Editing Colchis (section)

== History ==
=== Prehistory and earliest references ===
The eastern Black Sea region in antiquity was home to the well-developed [[Bronze Age]] culture known as the [[Colchian culture]], related to the neighbouring [[Koban culture]], that emerged toward the Middle [[Bronze Age]]. In at least some parts of Colchis, the process of urbanization seems to have been well advanced by the end of the second millennium BC. The Colchian Late [[Bronze Age]] (fifteenth to eighth century BC) saw the development of significant skill in the smelting and casting of metals.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Erb-Satullo |first1=Nathaniel L. |last2=Gilmour |first2=Brian J. J. |last3=Khakhutaishvili |first3=Nana |date=2014-09-01 |title=Late Bronze and Early Iron Age copper smelting technologies in the South Caucasus: the view from ancient Colchis c. 1500–600BC |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030544031400123X |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science |language=en |volume=49 |pages=147–159 |doi=10.1016/j.jas.2014.03.034 |bibcode=2014JArSc..49..147E |issn=0305-4403}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Erb-Satullo |first1=Nathaniel L. |last2=Gilmour |first2=Brian J. J. |last3=Khakhutaishvili |first3=Nana |date=2017-09-01 |title=Copper production landscapes of the South Caucasus |url=https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:93fceda7-681d-4c1b-aca6-45fc1e2f5d20/files/m028f70ecc5d88483efe8d939f5eee96b |journal=Journal of Anthropological Archaeology |language=en |volume=47 |pages=109–126 |doi=10.1016/j.jaa.2017.03.003 |issn=0278-4165}}</ref> Sophisticated farming implements were made, and fertile, well-watered lowlands and a mild climate promoted the growth of progressive agricultural techniques.{{citation needed|date=February 2017}}

The earliest attestations of the name of Colchis can be found in the 8th century Greek poet [[Eumelus of Corinth]] as {{Lang|grc|Κολχίδα}}<ref>Lordkipanidzé Otar, Mikéladzé Teimouraz. La Colchide aux VIIe-Ve siècles. Sources écrites antiques et archéologie. In: Le Pont-Euxin vu par les Grecs : sources écrites et archéologie. Symposium de Vani (Colchide), septembre-octobre 1987. Besançon : Université de Franche-Comté, 1990. pp. 167-187. (Annales littéraires de l'Université de Besançon, 427); https://www.persee.fr/doc/ista_0000-0000_1990_act_427_1_1252</ref> and earlier, in [[Urartu|Urartian]] records as {{Lang|xur-Latn|Qulḫa}} mentioned by the [[Urartu|Urartian]] kings, who conquered it in 744 or 743 BC before the Urartians and their territories were themselves conquered by the [[Neo-Assyrian Empire]].<ref name="Stanley Arthur Cook p. 350"/> Historian [[Askold Ivanchik]] states: “Based on cuneiform texts and archeological data, Qulḫa must have existed as an independent flourishing state during the second half of the eighth century BCE, but hardly survived the end of the century”.<ref>Valeriya Kozlovskaya, The Northern Black Sea in Antiquity: Networks, Connectivity, and Cultural Interactions. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2017. xxvii; 366. ISBN 9781107019515 [https://www.google.com.ua/books/edition/The_Northern_Black_Sea_in_Antiquity/hcwnDwAAQBAJ?hl=ru&gbpv=1&dq=state+of+qulha&pg=PA15&printsec=frontcover]</ref>

According to [[Svante Cornell]], "What could be conceived as the proto Georgian statehood emerged mainly in the Western parts of today's Georgia, with the kingdom of Colchis (''Kolkheti'') in the sixth century BC."<ref name="Svante E. Cornell p. 130"/>

Colchis was inhabited by a number of tribes whose settlements lay along the shore of the Black Sea. Chief among those were the [[Machelones]], [[Heniochi]], [[Zydretae]], [[Egrisi|Lazi]], [[Chalybes]], [[Tibareni]]/[[Tubal]], [[Mossynoeci]], [[Macrones]], [[Meskheti|Moschi]], [[Marres]], [[Apsilae]], [[Kingdom of Abkhazia|Abasci]],<ref>According to some scholars, ancient tribes such as the [[Absilae]] (mentioned by Pliny, 1st century CE) and [[Abasgoi]] (mentioned by [[Arrian]], 2nd century CE) correspond to the modern [[Abkhazians]] (Chirikba, V., "On the etymology of the ethnonym apswa 'Abkhaz'", in ''The Annual of the Society for the Study of Caucasia'', 3, 13-18, Chicago, 1991; Hewitt, B. G., "The valid and non-valid application of philology to history", in ''Revue des Etudes Georgiennes et Caucasiennes'', 6-7, 1990-1991, 247-263; ''[[Grand Dictionnaire Encyclopédique Larousse]]'', tome 1, 1985, p. 20). However, this claim is controversial and no academic consensus has yet been reached. Other scholars suggest that these ethnonyms instead reflect a common regional origin, rather than emphasizing a distinct and separate ethnic and cultural identity in antiquity. For example, Tariel Putkaradze, a Georgian scholar, suggests, "In the 3rd-2nd millennia BC the [[Georgians|Kartvelian]], [[Abhaz]]-[[Abaza people|Abaza]], [[Circassians|Circassian-Adyghe]] and [[Vainakhs|Vaynakh]] tribes must have been part of a great [[Ibero-Caucasian]] [[Ethnic group|ethnos]]. Therefore, it is natural that several tribes or ethnoses descending from them have the names derived from a single stem. The Colchian Aphaz, Apsil, Apšil and north Caucasian Apsua, Abazaha, Abaza, existing in the 1st millennium, were the names denoting different tribes of a common origin. Some of these tribes (Apsils, Apshils) disappeared, others mingled with kindred tribes, and still others have survived to the present day." (Putkaradze, T. ''The Kartvelians'', 2005, translated by Irene Kutsia)</ref> [[Sanigs|Sanigae]], [[Coraxi]], [[Coli (tribe)|Coli]], [[Melanchlaeni]], [[Gelonians|Geloni]] and [[Svaneti|Soani (Suani)]]. The ancients assigned various origins to the tribes that inhabited Colchis.

