User:Kober/sandbox/Georgia in antiquity

This is the user sandbox of Kober. A user sandbox is a subpage of the user's user page. It serves as a testing spot and page development space for the user and is not an encyclopedia article. Create or edit your own sandbox here.

Other sandboxes: Main sandbox | Template sandbox

Finished writing a draft article? Are you ready to request review of it by an experienced editor for possible inclusion in Wikipedia? Submit your draft for review!

Kartli/Iberia in the Hellenistic period

Background

The arrival of Alexander the Great's forces in Anatolia in 334 BC and the subsequent collapse of the Achaemenid empire of Persia ushered a new era in the history of the South Caucasus. The extent and precise nature of political relationship of the Caucasian societies to the Achaemenid Empire is not known. Herodotus lists several possibly proto-Georgian and proto-Caucasian tribes as parts of the Achaemenid satrapies. The existence of an Achaemenid client entity in or near present-day Georgia and populated by the Kartvelian elements is implied by a reference to Arian Kartli, that is, Aryan or Iranian Kartli, a "kingdom" which appears in the early medieval Georgian annals as preceding Alexander the Great's conquests. The meaning, identity, and location of this entity is debated in modern scholarship. Toumanoff equates it with the Arane of Ptolemy and the Harrana of the Hittities. Others situate Arian Kartli to the southwest of present-day Georgia, in the valleys of Kura and Coruh. Rapp suggests the identification of this polity with a ruined palace built according to Achaemenid styles and techniques at Gumbati in Georgia’s easternmost region of Kakheti.

Emergence of the kingdom of Kartli

With the elimination of Achaemenid authority, new polities emerged on the former empire's northern periphery. By 316 BC, the formerly Achaemenid Armenia was reconstituted as a Macedonian dependency, ruled by the Orontid monarchy. To the north of it, in the beginning of the 3rd century BC, the eastern Georgian communities, centered in fortified strongholds such as the troglodytic rock-hewn settlement of Uplistsikhe, began to coalesce into a new polity, whose center moved to the vicinity of the town of Mtskheta and its citadel, Armaztsikhe, on the confluence of the Kura and Aragvi rivers. This new kingdom was known natively as Kartli and to the ancient Greeks as Iberia.

Etymologies

According to the native tradition enshrined in the medieval Georgian chronicles, Kartli was originally the name of a hill opposite to Mtskheta where the mythic ethnarch Kartlos had established himself. The root kart, upon which the name Kartli is based, is hypothesized to be cognate with Indo-European gard and denote the people who live in fortified places. According to Melikishvili, it was brought into the Kartvelian world from the Indo-European milieu of Anatolia by the proto-Georgian Mushki, who had been under heavy influence of the Hittite culture. The problem of the origin of the name Iberia as well as precisely how and if it is related to the root kart has not been resolved. One theory, advocated, for example, by Melikishvili, links it to the ethnonym Saspeires found in ancient Greek texts. The Greek toponym seems to replicate the root Vir- in Virk and Wirčān or Waručān, Armenian and Middle Persian designations of eastern Georgia, respectively.

Sources

Ancient literary sources for the earliest period in the history of Kartli are scarce. Even in those few cases, such as Aristotle's Politics, where the early Hellenistic Greek sources allude to "Iberia", it is often unclear whether Caucasian or western, Pyrenean Iberia is meant. It is only in the 1st century BC that the Caucasian Iberia emerges more clearly in the Greco-Roman literary sources. Foundation story of the monarchy of Kartli is recorded in two related, but divergent early medieval Georgian accounts, which blend myth and history. The Life of the Kings, part of the medieval corpus, known as "the Georgian Chronicles", contains an elaborate tale of Parnavaz, who overthrew Azon, the tyrannical Macedonian governor installed by Alexander the Great, and made himself king, with his residence at Mtskheta. He is further credited with introducing military-administrative organization into his kingdom based on a Persian model, promotion of the Georgian language, and fashioning of the initial Georgian script. According to the other text, Conversion of Kartli, Alexander, having overcome the barbaric autochthons, transplanted Azoy, a son of the last king of Arian Kartli, with several noble households to Mtskheta. Azoy, thus, was the first king of Kartli and Parnavaz succeeded on his death; no other relationship between the two men is stipulated in the source.

