History Research, ISSN 2159-550X

May 2013, Vol. 3, No. 5, 370-375 D DAVID PUBLISHING

The Dates of the Reign of Vakhtang Gorgasali

Manana Sanadze
University of Georgia, Tbilisi, Georgia

Georgian historiography dates the reign of King Vakhtang Gorgasali (Gorg-a-sarwolf-head in Persian) to the 2nd
half of 5th century. The king is considered to have died in 502 in a fight with Persians. Cyril Toumanoff has expressed
an opinion about the identification of Vakhtang Gorgasali with the King of Kartli Gurgen, mentioned by Procopius of
Caesarea in 523. Accordingly, he believed that in case of such an identification, Vakhtang Gorgasali should have
died in 527 during the big Persian invasion of Georgia. We have noticed that the author of the martyrdom of David
and Constantine, who were based on the ancient chronicle (Dzveli UtskebaniOld Story) and who created his
hagiographic work in the middle of 11th century, made a big mistake: erroneously, due to the similarity of names,
he identified the sons of Georgian King Vakhtang Gorgasali Darchil and Mihrdat and the invasion of Persians in
their reign with the sons of the ruler of Georgia (Kartli) Stephanoz III Mihrdat and Archil and invasions of Arabs
and Marwan ibn Muhammad (Murvan QruMarwan the Deaf) that took place two centuries later, in the 30s of
8th century. Consequently, the author related the martyrdom on the background of Arab invasions. The fact that
according to the author of the martyrdom, the sons of Vakhtang Gorgasali were in West Georgia, namely Anakopia,
and fought the so-called Arabs there, makes it clear that the historical developments were taking place in the period
of the Great Persian-Byzantine War of 542-562. In the title of the work it is mentioned that the invasion, during
which the martyrdom of David and Constantine took place, happened in the vicinity of the death of Vakhtang
Gorgasali. Thus, it becomes clear that King Vakhtang Gorgasali could not have died during the Persian-Byzantine
War of 502-505 and that the Great Invasion of Persians described in the Georgian Chronicles, in which Vakhtang
Gorgasali was wounded, could only have happened in 527. The king must have died during a war between Persia
and Byzantium in 527-532, more specifically in 527 when Persians invaded Georgia. Proceeding from the above,
the surmise of Cyril Toumanoff regarding the death of Vakhtang Gorgasali in 527 becomes more convincing and
well-grounded. Since it is known that King Vakhtang Gorgasali lived 60 years, the date of his birth can be presumed
to be 466-467. This gives us an opportunity to establish a more precise date of reign of Vakhtangs father-Mihrdat and
his grandfather-Archil. The dates of reign we have put forward for kings Mihrdat and Archil (Archil430-463,
Mihrdat463-473) correspond to the information of the Assyrian version of the Life of Peter the Iberian.

Keywords: Vakhtang Gorgasali, Kings of Georgia IV-VI cc, Georgian Chronicles, Aspagur (Varaz-Bakur), Peter
Iberian, Gurgen the King of Iberia, King of Kartli Mihrdat, King Darchil

Introduction

Chronology of kings is one of the central issues in the history of ancient and early feudal Georgia.
Restoring the correct picture of the political history of the country depends a lot on a somewhat precise

Manana Sanadze, Prof. Dr., Department of history, University of Georgia, Tbilisi, Georgia
 THE DATES OF THE REIGN OF VAKHTANG GORGASALI 371

