa.

According to Vasiliev, the city endured five major assaults during the siege; in the end, Theodoro's food supply was blockaded and the people began to succumb to famine.

According to Vasiliev, he is possibly to be identified with the hekatontarches Khuitani, who erected the stone inscription mentioning the name "Theodoro" on the walls of Mangup at about the same time.

Alexios' heir was his eldest son John, who was married to Maria Asanina, a woman connected to the Byzantine imperial dynasty of the Palaiologoi and the noble lines of Asanes and Tzamplakon.

[30] In the face of the mounting Ottoman danger, he engaged in a rapprochement with the Genoese at Caffa and wed his sister Maria Asanina Palaiologina to Stephen the Great, ruler of Moldavia.

[18] This came too late to save Theodoro: in December 1475, after conquering the other Christian strongholds along the Crimean coast, the Ottomans captured the city after a three-month siege.

[31] Gothia's population was a mixture of Greeks, Crimean Goths, Alans, Circassians, Bulgars, Cumans, Kipchaks, and other ethnic groups, most of whom were adherents to Orthodox Christianity and Hellenized.

Various cultural influences can be traced in Gothia: its architecture and Christian wall paintings were essentially Byzantine, although some of its fortresses also display a local as well as Genoese character.