Despite the semi-legendary narrative, background, and purpose of these later accounts, in the light of totality of literary and archaeological evidence, the creation of Iberian monarchy in the early Hellenistic period is accepted in modern scholarship. The Life of the Kings deploys a sequence of the kings of Kartli, with real and imagined lineage from Parnavaz. Their names are real, mostly Iranic. Many of these rulers are attested in non-Georgian literary and epigraphic sources. The text's vocabulary and imagery point to Kartli's long-standing ties with Persia and Iranic societies in general. At the same time, the spread of Hellenism in eastern Georgia is manifested by imported Greek objects of the early Classical period, both ceramics and metalware, unearthed in Shida Kartli and the Borjomi Valley, as well as adoption of a custom of giving the deceased a coin, Charon's obol.

Society

From the start, the kings of Kartli governed a heterogeneous population, the fact acknowledged in the Georgian chronicles and confirmed by Strabo, writing in the 1st century AD. The Greek author divides the peoples of Iberia into those of the plains, "inclined to farming and to peace", and those of the mountains, who were warlike, "living like Scythians and the Sarmatians", but also engaged in farming. Kartli was one of the chief points of contact between sedentary and nomadic societies of the Caucasian highlands. Its access to and control of the major mountain passes through the Great Caucasus range was, in the opinion of Kavtaradze, a raison d'être of the emergence of a state in eastern Georgia, connected with the urgent need for the contemporary Hellenistic world to defend its periphery from the penetration of Eurasian nomads. [trade, towns, citadels] Strabo is full of praise of Iberia's well-built towns.

Furthermore, the greater part of Iberia is so well built up in respect to cities and farmsteads that their roofs are tiled, and their houses as well as their marketplaces and other public buildings are constructed with architectural skill.

[1]

Strabo, further, gives insight into the hierarchy of Iberia's society, dividing it into four strata. At the top of society stood the dynastic aristocracy, headed by the royal family, and the pagan priesthood. The third class was made of free agriculturalists and soldiers. The fourth and lowest stratum was semidependent agriculturalists who lived in tribal communes and held their land in common. Strabo refers to them as laoi and makes this group "slaves to the king". Modern scholars such as Toumanoff and Melikishvili argue that these people were not real slaves, but were obliged to pay dues in cash and kind and to work for the primitive agrarian economy.

Political history

The 3rd century BC was the period of the gradual rise and expansion of the newly founded kingdom of Kartli as evidenced by archaeological monuments such as Uplistsikhe, Urbnisi, Kavtiskhevi, Tsikhia Gora, and Samadlo-Nastagisi [more on archaeology]. It ruled over a large territory comprising the Kura basin from its source to the mouth of the Alazani and parts of the Coruh valley. Kartli bordered Armenia on the south, Colchis on the west, and Albania on the east. To the north, it reached the Caucasian foothills. Literary evidence suggests that the kings of Kartli did occasionally encroach the Colchian borderlands on the west and were at times active in the Albanian marchlands on the east. Strabo describes Cambysene as the region where the Iberians, Armenians, and Albanians converged.

The Georgian chronicles indicate that the early kings of Kartli cultivated close relations with the Seleucid state, a Hellenistic successor to Alexander’s short-lived empire which was centered on Syria, and at times recognized its suzerainty, probably aiding, as Toumanoff suggests, their overlords in holding in check the vassal Orontid dynasty of Armenia. In 190 BC, Rome's defeat of the Seleucids allowed Artaxias of Armenia and Zariadres of Sophene to assert their autonomy. The resurgent Armenian Artaxiads succeeded in detaching from Iberia its southern regions, "the land along the side of Paryadres and Cholarzene and Gogarene" as reported by Strabo. The Georgian chronicles make several references to Armenian interventions in Kartli and claim a branch of the Armenian dynasty, matrimonially related to Parnavaz's progeny, was established on the throne of Kartli. Thus, by 65 BC, when the Roman armies breached the Caucasus region in the course of the Third Mithridatic War and the Greco-Roman world began to know Iberia more closely, the kingdom was considerably smaller and weaker than at its outset.

Cochis/Egrisi in the Hellenistic period

[Background — Xenophon] [Tribes - all-embracing terms applied with no great precision...]

