War With Iran
By espousing pro-Roman policy, Vakhtang further alienated his nobles, who sought Iranian support against the king’s encroachments on their autonomy. In 482, Vakhtang put to death his most influential vassal, Varsken, vitaxa of Gogarene, a convert to Zoroastrianism and a champion of Iran’s influence in the Caucasus, who had executed his Christian wife, Shushanik, daughter of the Armenian Mamikonid prince Vardan II and a hero of the earliest surviving piece of Georgian literature. By this act, Vakhtang placed himself in open confrontation with his Iranian suzerain. Vakhtang called on the Armenian princes and the Huns for co-operation. After some hesitation, the Armenians under Vardan’s nephew Vahan, joined forces with Vakhtang. The allies were routed and Iberia was ravaged by Iranian punitive expeditions in 483 and 484, forcing Vakhtang into flight to Roman-controlled Lazica (modern western Georgia). After Peroz’s death in the war with the Hephthalites in 484, his successor Balash reestablished peace in the Caucasus. Vakhtang was able to resume his reign in Iberia, but did not betray his pro-Roman line.
Once the Hundred Years Peace between Iran and Rome collapsed, Kavadh I of the Sassanids summoned Vakhtang as a vassal to join in a new campaign against Rome. Vakhtang refused, provoking an Iranian invasion of his kingdom. Then about 60, he had to spend the last years of his life in war and exile, fruitlessly appealing for the Roman aid. The chronology of this period is confused, but by 518 an Iranian viceroy had been installed at the Iberian town of Tiflis, founded – according to Georgian tradition – by Vakhtang and designated as the country’s future capital. According to the LVG, Vakhtang died fighting an Iranian invading army at the hands of his renegade slave who shot him through an armpit defect of his armor. The wounded king was transported to his castle at Ujarma where he died and was interred at the cathedral in Mtskheta. Javakhishvili puts Vakhtang’s death at c. 502. If Toumanoff’s identification of Procopius’ Gurgenes with Vakhtang is true, the king might have ended his reign in 522 by taking refuge in Lazica, where he possibly died around the same time. Gurgenes’ family members – Peranius, Pacurius, and Phazas – had careers in the Roman military.
Read more about this topic: Vakhtang I Of Iberia
Famous quotes containing the words war and/or iran:
“Come Vitus, are we men, or are we children? Of what use are all these melodramatic gestures? You say your soul was killed, and that you have been dead all these years. And what of me? Did we not both die here in Marmaros fifteen years ago? Are we any the less victims of the war than those whose bodies were torn asunder? Are we not both the living dead?”
—Peter Ruric, and Edgar G. Ulmer. Hjalmar Poelzig (Boris Karloff)
“During my administration the most unpleasant and perhaps most dramatic negotiations in which we participated were with the various leaders of Iran after the seizure of American hostages in November 1979. The Algerians were finally chosen as the only intermediaries who were considered trustworthy both by me and the Ayatollah Khomeini. After many aborted efforts, final success was achieved during my last few hours in the White House.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)