Gurgenes

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Gurgenes was king of the Caucasian Iberia in the 6th century AD .

The tradition about his person is fragmentary. Prokopios of Caesarea reports of his request for help to the Eastern Roman Emperor Justin I against the Sasanid king Kavadh I , who wanted to convert the Christian Iberians to Zoroastrianism . The exact time is disputed, but it is probably around the year 526. The dispute thus flowed into the longstanding conflict between Eastern Stream and Persia (see Roman-Persian Wars ). The fighting continued even under Justin's successor Justinian I , before the so-called Eternal Peace was concluded in 532 (which only lasted until 540). Gurgenes had fled to the Eastern Roman court in Constantinople . Some of his loyal followers later returned to Iberia, Gurgenes stayed in Constantinople. His eldest son Peranios is named by Prokopios.

Parts of the research identify Gurgenes with the legendary Vaḫtang Gorgasal of the Georgian and Armenian tradition.

literature

  • David Braund: Georgia in antiquity. A history of Colchis and Transcaucasian Iberia, 550 BC-AD 562. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1994, pp. 282ff.

Remarks

  1. ^ Prokopios, Histories 1,12.
  2. ↑ See Henning Börm : Prokop and the Persians. Stuttgart 2007, p. 328.
  3. ↑ David Braund: Georgia in antiquity. A history of Colchis and Transcaucasian Iberia, 550 BC-AD 562. Oxford 1994, pp. 287ff.
  4. ^ Prokopios, Historien 1,22.
  5. ^ C. Toumanoff : Studies in Christian Caucasian History. Washington 1963, pp. 362-378. B. Martin-Hisard argues against this: Le roi Vaxtang Gorgasal. In: Temps, mémoire, tradition au Moyen Âge: Aix-en-Provence, 4-5 June 1982. Aix-en-Provence 1983, pp. 207-242.
personal data
SURNAME Gurgenes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION King of Iberia
DATE OF BIRTH 5th century or 6th century
DATE OF DEATH 6th century