State of Kartli (Iberia)
Georgia Museums, Sighnaghi National MuseumState of Kartli (Iberia)
The Achaemenid Empire was an opportunity for many people to witness statehood structures. Many of them - who had never experienced living in a state before - established their own states after the fall of the Empire. Even the nations with certain statehood experience adopted elements of administrative and political structures of the Achaemenid Empire. Georgians per se already had a state; nevertheless, the kingdom they founded on the ruins of the Achaemenid Empires lasted through 23 centuries. The contemporary Georgia is to a certain extent a legal successor to this kingdom known as Kartli or Caucasian Iberia (Iveria) as mentioned in Greek and Latin annals.
The old Georgian historian Leonti Mroveli tells story at "Mepeta Tskhovreba" (the Life of Kings) about the first king of Kartli Pharnavaz (3rd c. B.C.) who "arranged everything in close similarity to the Persian kingdom". This concerned the territorial-administrative division of Kartli as well as its political arrangement.
Archaeological data proves that, at the turn of the 4th and 3rd cc. B.C. the creation of Karli kingdom followed great cultural and economic prosperity stemming from the turn of the middle of the 4th c. B.C. on the territory of contemporary eastern Georgia. The river Mtkvari basin gave birth to the cities: Mtskheta, Nastakisi-Samadlo, Sarkine, Kaspi, Uplistisikhe etc., first developed as large centres for trade and craftsmanship. Apart from being the centres for economic and agricultural territorial units, each of these cities represented as administrative and cult centres too. Archaeological finds revealed rich burials in Sadzeguri, Takhtidziri, Kanchaeti, Tsintskharo and Kavtiskhevi of the Georgia nobles.
Iberia experienced extremely hardship times during the second century B.C. and the beginning of the first century B.C. Iberia lost three of its southern provinces to its strengthened neighbour Armenia and some territories of the western provinces to Pontus Kingdom. Albania also had some claims over the extreme territories in the east. In early spring of 65 BC Roman legions under Pompey's leadership came close to the reaches of Mtskheta, the capital of Kartli Kingdom unexpectedly for Kartli's King Artag who tried to save time by delaying the battle in an anticipation to get support from the Alans from the North Caucasus. The tactics worked and the truce...
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