Alania
State | Defunct
676 CE to 1239 CE
Alania is a medieval kingdom of the Alans (proto-Ossetians)that flourishes in the Northern Caucasus, roughly in the location of latter-day Circassia and modern North Ossetia–Alania, from the 8th or 9th century until its destruction by the Mongol invasion in 1238-39.
Its capital is Maghas, and it controls a vital trade route through the Darial Pass.
Related Events
Showing 2 events out of 2 total
The queen dowager Mariam had paid a visit in 1030 to the new emperor Romanos III, negotiated a peace treaty, and returned with the high imperial title of curopalates for her son in 1032.
Mariam also brings him an imperial princess, Helena, as wife.
Helena is a daughter of Basil Argyros, brother of the emperor Romanos, and the marriage is a diplomatic effort to establish a strategic association.
However, Helena's death shortly afterwards at Kutaisi presents the Georgian court with the opportunity to pursue yet another diplomatic initiative through Bagrat's marriage with Borena, daughter of the king of Alania, a Christian country in the North Caucasus.
The childhood of the future George II of Georgia had coincided with the civil war between his father, Bagrat IV, and the rebellious Georgian feudal lord Liparit, who had succeeded in temporarily driving Bagrat into the protection of Constantinople, and had crowned George as king at the Ruisi Cathedral between 1050 and 1053, under the regency of Bagrat's sister Gurandukht.
In fact, Liparit became the master of nearly half of the Georgian kingdom and the most powerful dynast in the country.
By 1060, Bagrat IV had been able to secure the throne and made George his heir apparent, to whom the emperor in Constantinople had attached the title of curopalates.
In 1070, Prince George, at the head of a combined Georgian-Alan army, had inflicted a decisive defeat on the Shaddadid emir of Arran, Fadl II, and ravaged his possessions at Ganja.
George succeeds as King of Georgia upon the death of his father in 1072 and receives the title of nobelissimos and later that of sebastos from the emperor.