Tiflis > Tbilisi Georgia

Vakhtang is reported by the eighth or eleventh century LIfe of Vakhtang Gorgasali to have succeeded his father King Mihrdat (V) at the age of seven.

His mother, a Christianized Persian Sagdukht, assumed regency in Vakhtang's minority.

The author then describes the grave situation in which Iberia was at that time, troubled by the Sassanids' Zoroastrianizing efforts and a ravaging raid by the "Ossetians" from the north, this letter being a possible reference to the invasion by the Huns (which may have included Alans) through the Caspian Gates mentioned by Priscus.

At the age of sixteen, Vakhtang is said to have led a victorious retaliatory war against the "Ossetians", winning a single combat against the enemy’s giant and relieving his sister Mirandukht from captivity.

At the age nineteen, Vakhtang married Balendukht, "daughter" of the Great King Hormizd (apparently Hormizd III, r. 457–459).

Soon, upon the Great King's request, Vakhtang took part in the campaign in "India", probably in Peroz's abortive expedition against the Hephthalites in the 460s and, and against the Roman Empire in 472, in which Vakhtang is reported to have gained control of Egrisi (Lazica) and Abkhazia (Abasgia).

The Kingdom of Iberia, whose ruler, Stephen, had reversed his father’s pro-Roman politics to pro-Iranian and, through loyalty to his Sassanid suzerains, has succeeded in reuniting Iberia under his sway, is he next objective of the Turkic-Constantinopolitan offensive.

In the words of Movses Kagankatvatsi, the Khazars "encircled and besieged the famous and great sybaritic trade city of Tbilisi," whereupon they were joined by Emperor Heraclius with his mighty army.

Heraclius and Tong Yabghu (called Ziebel in the Roman sources) meet under the walls of Narikala.

The yabgu rides up to the emperor, kisses his shoulder and makes a bow.

In return, Heraclius hugs the barbarian ruler, calls him his son, and crowns him with his own diadem.

During the ensuing feast the Khazar leaders receive ample gifts in the shape of earrings and clothes, while the yabghu is promised the hand of the emperor's daughter, Eudoxia Epiphania.

The siege drags on without much progress, punctuated by frequent sallies on the part of the besieged; one of these claims the life of their king, who is taken captive in the fighting and flayed alive on the ordes of Heraclius.

After two months, the Khazars retreat to the steppe, promising to return by the autumn.

Tong Yabghu leaves young Böri Shad, either his son or nephew, in charge of the remaining forty thousand which are to assist Heraclius during the siege.

Before long these depart as well, leaving the Romans to continue the siege alone and prompting jeers from the besieged.

When the Georgians ironically refer to the Emperor as "the goat," hinting at his incestuous marriage, Heraclius recalls a passage from the Book of Daniel about the two-horned ram overthrown by the one-horned goat.

He interprets this as a good sign and strikes southward against Persia.

Tong Yabghu, after the triumph of Heraclius, hastens to resume the siege of Tiflis and successfully storms the city in winter.

Although the Georgians surrender without further resistance, the city is looted, its citizens massacred, and its Persian defenders executed or mutilated.

The Persian governor and the Georgian prince are tortured to death in the presence of Tong Yabghu.

He appoints governors (tuduns) to manage various tribes under his overlordship.

The Mongols make their first appearance in the Georgian possessions when this latter kingdom is still at its zenith, dominating most of the Caucasus.

First contact occurs early in the fall of 1220, when approximately twenty thousand Mongols led by Subutai and Jebe, with the consent of Genghis Khan, proceed west on a reconnaissance mission.

They thrust into Armenia, at this time under Georgian authority, and defeat some sixty thousand Georgians and Armenians commanded by King George IV "Lasha" of Georgia and his atabek (tutor) and spasalar (commander-in-chief) Iwane Mkhargrdzeli at the Battle of Khunan on the Kotman River.

George is severely wounded in the chest.

The Mongol commanders, however, are not inclined to conquer the Caucasus at that time and turn back south to Hamadan, only to return in force in January 1221.

...overcome (if momentarily) Tiflis and ...

...Tiflis (now Tbilisi, Georgia), ...

The Turks, threatened by Russian penetration into Iranian territory adjacent to Turkey, respond by moving into western and northwestern Iran and seizing Tiflis (Tbilisi), the capital of Georgia.

...Georgia, ...

Heraclius, born in Telavi, the center of Kakheti region of Georgia, is a son Teimuraz II of Kakheti and his wife Tamar, daughter of Vakhtang VI of Kartli.

His childhood and early teens coincided with the occupation of Kakheti by the Ottomans from 1732 until 1735, when they were ousted from Georgia by Nader Shah of Iran, in his two successive campaigns of 1734 and 1735, by which the latter had quickly reestablished Persian rule over Georgia.

Teimuraz had sided with the Persians and was installed as a Persian wali (governor) in neighboring Kartli.

Teimuraz and Heraclius had remained loyal to the shah, partly in order to prevent the comeback of the rival Mukhrani branch, whose fall early in the 1720s had opened the way to Teimuraz's accession in Kartli.

From 1737 to 1739, Heraclius had commanded a Georgian auxiliary force during Nader’s expedition in India and gained a reputation of an able military commander.

He then served as a lieutenant to his father and assumed the regency when Teimuraz was briefly summoned for consultations in the Persian capital of Isfahan in 1744.

During his father's absence, Heraclius defeated a coup attempt by the rival Georgian prince Abdullah Beg of the Mukhrani dynasty, and helped Teimuraz suppress the aristocratic opposition to the Persian hegemony led by Givi Amilakhvari.

As a reward, Nader had granted the kingship of Kartli to Teimuraz and of Kakheti to Heraclius in 1744, and arranged the marriage of his nephew Ali-Qoli Khan, who eventually would succeed him as Adil Shah, to Teimuraz’s daughter Kethevan, yet, both Georgian kingdoms had remained under heavy Persian tribute until Nader was assassinated in 1747.

Teimuraz and Heraclius tske advantage of the ensuing political instability in Persia to assert their independence and expel Persian garrisons from all key positions in Georgia, including Tbilisi.

In close cooperation with one another, they manage to prevent a new revolt by the Mukhranian supporters fomented by Ebrahim Khan, brother of Adil Shah, in 1748.

They conclude an anti-Persian alliance with the khans of Azerbaijan, who are particularly vulnerable to the aggression from Persian warlords and agree to recognize Heraclius's supremacy in eastern Transcaucasia.