determination of the chronology of the kings. The chronology of Vakhtang Gorgasali has one of the key places
in this regard. Some Georgian and non-Georgian scholars have made an attempt to determine the approximate
dates of reign of the great king who ruled Georgia on the verge of the late ancient and the early feudal epochs.
Research into the timeline has been done on various levels, starting from a more superficial level and ending
with profound studies. Nonetheless, the issue is still widely debated, partially due to scarcity in the source
studies base, and partially due to the inadequate critical analysis of the existing sources.
The objective of the current article is to offer a different perspective on the period of rule of King
Vakhtang Gorgasali and hence set the correct record of the chronology of Christian Georgian kings of IV-VI cc.
The author is planning to present her/his point of view based on the new interpretation of data from sources
related to the dating of King Vakhtang Gorgasali.
As we know (Ammianus Marcellinus), by the year 368, for a short while Kartli was split into two parts
again, between the Sassanid Persia and the Roman Empire; the left bank of Mtkvari (Kura), ruled by Mtskheta
King Aspagur (Asparug), fell under Persian influence, while the right bank of Mtkvari-Gogarena (Gugark)
ruled by Saurmag, fell under the general Roman jurisdiction, more specificallyit was subdued by Armenia.
In the Georgian Chronicles Aspagur is referred to as Varaz-Bakur. As we have shown in our monograph,
this is the result of the duplication of the line of kings and the reading of Varaz-Asparug (pagur) as Varaz
Bakur; on the other hand, as the powerful, boar Bakur, Varaz-Bakur was identified with Bosorg Bakur, i. e.,
Great Bakur who was the grandfather of Peter the Iberian on his mothers side. This resulted in the omission of
Great Bakur from the list of kings.
We have a few footings to determine the chronology of kings from Asparug till the reign of Vakhtang
Gorgasali: Trdat the son of Rev, Great Bakur (omitted in the Georgian Chronicles due to his identification with
Aspagur, who had turned into Varaz-Bakur), Parsman, Mihrdat (Bosmariosthe father of Peter the Iberian),
Archil I (the grandfather of Vakhtang Gorgasali), Mihrdat (the father of Vakhtang Gorgasali): The first footing
is the King of Kartli Parsman V, who had to escape from Arcadius, the Emperor of Eastern Rome (395-408)
and leave the capital as soon as the Emperor married Eudociathe woman that Parsman V had been dating
before the marriage in question. Eudocia and Arcadius married in April, 395, which means that Parsman was in
Georgia that year and he could have become king if not the same year, then at least soon after. Arcadius himself
could have helped him ascend the throne. In any case, The Georgian Chronicles emphasizes the closeness of
Parsman V to the emperor and the assistance rendered by the latter to Parsman V in his fight against Persians.
Parsman, according to the Georgian Chronicles, ruled Kartli for a short while and passed away shortly after.
Thus, he presumably reigned in 395/97-400/402. In the thirty-year period, from 368 till 397, apart from
Asparug there were two other kings in power; these were Trdat and Great Bakur. At first glance, it might look
like too many kings for a relatively short period of time, yet, the number of kings will no longer seem
suspicious if we consider that during the thirty-year period, one segment of Kartli was split into two parts,
located on the different banks of Mtkvari and that parallel kings ruled Kartli on these two banks (e. g., in
historiography Trdat is identified with Saurmag of Ammianus Marcellinus). The number of kings will look
even more legitimate if we take into account the fact that in the Sassanid branch (Khosroians) reigning Kartli,
the thrown was not passed on from father to son, but to the eldest person in family (the brothers of the king),
which explains why kings ascended thrones at quite an old age.
The second chronological footing is the date of birth and the taking hostage of Peter the Iberian. Based on
the Asyrian Life of Peter Iberian and some other Byzantine sources the birthday of Peter is considered to be in
372 THE DATES OF THE REIGN OF VAKHTANG GORGASALI

411/12, while the year when he was taken hostage-423/424, since it is well-known that Peter the Iberian was
taken hostage by Theodosius the Younger (408-450) when the former was 12 years old. Bosmariosthe father
of Peter the Iberian, the same King Mihrdat, who reigned after Parsman V(Bosmarios means Bozorg-Great
Mihr-Mitra in Persian) personally accompanied his son while sending him hostage to the emperor; thus by 424
he was still on the throne of Kartli. According to the Georgian Chronicles, Persians took hostage of King
Mihrdat and took him to their land, where he passed away. The same chronicle relates that before the death of
Mihrdat in Persia, and hence the selection of a new king in Kartli, the throne of Kartli was empty for three
years. And after the death of Mihrdat, noblemen enthroned his nephew Archil there. Thus, it will not be a big
mistake to regard 425/27as the time when Mihrdat was taken hostage, 428-430as the kingless period and
the vicinity of 430the time when Archil was seated on the throne. The dates above can be substantiated by
the strict policy of Iran in the South Caucasus, which was revealed through an aspiration to bring local
governments to an end; in 428 Iran abolished the kingdom in Armenia. This is the time when the King of Kartli
Mihrdat, the father of Peter the Iberian, must have been taken hostage.
Archil must have reigned for quite a long time, because in his reign Kartli had three different archbishops,
with the forth starting to serve still in the reign of Archil. Thus, the reign of the king is supposed to have lasted
for at least 25-30 years, till 455/460. After this, Mihrdat, the son of Archil and the father of Vakhtang-ascended
the throne. Mihrdat was already the king when Vakhtang was born, while at the time of the death of Mihrdat,
Vakhtang was seven years old. Thus, the reign of Mihrdat is supposedly no shorter than 8 years. This way,
Vakhtang could not have been born before 462. Such dating is completely different from the versions spread in
the Georgian historiography dealing with the life time of King Vakhtang. Indeed, the date of the death of King
Vakhtang is generally believed to be 502. (Vakhtang Goiladze even mentions 491 as the death date). In such a
case it turns out that Vakhtang was born in 442 (correspondingly, Vakhtang Goiladze points out 431), since,
based on The Georgian Chronicles Vakhtang was 60 years old when he died. Proceeding from all the above
mentioned it becomes clear that the version of the date of birth of King Vakhtang (442), so far prevailing in
Georgian hagiography is absolutely groundless. Changing the date (not earlier than 462) makes a significant
change in terms of dating Vakhtangs death, which, therefore, cannot be earlier than 522; it also gives us a
different perspective on the identification of the King of Kartli Gurgen, mentioned in the events of 523 in the
work of Procopius of Caesarea. If Vakhtang is still alive by 523, then we are led to believe that Gurgen, the
King of Iberia, who visits the Byzantine Caesar, is actually Vakhtang himself. Seemingly, similar logics led the
American historian Cyril Toumanoff to the same conclusion. The point is that the Persian word Gurgen carries
the meaning of the wolf; the pronunciation of Vakhtangs nickname Gorgasali is a distorted version of the
Persian go/urg-a-sarhaving the head of a wolf: gurgwolf, aa vowel connecting two words and
sar/serhead; (compare with the Georgian word - (ser-i, hill). R and n are both nasal sounds and
are phonetically equivalent in pronunciation. Thus, Greeks could have interpreted Gurg-(a-s) a/er as Gurgen;
especially as under Persian influence the name Gurgen was familiar to them, in so far as it was a popular name
for people of Georgian or Armenian origin.
In which battle with Persians could Vakhtang have perished, especially as the Georgian Chronicles
presents large-scale military operations? Hostilities of the scale in those times were only those of the Persian
invasion of Egrisi in 527, which was carried out via Kartli. The Persian invasion followed the visit of Gurgen
(the same Vakhtang) and Egrisi ruler Tsate to the Byzantine Caesar. The time of Vakhtangs death-527 allows
for determining the precise date of his birth, which is 467. This, in its turn, give us an opportunity to come up
 THE DATES OF THE REIGN OF VAKHTANG GORGASALI 373