The peoples of what would become western Georgia lacked their own literary tradition and there is little reliable information about ancient Colchis in the medieval Georgian sources, which use Egrisi as a designation for a region in far western Georgia. The c. 800 Life of the Kings claims Kuji, the ruler of Egrisi, was allied with and eventually subordinated to Parnavaz of Kartli. Interaction across the mountainous divide of western and eastern parts of present-day Georgia did occur and the early kings of Kartli sometimes controlled the areas neighboring the Colchian hinterland, such as Argveti, but the alleged federation of the two entities in post-Alexandrine times may reflect, in the words of Stephen Rapp, the early medieval sentiment of the Georgian élites that Kartli and Egrisi "could/should be politically unified".(Rapp 2003: 145, 417)

Archaeology Braund pp136-139
[2nd BC – affected by expanding Armenia (A. Minor). Pliny mentions Armeno-Chalybes (NH, IV, II-12, 29). Rise of Pontus]
1. [skeptoukhies/skeptouchoi]: [Vani] A wealthy elite had emerged, sharply differentiated from the ordinary Colchian. It was doubtless from this elite that the skeptoukhiai into which Colchis was divided, under the herditary monarch, down to Mithridates Eupator. An analogous process was in train at Sairkhe...[Braund 129-130]... …suggested before the Mithridatic period, in addition to mythical Aeetes. The first, King Saulaces, also seems mythical, though the elder Pliny presents him as a historical figure who found who found rich gold and silver deposits in his kingdom. The second can be located in third century, by the nature of his coinage, by which alone his name survives. He was named Akes, or conceivably Akos: the location and extent of his kingdom remains a matter of inference. It must be stressed that the decline that took place in Colchis from the early third century BC was very much a relative decline from the wealth and expansion of the fifth and fourth centuries in particular... Strabo: …After that [Aeetes’ day], when kings succeeded to power and held the land divided into skeptoukhiai, they fared ordinarily... kings continued to rule Colchis between Aeetes and Mithridates, but their success was hampered by the subdivision of the kingdom into lesser units called skeptoukhies, each apparently with its own ‘sceptre-bearr’. The title was probably a consequence of Persian influence in the region, for it was in regular use in Persian imperia administration. The Persian ‘sceptre-bearers’...[Braund 145] See also: [2]

Around 100 BC, much of Colchis was absorbed by Mithridates VI Eupator into his Kingdom of Pontus. For the empire Mithridates built in the Black Sea region, Colchis was a key possession which Eupator claimed had been bequeathed to him, like Paphlagonia and the Bosporus, "because of his munificence" (Justin, 38.7.10).[Braund 153, 155] The region offered the manpower as well as raw materials that the Pontic navy needed.[Braund 156-7, 158] The Mithridatic regime imposed a new unity in Colchis, but it did not eliminate local "sceptre-bearers, whom Mithridates ruled through his own appointee.[Braund 156] Mithridates's control of Colchis was not always secure. After his first war with the Roman Republic, around 85 BC, Mithridates had to deal with the disturbances among his remote subjects, including the Colchians, who returned to their allegiance only after the king acceded to their demand and installed his own son, also named Mithridates, as a king or viceroy of Colchis. Mithridates "the younger" was subsequently accused of treason and executed by his father,[Braund 157, Burney&Lang 194] following which trusted governors were sent over Colchis, one of them being Strabo's great-uncle Moaphernes from Amaseia.[Braund 154, Burney&Lang 194] Mithridates Eupator himself journeyed to Colchis, in the region of Phasis, following his brief second war with Rome in 81 BC.[Braund 157]

By the outset of the Third Mithridatic War, Mithridates's principal powerbase in Colchis was the Greek colony of Dioscurias, probably near modern-day Sukhumi. The city prospered through the Hellenistic period. Around 100 BC it issued bronze coinage, similar to those minted by its contemporaneous cities of the southern coast of the Black Sea.[Braund 158-9] Dioscurias was a major trading hub where many peoples interacted with each other; the Classical authors such as Timosthenes and Pliny the Elder report a multitude of languages spoken in the city.[Braund 159]

