The metropolitan Leontius formed the first five dioceses, and appointed Joachim of Cherson to be Bishop of Novgorod, Theodorus of Rostoff, Neophytus of Chernigoff, Stephen the Volhynian of Vladimir, and Nicetas of Belgorod.

No such name occurs in our best maps; but there is a place near the country of Mingrelia in Guria on the Black-Sea, named Batum, which may be here indicatedE. This place is called in the text Weisseburgh, signifying the White Town, otherwise named Akkerman or Akkiermann, Asprecastro, Tschetatalba, and Belgorod.

This is a place at the mouth of the Dniester called Ak-Kierman by the Turks; Tshelatalba by the Walachians; Belgorod by the Russians; Aspro Kastra by the Greeks; and Moncastro by the Genoese.