Gubazes II.

Gubazes II was king of Lasika from 541 to 555. He should not be confused with a Lazenkönig of the same name from the 5th century, who ruled from approx. 456 to 466.

Gubazes II was of Roman descent on his mother's side; his father must have been the Lazenkönig Tzath , who visited Constantinople in 522 , was baptized there and married by Emperor Justin I to the noble Roman Valeriana. Gubazes came to power at the time of the Eastern Roman occupation of Lasikas. In 541 he drove them out of the country with the help of the Persians . In 547/548 he learned of a Persian assassination plan and turned to the Eastern Romans for support. Years of armed conflict over Lasika followed (see Roman-Persian Wars ). In 554 he complained to Emperor Justinian I about three Eastern Roman commanders. In 555 he was then killed by two of these commanders (Martinus and Rusticus). He was succeeded by his younger brother, who, like his father, was named Tzath.

literature

• John Robert Martindale: Gubazes. In: The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire (PLRE). Volume 3A, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1992, ISBN 0-521-20160-8 , pp. 559-560.
• Heinz Fähnrich: History of Georgia from the beginnings to Mongol rule. Shaker, Aachen 1993, p. 88 ff.