Pompey's campaign in Iberia and Colchis

The Mithridatic Wars put Colchis and Iberia on the map of Roman politics [Braund 152]. After initial defeat and failure to win support from his ally, Tigranes of Armenia, in 66 BC Mithridates left Armenia for Colchis, through Apsarus to Dioscurias, where he wintered [Braund 158]. Pompey did not directly pursue Mithridates in Colchis. Instead, he led his forces to the east, in the marchlands of Iberia and Albania, while Servilius's fleet was tasked with containing the fugitive Mithridates in the Cimmerian Bosporus [Braund 161]. The Classical authors present Pompey's expedition in the eastern South Caucasus as accidental or as a necessity due to warlike intentions of the Albanians and Iberians. As David Braund suggests, with Mithridates nearly completely defeated, in addition to military needs to secure the eastern flank, Pompey might also have had an incentive of being a pioneering conqueror and explorer [Braund 161-2].

The Iberians were allied with Tigranes of Armenia, for whom they fought at Tigranocerta in 69 BC and at Artaxata in 68 BC, but they did not owed allegiance to Mithridates, whom they tried to deny access to the neighboring region of Chotene in Armenia during his retreat from Pontus. After the capitulation of Tigranes, Artoces—the first king of Iberia known to the Classical sources by name and identifiable with Artag, the sixth king of Kartli of the medieval Georgian annals—attempted to win time by sending a negotiating party to Pompey as the Roman army approached in 65 BC, but Pompey quickly moved into Iberia and captured its stronghold "Harmozica", that is, Armaztsikhe at Mtskheta. Artoces was overtaken and defeated in a bloody encounter at the river Pelorus, in which, Plutarch claims, 9,000 Iberians were killed and 10,000 captured by the Romans. Artoces finally sued for peace and sent his children to Pompey as hostages, whereupon a peace treaty was concluded. Pompey then crossed into Colchis and advanced unopposed down the Phasis towards the Black Sea. The Colchian sceptuchos Olthaces and three Iberian hegemonoi were parts of the triumphal procession of Pompey in Rome, but then returned to their homelands at state expense. Artoces was mentioned among the subjugated eastern monarchs in an inscription set up at Rome to proclaim Pompey's achievements [reported by Diodorus Siculus; Braund 163].

Thus, by 64 BC, as Cyril Toumanoff puts it, "the whole of Caucasia entered the orbit of the nascent pax romana". While Artoces was apparently allowed to remain as king in Iberia [Braund 168], Pompey put his appointee Aristarchus in charge of Colchis. As his extant coins indicate, Aristarchus was "over Colchis", but he was not a king [Braund 168].

Roman Georgia

Roman authority was never firmly established in eastern Caucasus, its power being challenged by the growing strength of the Parthian Arsacids, new masters of Iran. The Caucasian rulers carried on their precarious existence through maneuvering between the two empires. Armenia, being in decline, became a principal bone of contention between Rome and Parthia and Albania began gravitating towards the Arsacids. In 36 BC, Pharnabazus, king of Iberia, had to be brought back to alliance by force of arms by Publius Canidius Crassus, sent by Mark Antony, member of the Roman Triumvirate, to the Caucasus as a preliminary to his invasion of Parthia (Cassius Dio 49.24). Pharnabazus then joined Crassus's expedition against the Albanians. This was Rome's last known direct military effort in Iberia. Emperor Augustus's funerary inscription, dated to c. AD 14, lists king of Iberia among those who sought Roman friendship "through ambassadors" [3].

In AD 35, Tiberius, reacting to a Parthian activity in Armenia, instigated Pharasmanes of Iberia to let the Alans, nomads from the north, attack the Parthian territories. Encouraged by Roman support, Pharasmanes then personally intervened in Armenia, installed his brother Mithridates as king (Dio, LVIII, 26, 1-4) and defeated Orodes, a Parthian pretender (Tacitus, Annales, VI, 33-35). In 51, Pharasmanes, seeking to bring Armenia more closely under his influence, had his son, Rhadamistus, kill Mithridates and take over the Armenian throne (Ann., XII, 45-47), leading to a diplomatic fallout with Rome and a Parthian invasion. Rhadamistus was eventually overthrown in favor of an Arsacid prince, Tiridates, and fled back to Iberia (Ann., XII, 49-51), where he was put to death by his father. Pharasmanes then reestablished ties with Rome, joined Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo's efforts in Armenia (Ann., XII, 37) and received a piece of that country (Ann., XIV, 26). The Treaty of Rhandeia of 63 left the Arsacids in possession of the Armenian throne, but a king of Armenia had to be approved by the Roman emperor. Border conflicts between Iberia and Armenia continued, occasionally involving the Alans, whom the Iberians deployed by opening the mountainous passes they controlled. A massive Alan raid on the Parthian vassal kingdoms of Armenia and Media in 72 is reported by Josephus and alluded in the medieval Armenian and Georgian sources.

