Colchis
In ancient geography, Colchis or Colchis (in laz and also in Georgian: კოლხეთი, k'olkhéti; Ancient Greek: Κολχίς, Kolchis, probably linked to khalkos, designating copper) was an ancient state, kingdom, and later region of present-day Georgia, which has played an important role in the formation of the ethnic culture of the Georgian people and its subgroups. The kingdom of Colchis contributed to the development of the medieval Georgian state after being unified with the kingdom of Iberia or Kartli. The term "Colchis" is used to refer to the group of ancient tribes that lived on the eastern coast of the Black Sea. Its strength and its state structures, already towards the II millennium BC. C., played an active role in Asia Minor.
Probably one of the oldest tribes in Georgia, the Colcos, settled in the region since the Bronze Age, a region that today corresponds to several Georgian provinces—Svaneti, Racha and Abkhazia, Imericia, Guria and Adjaria— and with the north-east of present-day Turkey —Trebizond and Artvin provinces—.
According to the descriptions of the classical authors, Colchis would be a city-state colonized by the Greeks on the shores of the Black Sea, in what today would be Abkhazia and Mingrelia, the westernmost regions of Georgia. The first kingdom of Colchis seems to have been destroyed by the Cimmerians and Scythians around 720 BC. C., and then integrated into the Persian Achaemenid Empire in the mid-VI century BCE. c.
According to Greek mythology, Colchis was the kingdom of Aeetes and his daughter Medea and the destination of Jason's Argonauts, or even the land of the Amazons. Jason, aboard his ship Argo, traveled there to steal the Golden Fleece, a gift from the gods that brought prosperity to whoever possessed it, a prized possession of Aeetes, which he had received when Phrixus arrived on the animal's back.. Medo conquered the country when he came from Asia to help his grandfather Aeetes, who had lost the kingdom to his own brother and, when Aeetes died, he annexed Colchis to the empire that he called Media.
Ancient geography
According to various classical authors, Colchis was a region bounded by the Pontus, the Black Sea, the Corax River (probably the present-day Bzybi River, in Abkhazia, Georgia), the Greater Caucasus mountain range (between Colchis and the kingdom of Sarmatia), Iberia, the Moschici Mountains (now the Lesser Caucasus Mountains), and Armenia. However, the southern border of Colchis varies depending on the author: thus Strabo makes the region begin at Trebizond, while Ptolemy, on the other hand, makes Pontus extend as far as the Phase river (present-day Rioni). It is now known that Pitsunda was the last Colchis city located in the north of the country.
It is in this region where the legends of Jason and the Argonauts are born, who went there in search of the Golden Fleece of the sorceress Medea. The name "Colchis" appears for the first time in the works of Aeschylus and Pindar. The oldest writers spoke of the region under the name of Aea (the residence of the mythical king Aeetes and his sister Circe). Flavio Arriano and Pliny the Elder outline, for their part, a list of the Colcian rivers: the Cariente, the Cobo, the Sigames, the Tarsuras, the Hiccup, the Astélefo and Crisórroa. The main cities of Colchis were Dioscuríade (called Sevastopolis by the Romans, today Sukhumi), on the shores of Pontus Euxino, Sarapana (now Chorapan), Phasis (now Poti), Pityus (now Pitsunda), Apsaros (now Gonio), Surium (now Vani), Archeopolis (now Nokalakevi), Macheiresis and Cyta, also known as Cutatisium (now Kutaisi), traditional birthplace of Medea.
History
Origins
At the end of the second millennium B.C. C., in Asia Minor, to the east of Ponto Euxino (Black Sea) and to the southwest of Transcaucasia, two kingdoms flourished, that of Diaoji and that of Cólquida (in Greek: Κολχίς Kolkhís).
Colchis was a kingdom that emerged from the confederation of the Colchic peoples around the IX century BC. The Colchians and their kingdom destroyed the Diaoji confederation (8th century BCE), putting them in direct contact with Urartu (possible ancestor of the Armenians). Numerous royal cities of Colchis are mentioned in the Urartu sources and it therefore seems that as early as the VIII century B.C. C. enjoyed a high degree of civilization. A single king ruled in Colchis, and in each province there was a governor.
It is there where the legend of the sorceress Medea and that of Jason and the Argonauts take place, who went there to look for the Golden Fleece; according to Herodotus, the Persians hold that the Greeks kidnapped Medea, the king's daughter, in retaliation for the earlier kidnapping of Io, and that they did not accept the ransom offered by the king. Aeschylus and Pindar were the first to mention Colchis, the which was sometimes given the name of Aea, which in turn was the name of the island where in the legend King Aeetes resided (eponym of these places and who, according to the Greeks, ruled Colchis) and his sister Circe, at the mouth of the river Fasis (today Rioni). This river was considered by the Greeks as the border between Europe and Asia, and its navigable waters allowed sailors to go up from the Black Sea to the east.