with more precise dates for the death of his grandfather Archil and the enthronement of his father Mihrdat.
Vakhtang was four years younger than his elder sister Khvaramze. Accordingly, Khvaramze must have been
born in 463. Mihrdat was not yet a king when Khvaramze was born. This can be concluded from the following:
when Mihrdat married Sagdukht, as a prince he was given the saeristavo (administrative unit in old Georgia) of
Samshvilde by Archil. Mihrdat and his wife lived in Samshvilde for a while, where Sagdukht built the Sioni of
Samshvilde. We should consider that Khvaramze, the first child, was born to the couple in Samshvilde. This
point is further substantiated by another circumstance: in the Georgian chronicles there is no reference to
Khvaramze having a nurse at all, while in case of Vakhtang and his younger sister Mirandukht, the chronicles
offer a detailed account about which families accepted them to raise them up. It is only natural that the story
about which family adopted Khvaramze to bring her up, while her father Mihrdat was just a prince at that time,
would not make a story of current importance; however which families would take in and raise Vakhtang and
his younger sister Mirandukht as the children of king Mihrdatwas already an issue of domestic policy. Hence,
Mihrdat must have ascended the throne in 464-466; this is also the time of the death of Mihrdats father Archil.
We would like to touch on the etymology of Vakhtangs name as well. As we know, according to the
Georgian Chronicles, the full name of Vakhtang is Varan Khosrow Tang. Khosrow Tang can be found in
other Georgian sources as well (The Conversion of Kartli). The name comes from a distorted form Khosrow
Tagan, which means a person who belongs to the Khorsrow (Sassanid) family and refers to the offspring of
the Sassanid dynasty on the whole. As to the Persian name Varan, it is the same Guaram of the later period.
Thus, the name Vakhtang is the result of using an acronym while entering the full name Va (ran) Kh (osrow)
Tang in the text and the subsequent failure to understand the acronym. This accounts for the absence of the
name Vakhtang among Vakhtangs offspring for centuries, while the name Guaram was quite widespread.
After Vakhtang, starting from 527, Kartli was ruled by the eldest son of Vakhtang from his first marriage
(to Persian princess Balandukht) Darchil/Archil II (nickname Dachi). Vakhtang had the son approximately at
the age of twenty two/twenty five. This way, at the time of enthronement, Dachi (in this context we do not
mean ascension to throne at the age of five) was about 35-38 years old. The Georgian Chronicles seems to
reflect the Greek-Persian permanent ceasefire (532), in the form of Vakhtangs will, according to which three
South-Western provinces of the Kartli Kingdom: the saeristavos of Tsunda, Klarjeti and Odzrkhi came under
the Byzantine protectorate. The governor of this part of Kartli was Vakhtangs son from his wife Helen (who
was from a Byzantine royal family), the younger brother of King Darchil (Dachi)-Mihrdat, the same Mihr//Mir
(Mitra), who had the title of a Byzantine patrician (Head of Eristavs, Erismtavari, according to the
Georgian Chronicles. This seems to be the Georgian translation of the Byzantine patrician).
Vakhtangs son King Darchil and his half brother patrician Mihrdat (Mihr), fought on the Byzantine side
during the Persian-Byzantine War, which is best known as the great wartime and which took place in 541-562;
the war was waged on the territory of Georgia starting from 542.
A hagiographic work devoted to the martyrdom of princes of Argveti: David and Constantinein the later
metaphrasing of which Persians were turned into Arabs, while the fire worshippers and the magiinto Muslims.
(However, Persians, fire worshippers and the magi have been preserved in the text as well) offers us
information on the participation of Darchil and Mihrdat in the war.
In the battle against Persians at Anakopia, King Darchil and his brother Mihrdat suffered defeats and the
king was killed. This old story (mid 6th century) was discovered in the middle of the 11th century and was
transferred into the hagiographical work at the same time. While at that time Persia did not exist at all and for a
374 THE DATES OF THE REIGN OF VAKHTANG GORGASALI