AD 75 Greek stone inscription from Mtskheta mentions Mithridates, son of Pharasmanes, as "the friend of the Caesars" and the king of "the Roman-loving Iberians", for whom Vespasian fortified a citadel. The presence of a detachment of the Legio XII Fulminata in the Caucasus attested by an inscription at the Caspian sea (in modern Azerbaijan) drawn up between 83 and 96 AD in the reign of Domitian. Epigram of Amazaspos from Rome = Amazaspos, a brother of king Mithridates, appeared in the entourage of Trajan at Nisibis (where he died) around 115–116 (IGRR 1.192).

Armazi bilingual inscription: Graeco-Aramaic ('Armazic') inscription commemorates Serapetis, daughter of the Vitaxa Zeuaches, and wife of Iodmanganes, Master of the Court of King Xepharnuges of Iberia. The inscriptions also mention that Zeuaches and Iodmanganes's father Publicius Agrippa were contemporaries of Pharasmanes I. At the same time the 'Armazic' inscription on another stele from the same Grave 4 mentions Saragas, son of Zeuaches, as a contemporary of Mithridates I. Xepharnuges = Amazaspes I (Toumanoff, Early Kings, p. 15)

Aided by the Rome–Parthia rivalry and decline of Armenia, Iberia at its height, enjoyes access to the Black Sea. Arrian, touring the Euxine coastline in 131, records the Zydretae as subjects of the Iberian king Pharasmanes. Iberia’s control of Argueti corroborated by similarities of artifacts from Bori and Kldeeti with those of Armazi.(Melikishvili-361) 17. c. 134 – Pharasmanes organizes Alans’ attack on the frontiers of Rome and Parthia. The Arsacids buy peace by furnishing precious gifts, while Rome mounts an expedition, prompting the Alans to withdraw (Cassius Dio). Pharasmanes turns down Hadrian’s invitation to meet him in Cappadocia (Aelius Spartianus, Vita Hadr., XIII, 9). Pius reconciles with Pharasmanes who visits Rome and is treated with great honor (Cassius Dio Epitomae, LXIX, 15, 3). Commemorated in Marble slab of Pharasmanes. Pharasmanes instigates Alans to attack Armenia and Media, leading Vologases of Parthia to send ambassadors to Rome to make claims against Pharasmanes (Dio, LXIX, 15, 2 - Alemany, pp. 84-84).

End of the 2nd century-beginning of the 3rd century – hiatus in Iberia's recorded history. Following Armenia, a Arsacid line established in Iberia c. 189 (Toumanoff's chronology). Suny 15: "But even as Arsacids triumphed in the Caucasian kingdoms, that dynasty fell from power in its original homeland, Persia." Sassanids supplant Arsacids in 224, Sapor conquers Armenia 252, drives back Romans (capturing Valerian) 260. The Iberians and Albanians refuse to receive Sapur's letters and promise the Roman commanders their aid for liberation of Valerian from his captivity Valeriani Duo, 7. Shortly thereafter, Iberia, Armenia, Albania (and Machelonia) mentioned in Shapur’s bilingual inscription from Ka'ba-ye Zartosht as tributaries. This apparently provokes Sasanid reaction (Toumanoff, early kings, 18). Soon Iberia, Armenia, Albania (and Machelonia) mentioned in Shapur’s bilingual inscription from Ka'ba-ye Zartosht as tributaries. Trilingual inscription mentions Amazasp, king of Iberia, in the top of Sasanid hierarchy. A silver bowl from Armazi, inscribed in Aramaic script, apparently a gift from a pitiax of the Sasanian king Ardashir I (ca 224–242) for an Iberian pitiax. Roman-Persian war 296-299. Peace of Nisibis (299): Armenia and Iberia recognized as Rome’s protectorates = "king of Iberia should owe the tokens of his royal family to the Romans" [Peter the Patrician (Petrus Patricus, fr. 14).]

