Tbilisi Georgia

The founding of the Sassanian Empire in 224, in replacing the weak Parthian realm with a strong, centralized state, had changed the political orientation of Kartli, known to Classical authors as Caucasian Iberia, away from Rome.

Iberia became a tributary of the Sassanian state during the reign of Shapur I (241-272).

Relations between the two countries seem to have been friendly at first, as Iberia cooperated in Persian campaigns against Rome, and the Iberian king Amazasp III (260-265) was listed as a high dignitary of the Sassanian realm, not a vassal who had been subdued by force of arms.

But the aggressive tendencies of the Sassanians were evident in their propagation of Zoroastrianism, which was probably established in Iberia between the 260s and 290s.

However, in the Peace of Nisibis (298) while Rome acknowledged their reign over the area, it had recognized Mirian III, the first of the Chosroid dynasty, as King of Iberia.

Roman predominance proves crucial, since King Mirian II and leading nobles convert to Christianity around 317.

The event is related with the mission of a Cappadocian woman, Saint Nino, who since 303 had preached Christianity in the Georgian kingdom of Iberia (Eastern Georgia).

The religion is to become a strong tie between Georgia and the Roman Empire and have a large scale impact on the state's culture and society.

The city of Tbilisi on the Kura River is founded by king Vakhtang I of Iberia.

Its location gives it control of the trade routes between western and eastern Transcaucasia.

According to an old legend, the present-day territory of Tbilisi was covered by forests as late as 458.

One widely accepted variant of the legend of Tbilisi's founding states that King Vakhtang went hunting in the heavily wooded region with a falcon (sometimes the falcon is replaced with either a hawk or other small birds of prey in the legend).

The King's falcon allegedly caught or injured a pheasant during the hunt, after which both birds fell into a nearby hot spring and died from burns.

King Vakhtang became so impressed with the hot springs that he decided to cut down the forest and build a city on the location.

The name Tbilisi derives from the Old Georgian word "Tpili", meaning warm.

The name 'Tbili' or 'Tbilisi' ('warm location') was therefore given to the city because of the area's numerous sulfuric hot springs that came out of the ground.

Additionally, archaeological studies of the region have revealed that the territory of Tbilisi had at least some human presence as early as the fourth millennium BCE.

Arabs capture Kartli-Iberia's capital city of Tbilisi in 645, but the kingdom retains considerable independence under local Arab rulers.

…Iberia remains loyal to Constantinople.

Tbilisi to be in Persian hands.

The Armenian prince Ashot I in 813 becomes the first of the Bagrationi family to rule Georgia.

Ashot's reign begins a period of nearly a thousand years during which the Bagratids, as the house is known, rule at least part of what is now Georgia.

Western and eastern Georgia are united under Bagrat IV (r. 1027-72).

The possessions of David III of Tao after his murder by his nobles in 1000, had passed to Emperor Basil II according to the previous agreement.

Gurgen, now reigning as King of Kings of the Georgians in parts of the southwestern Kartlian lands, had met with Basil but, unable to prevent the annexation of David’s realm, had been forced to recognize the new borders.

On this occasion, Gurgen’s son Bagrat had been bestowed with the imperial title of kouropalates, and Gurgen with that of magistros, actually competing titles since the dignity conferred upon the son is more esteemed than that granted to the father.

This was done by the emperor, as the Georgian chronicles relate, to turn Gurgen against Bagrat, but he seriously miscalculated.

Later the same year, Gurgen had attempted to take David Kuropalates’ succession by force, but he had to retreat in the face of the Byzantine commander Nikephoros Ouranos, dux of Antioch.

Gurgen dies in 1008, and Bagrat succeeds him as King of Kings of the Georgians, becoming thus the first king of a unified realm of Abkhazia and Kartli (in their broadest sense these two include Abkhazia proper/Abasgia, Egrisi/Samegrelo, Imereti, Svaneti, Racha-Lechkhumi, Guria, Ajaria, Kartli proper, Hither Tao, Klarjeti, Shavsheti, Meskheti, and Javakheti) what is to be henceforth known as Sakartvelo—"all-Georgia".

Liparit IV, Duke of Kldekari, had appeared on the political scene of Georgia in the late 1020s when he, as a holder of the fortress of Kldekari and later as a commander-in-chief of the royal armies, had proven himself as the defender of the boy king Bagrat IV and his regent, Dowager Queen Mariam.

His successful resistance to the invading imperial troops in 1028 and a victorious campaign against the Shaddadid dynasty of Arran in 1034 have made Liparit the most powerful noble in Georgia.

In 1038, Liparit had been on the verge of capturing the Georgian city of Tbilisi, which has been under Muslim sway for centuries, but the Georgian nobles, fearing his growing power, had thwarted the plan and persuaded the king to make peace with the emir of Tbilisi.

As a result, Liparit has turned into a sworn enemy of Bagrat and begins actively cooperating with foreign powers for vengeance.

In 1039, he had pledged his support to Bagrat’s half-brother Demetrius who enters Georgia with an imperial army to seize the crown.

David IV (called the Builder, r. 1099-1125) initiates the Georgian golden age by driving the Turks from the country and expanding Georgian cultural and political influence southward into Armenia and eastward to the Caspian Sea.

This era of unparalleled power and prestige for the Georgian monarchy concludes with the great literary flowering of Queen Tamar's reign (1184-1212).

At the end of this period, Georgia is well known in the Christian West (and relied upon as an ally by the Crusaders).

Outside the national boundaries, several provinces are dependent to some degree on Georgian power: the Trabzon region on the southern shore of the Black Sea, regions in the Caucasus to the north and east, and southern Azerbaijan.

The Mongol invasion in 1236 marks the beginning of a century of fragmentation and decline.