long time the name Persia was used in the Georgian society as the synonym of Muslim and Arab, and being
sure that he dealt with the Arab invasion and also because the old historical chronicle available to him had no
reference to the name of the commander-in-chief of the invaders (he was referred to as the Powerful), the
author of the hagiographical work took the time of the Arab invasion of Marwan ibn Muhammad (Murvan the
Deaf), which took place in 30s of 8th century, as a historical background for his story.
A few years later, in the 2nd half of XI th century historian Leonti Mroveli decided to proceed the
narration of the Georgian Chronicles from the beginning of 8th century (where the narration of the time ceased)
till the 2nd half of XI th century (the time in which he lived). Before him, as we mentioned above, the author of
the hagiographic work had associated the story that happened at the time of the sons of Vakhtang Gorgasali
Darchil and Mihrdat (Mihr) with Arabian invasion at the time of Marwan ibn Muhammad and correspondingly
dated it to the 1st half of 8th century. So, Leonti Mroveli decided that the story belongs to 8th century (period
of Murvan the Deaf) and combined the story in the Georgian Chronicles with the fight of the Erismtavari of
Kartli Stepanoz III (710-738) and his sons with the real Arabs. The mistake of the historian is also due to the
fact that he resembled and identified the names of the sons of Stepanoz Erismtavari - Mihr and Archil, who
fought Arab commanders Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik and Marwan ibn Muhammad (Murvan the Deaf)with
the names of the sons of Vakhtang Gorgasali-Darchil and Mihr.
So Leonti was misled because of a bizarre coincidence of names of the sons of Vakhtang Gorgasali -
Darchil and Mihr, on the one hand, and the names of the sons of the Kartli Erismtavari Stepanoz III - Mihr and
Archil, on the other. From the hagiographical work about the martyrdom of David and Constantine that based
on the old chronicle, it becomes clear that the elder son of Vakhtang Gorgasali King Darchil was killed at
Anakopia during the first Persian invasion of Egrisi (Western Georgian Kingdom), somewhere round 545. At
the time of his death, King Darchil would probably be 53/54 years old. At the same time, the Kartli throne was
to be passed over to his son Bakur, who would be around 30 years old at the time of enthronement. The end
of Bakurs reign coincides with the end of the wartime. This is the very period when reign was abolished in
Kartli and Tbilisi turned into a residence of Persian officer - Marzban. As for the immediate offspring of Bakur
and all the following kings: Bakurs son Parsman VI, the nephew of Parsman - Parsman VII and the son of
the latter Bakur - they still called themselves kings, yet out of the royal Kartli territories, Kakheti was the
only territory they ruled.

Conclusions

Thus the establishment of the dates of reign of King Vakhtang Gorgasali deciphers the dates of reign of his
predecessor and successor kings. In an approximatelya two-century span, from 375/80 to 562 i. e. after the
reign of Aspagur and before the end of reign of kings in Kartli (540s), the kings of the region are laid out
according to the following chronology:
Aspagur and Trdat (Saurmag)parallel reign aprx. 368380
Great Bakur (the same Varaz-Bakur and not Aspagur) aprx. 380395/400
Parsman V aprx. 395/400-400/405
Mihrdat Bosmarios (father of Peter the Iberian) aprx. 400/405428
Archil aprx. 430/431463
Mihrdat (father of Vakhtang Gorgasali) aprx. 463473
 THE DATES OF THE REIGN OF VAKHTANG GORGASALI 375

Vakhtang (the same Varan/Guaram I) aprx. 473527

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