***

The Greek geographer, Strabo, writing in the 1st cetury AD, permit us to penetrate the military-political veneer of ancient Caucasian history to examine the structure of Colchian and Iberian societies. Strabo mentions Colchis's famed linen industry. But by his time, the period of greatness and prosperity associated with Mithridates Eupator had passed. Some ofthe tribes near the Hellenistic ports were living in squalor and filth-one recieved the name phtheirophagi ("lice-eaters")-but others reportedly used fleecy skins to pan for gold in the mountain streams; perhaps, as Strabo, suggests, the origin of the myth of the golden fleece. ---Suny 16

On the fall of Pompey, Pharnaces, son of Mithridates, took advantage of Caesar being occupied in Egypt, and reduced Colchis, Armenia, and some part of Cappadocia,--defeating Cn. Domitius Calvinus, whom Caesar subsequently sent against him. His triumph was, however, short-lived. (D. C. 42.45.) Under Polemon, the son and successor of Pharnaces, Colchis was part of the kingdom of Pontus and the Bosporus. (Strab. xi. pp. 493-499.) Lastly, from Theoph. Byzant. (Fragm. 4), it appears that in the eighth year of Justin, A.D. 572, the Colchians and Abasgi joined the king of Armenia as the allies of Chosroes in his war against Marcian. At this period the district itself, as already remarked, was generally known as Terra Lazica. (Menand. Prot. Fragm. 3 of his Continuation of the History of Agathias.) [4]

Colchis suffered from conflict, fragmentation, and civic decline which persisted down to the 4th century. A major factor behind that decline was the hostile relationship between various groups, especially between mountains and plains. In the middle of the 1st century, local hostilities proved disastrous for major urban centers. By AD 77 Dioscurias was deserted, while Pityus had been sacked by the Heniochi. Of the many towns flourishing along the River Phasis, only Surium survived into the middle of the 1st century. It was only with the emergence of a Lazic kingdom, fostered by external forces, that a measure of internal unity was recreated around the 4th century AD. ---Braund 63

Svans: Ptolemy's Soanoi (VII.4.9) & Souannokolkhoi (V.9.25), Strabo's (XI.2.19) Soanoi, Pliny's (VI.11.30) Suani, then as the Souanoi of Byzantine sources (Agathias: 4.9.1).

ამჟამად საქართველოს (უპირატესად აღმ. საქართველოს) სხვა და სხვა პუნქტიდან არამეული დამწერლობით შესრულებული სამ ათეულზე მეტი წარწერაა ცნობილი. ესენია: არმაზის ბილინგვა (II ს.), `გამარჯვების სტელა~, იგივე არმაზის მონოლინგვა (I ს.), ოქროს რვა საავგაროზე ფირფიტის (II ს.), ბერსუმა პიტიახშის ლანგრის (I ან III ს.), ოქროს ბეჭდისა (IV ს.) და ორი სამაჯურის (IV ს.) წარწერები არმაზისხევიდან; ორსენაკიანი ნაგებობის კედლის ორ ქვაზე (II-III სს.) და სარკოფაგის ვერცხლის ნივთებზე (III ს.) ამოკვეთილი წარწერები ბაგინეთიდან; ქვევრების პირებზე ამოკვეთილი წარწერები უფლისციხიდან (ძვ. w. I ს ან ახ. წ. II-III სს.) და ურბნისიდან (II-III სს.); ვერცხლის ოთხ ნივთზე ამოკაწრული წარწერები ზღუდერიდან; წარწერა ოქროს ფირფიტაზე (I ს.) ვანიდან; ვერცხლის თასზე ამოკვეთილი წარწერა ბორიდან (III ს.); საკურთხეველზე ამოკაწრული გრაფიტოები (II-III სს.) ძალისიდან და ძვლის სამკითხაო ფირფიტებზე დატანილი წარწერები (I ს.) დედოფლის გორიდან.

Iberian nobility & Roman citizenship