Azo, Azoy or Azon ( ka, აზო; აზოჲ; აზონი) was a ruler of

Georgians Georgians, or Kartvelians (; ka, ქართველები, tr, ), are a nation and Peoples of the Caucasus, Caucasian ethnic group native to present-day Georgia (country), Georgia and surrounding areas historically associated with the Ge ...

of ancient

Kartli Kartli ( ka, ქართლი ) is a historical region in central-to-eastern Georgia traversed by the river Mtkvari (Kura), on which Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, is situated. Known to the Classical authors as Iberia, Kartli played a crucial rol ...

(

Iberia The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, compri ...

of the Classical authors) claimed by medieval Georgian annals to have been installed by

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...

king King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

Macedon Macedonia ( ; , ), also called Macedon ( ), was an ancient kingdom on the periphery of Archaic and Classical Greece, which later became the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece. The kingdom was founded and initially ruled by the royal ...

( r. 336–323 BC).

Medieval tradition

His name and origin are differently given by the medieval Georgian chronicles. While ''

The Conversion of Kartli The ''Conversion of Kartli'' ( ka, მოქცევაჲ ქართლისაჲ ''moktsevay kartlisay'', Asomtavruli: ႫႭႵႺႤႥႠჂ ႵႠႰႧႪႨႱႠჂ, ) is the earliest surviving medieval Georgia (country), Georgian h ...

'' calls him Azo(y) and makes him the scion of a preexisting dynasty in Arian Kartli, '' The Life of Kartli'' knows him as Azon and brands him a Macedonian outsider. Azo and Azon unquestionably represent the same figure and both sources credit his position to Alexander’s mythic expedition into inner Georgia.Rapp, p. 270. According to ''The Conversion of Kartli'', Azo was the son of an unnamed king of Arian Kartli, who was brought, together with followers, to Kartli proper by Alexander and installed as the first king ('' mep'e'', მეფე) at

Mtskheta Mtskheta ( ka, მცხეთა} ) is a city in the Mkhare, region of Mtskheta-Mtianeti, Georgia (country), Georgia. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. It is locat ...

after the conquest of this city. He also transplanted the cults of Gatsi and Gaim to Kartli. ''The Life of Kartli'' enshrines no such tradition. Rather, it maintains that Azon, son of Iaredos (unattested in The Conversion of Kartli), was neither a king nor even a Georgian. He is reported to have conquered Mtskheta with 100,000 Macedonians ("Romans"). In addition, Alexander commanded Azon to worship seven

celestial bodies An astronomical object, celestial object, stellar object or heavenly body is a naturally occurring physical entity, association, or structure that exists within the observable universe. In astronomy, the terms ''object'' and ''body'' are of ...

(the

Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...

, the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

, and five "stars", i.e.,

planets A planet is a large, rounded astronomical body that is generally required to be in orbit around a star, stellar remnant, or brown dwarf, and is not one itself. The Solar System has eight planets by the most restrictive definition of the te ...

) and to serve the "invisible God, the creator of the universe". This version has Azon, depicted as a tyrant, subsequently deposed and killed by Pharnavaz, the member of the local ruling clan ( P’arnavaziani), whose father and uncle were killed by Azon.

Modern interpretation

The identification of Azo/Azon is one of the most complex and contentious enigmas of early Georgian history. His rule is conventionally dated by the Georgian scholar Sergi Gorgadze to 330–272 BC, though this chronology lacks precision.Rapp, p. 273. Despite their differences, the two medieval traditions concur that kingship was established in Mtskheta in the early

Hellenistic period In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...

and this is verified in non-Georgian sources. The legend of Alexander's Iberian campaign has also been preserved in Armenian historical tradition, particularly in '' The History of the Armenians'' by

Moses of Chorene Movses Khorenatsi ( 410–490s AD; , ) was a prominent Armenian historian from late antiquity and the author of the '' History of the Armenians''. Movses's ''History of the Armenians'' was the first attempt at a universal history of Armenia and r ...

(probably the 5th century). Moses speaks of "Mithridates,

satrap A satrap () was a governor of the provinces of the ancient Median kingdom, Median and Achaemenid Empire, Persian (Achaemenid) Empires and in several of their successors, such as in the Sasanian Empire and the Hellenistic period, Hellenistic empi ...

Darius Darius may refer to: Persian royalty ;Kings of the Achaemenid Empire * Darius I (the Great, 550 to 487 BC) * Darius II (423 to 404 BC) * Darius III (Codomannus, 380 to 330 BC) ;Crown princes * Darius (son of Xerxes I), crown prince of Persia, ma ...

" (identifiable with Mithridates II of Cius) installed by Alexander to rule over the Georgians. Professor

Giorgi Melikishvili Giorgi Aleksandres dze Melikishvili ( ka, გიორგი ალექსანდრეს ძე მელიქიშვილი; ; 30 December 1918 – 19 April 2002) was a Georgian historian known for his fundamental works on the histor ...

has drawn several parallels between the stories of the Azon of the Georgian chronicles and the Mithridates of the Armenian tradition.Kavtaradze, Giorgi L
Georgian Chronicles and the raison d'étre of the Iberian Kingdom (Caucasica II).
pp. 177-237. ''Orbis Terrarum, Journal of Historical Geography of the Ancient World'' 6, 2000. Several modern scholars believe Azo’s story indirectly suggests the migration of the early Georgian tribes to the northwest and blending of

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

n elements with the tribes living in Kartli proper. On the other hand, the version of ''The Life of Kartli'', which anachronistically refers to Azon's entourage as "Romans", might well have reflected the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

activities in Iberia, presumably those of the Flavian period (AD 69–96), which have surprisingly been ignored by the Georgian annals. Some modern historians have also attempted to equate Azon (note that the name terminates in the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns and adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can ca ...

–ου) with the

Jason Jason ( ; ) was an ancient Greek mythological hero and leader of the Argonauts, whose quest for the Golden Fleece is featured in Greek literature. He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcos. He was married to the sorceress Med ...

of the Argonautic cycle. According to the

historian

Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars. Tacitus’ two major historical works, ''Annals'' ( ...

, the Iberians "claimed

Thessalian Thessaly ( ; ; ancient Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic and modern administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, Thessaly was known as Aeolia (, ), and appea ...

origin, dating from the time when Jason, after leaving with

Medea In Greek mythology, Medea (; ; ) is the daughter of Aeëtes, King Aeëtes of Colchis. Medea is known in most stories as a sorceress, an accomplished "wiktionary:φαρμακεία, pharmakeía" (medicinal magic), and is often depicted as a high- ...

and their children, returned to the empty palace of

Aeëtes Aeëtes ( ; , ), or Aeeta, was the ruler of the eponymous realm of Aea in Greek mythology, a wondrous realm which from the fifth century B.C.E. onward became identified with the kingdom of Colchis east in the Black Sea. The name comes from the an ...

and the kingless

Colchians In classical antiquity and Greco-Roman geography, Colchis (; ) was an exonym for the Georgian polity of Egrisi ( ka, ეგრისი) located on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, centered in present-day western Georgia. Its population, the ...

".Grant, Michael (1973), ''The Annals of Imperial Rome'', p. 217. Penguin Classics,

Notes

References

* Rapp, Stephen H. (2003), ''Studies In Medieval Georgian Historiography: Early Texts And Eurasian Contexts''. Peeters Bvba {{ISBN, 90-429-1318-5. Alexander the Great in legend Kings of Iberia 4th-century BC monarchs in Asia 3rd-century BC monarchs in Asia