Around 750 B.C. c.-748 a. C. King Sarduri II of Urartu invaded the country and devastated the south. Around 747 B.C. c.-741 a. C. he returned and conquered the residence of Ildamuche, which was the seat of a provincial government. Shortly after, the attacks of the Cimmerians began, which the Georgians called Ghmir, and caused much damage and death. After them came the Scythians and the country was devastated.
Mountain Georgians moved down to the plain and the economy suffered, but the king's authority remained. Governors, called Sceptuchs, ruled the provinces. The Scythians and the Medes destroyed in 590 BC. C., and the Urartu site was occupied by Armenian tribes. This is how Colchis and Armenia became neighbors.
The king of Colchis, from the VI century BC. C. to the V century a. C., paid tribute to the Persian kings. The tribute consisted of the shipment every five years of one hundred young slaves and one hundred young slaves.
About 330 B.C. C., he was freed from the Persians by Alexander the Great.
From Greek colonization to the Roman Empire
From the 8th century BCE. C., the Milesians began to colonize the coast of Colchis. They founded Fasis (Poti), Guienos (Otxamtxira), Dioscuria, later called Sebastópolis, which is present-day Sukhumi, and one of unknown name in Adjaria. Greek sources mention the city of Kutaia (now Kutaisi), an important center of the kingdom and the traditional place of Medea's birth. Archaeological remains of a few other cities have been found, the main one being Vani.
In the V century a. C., the monetary economy arises in Colchis. Around the IV century BC. C., the eastern part fell under the domain of the kingdom of Iberia, and Cólquida happened to be called Egrisi in Georgian sources. This kingdom was not always ruled by a single king.
With the birth of the Farnavázidas dynasty (which will last until 93 BC), when it becomes the kingdom of Kartli or Iberia according to the Greeks. Iberia is then the possession of the dynasty of the Arsacids (93 to 32 BC) and later it will be directed again by the Farnavázidas.
Mithridates VI of Pontus (111 BC-63 BC) incorporated the territory and made his son Macares governor, but he tried to become independent and his father had him killed. Some aristocratic friends of the King of Pontus seized power. The year 66 a. C., the Romans expelled Mithridates, who fled to Colchis and then to the Cimmerian Bosphorus.
About 65 B.C. C. a local governor of Cólquida called Oltac, who resisted the Romans, was expelled by them, but other local governors held Rome. Pompey made a local aristocrat named Aristarchus (ruler of Colchis, according to the coins) governor of the district. Colchis now consisted only of the central part and the capital was Phasis (Poti). Fallen Pompey, Pharnaces II of Pontus, son of Mithridates, taking advantage of the fact that Caesar was busy in Egypt, seized Colchis, Armenia and part of Cappadocia (49 BC) defeating Gneo Domitius Calvin, but his success was brief.. This same character was sent by César against Farnaces and he defeated him in 47 BC. C. Polemón, successor to Pharnaces, was king of Pontus and the Bosporus, including Cólquida. When the kingdom of Pontus disappeared, it was incorporated into Rome as part of the province of Galatia. Roman garrisons were established in the coastal towns.
Dioscuria, the capital, which was on the Eusian coast, was renamed Sebastopolis under Roman rule. Other cities were Sarapana (present-day Scharapani), Surium, Arqueopolis, Macheiresis, and Cyta or Cutatisium (present-day Kutaisi).
In the year 69, there was an internal revolution under the leadership of Anicetes, and the rebels reached Trebizond, where they defeated the Romans and burned their ships. The emperor sent Virdio Geminio with an army that defeated Anicetes. He took refuge with the local prince of Sedokhez, who handed him over to the Romans. Since then the Roman presence was reinforced and the country was subjugated until the II century, when the local princes of the Lazes, Apxiles o Apsides, Abasgues or Abascis, Samiges and other minors became practically independent. The principality of the Lazes conquered the other principalities between the III and IV d. C. giving rise to the kingdom of Lázica, disappearing in the same century the presence of Roman garrisons that existed until after the year 300.
At the origins of Georgia
After becoming part of the Roman province of Pontus under Trajan, it was renamed Georgia after the Sasanian conquest. Christianity makes its appearance in 311, thanks to Saint Nina the Illuminator (martyred slave). In 337, after the conversion of King Mirian III of Iberia (265-342) and his wife Nana, Christianity became the official religion of the kingdom.
In the year 446 (or 460), Vakhtang I wolf-headed (446-502) founded the Bagratid dynasty and chose the city of Tiflis as the capital, whose name is due to its hot springs. Vakhtang I liberated the country from the Sassanids and extended his domain to all of Transcaucasia (present-day Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan). Furthermore, he proclaimed the autocephaly of the Georgian Church. But finally he was defeated by the Persians and, in 502, Georgia was divided into two: Eastern Georgia, which was annexed to the kingdom of Kartli, and Western Georgia, which corresponds to Colchis, which took the name of Kingdom of Lazica.
In the VI century, the Persians abolished the monarchy of Karthlia, but with the help of the Byzantine Empire they were driven out and the aznauris (nobles) reestablished the administration and power of the kingdom. In 654, the Persians and Byzantines disputed over the region, which was eventually conquered by the Georgians in the late 8th century span>.