[[Herodotus]] regarded the Colchians as "dark-skinned ({{Lang|grc|μελάγχροες}})<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://lsj.gr/wiki/%CE%BC%CE%B5%CE%BB%CE%AC%CE%B3%CF%87%CF%81%CE%BF%CE%BF%CF%82
|title = Liddell, Scott, Jones Ancient Greek Lexicon}}</ref> and woolly-haired" and calls them Egyptians.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.+2.104&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126|title = Herodotus, the Histories, Book 2, chapter 104}}</ref> [[Herodotus]] states that the Colchians, with the [[Ancient Egypt]]ians and the [[Ethiopia]]ns, were the first to practice [[circumcision]], a custom which he claims that the Colchians inherited from remnants of the army of [[Pharaoh]] [[Sesostris]] ([[Senusret III]]). Herodotus writes:

{{blockquote|For it is plain to see that the Colchians are Egyptians; and what I say, I myself noted before I heard it from others. When it occurred to me, I inquired of both peoples; and the Colchians remembered the Egyptians better than the Egyptians remembered the Colchians; the Egyptians said that they considered the Colchians part of Sesostris' army. I myself guessed it, partly because they are dark-skinned and woolly-haired; though that indeed counts for nothing, since other peoples are, too; but my better proof was that the Colchians and Egyptians and Ethiopians are the only nations that have from the first practised circumcision.}}

These claims have been widely rejected by modern historians. It is in doubt if Herodotus had ever been to Colchis or Egypt, and no Egyptian army ever set foot in the Caucasus, a region shielded by states to the south of the Caucasus too powerful for any Egyptian army to pass through, such as [[Urartu]], [[Hittites|Hittia]], [[Assyria]] and [[Mitanni]].{{sfnm|Fehling|1994|1p=13|Marincola|2001|2p=34}}

According to [[Pliny the Elder]]:

{{blockquote|The Colchians were governed by their own kings in the earliest ages, that Sesostris king of Egypt was overcome in [[Scythia]],<ref>''The Shrines and Sepulchres of the Old and New World: Records of Pilgrimages in Many Lands, and Researches Connected with the History of Places Remarkable for Memorials of the Dea, Or Monuments of a Sacred Character; Including Notices of the Funeral Customs of the Principal Nations, Ancient and Modern'', Volume 1, Richard Robert Madden, Newby, 1851, p.&nbsp;293</ref> and put to fight, by the king of Colchis, which if true, that the Colchians not only had kings in those times, but were a very powerful people.<ref>''An Universal History, From the Earliest Account of Time'', Volume 10, George Sale, George Psalmanazar, Archibald Bower, George Shelvocke, John Campbell, John Swinton, p.&nbsp;136 B.II.</ref><ref>Plin, I, xxxiii, c. 3.</ref>}}

Many modern theories suggest that the ancestors of the [[Laz people|Laz]]-[[Mingrelians]] constituted the dominant ethnic and cultural presence in the region in antiquity, and hence played a significant role in the ethnogenesis of the modern [[Georgians]].<ref>''Miniature Empires: A Historical Dictionary of the Newly Independent States'', James Minahan, p. 116</ref><ref>Cyril Toumanoff, ''Studies in Christian Caucasian History'', p 80</ref>

[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], a 1st-century BC Greek geographer, citing the poet Eumelos, assigned [[Aeëtes]], the mythological first king of Colchis, a Greek origin.<ref>Pausanias, ''Description of Greece'' (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160%3Abook%3D2)</ref>

=== Persian rule ===
The tribes living in the southern Colchis ([[Macrones]], [[Meskheti|Moschi]], and [[Marres]]) were incorporated into Persia and formed the [[Districts of the Achaemenid Empire|19th satrapy]],{{sfn|Rayfield|2012|p=18-19}} while the northern tribes submitted "voluntarily" and had to send to the Persian court 100 girls and 100 boys every five years.{{sfn|Rayfield|2012|p=19}} In 400 BC, shortly after the [[Ten Thousand]] reached [[Trabzon|Trapezus]], a battle was fought between them and the Colchis in which the latter were decisively defeated. The influence exerted on Colchis by the vast Achaemenid Empire with its thriving commerce and wide economic and commercial ties with other regions accelerated the socio-economic development of the Colchian land.

Subsequently, the Colchis people appear to have overthrown the [[Persian Empire|Persian]] Authority, and to have formed an independent state.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}} According to Ronald Suny this western Georgian state was federated to Kartli-Iberia, and its kings ruled through ''skeptoukhi'' (royal governors) who received a staff from the king.<ref>''The Making of the Georgian Nation'', 2nd Ed., Ronald Grigor Suny, p 13</ref> According to David Braund's reading of [[Strabo]]'s account, the native Colchian dynasty continued ruling the country in spite of its fragmentation into ''skeptoukhies''.<ref name = braund>{{cite book |last1=David |first1=Braund |title=Georgia in Antiquity. A History of Colchis and Transcaucasian Iberia 550 BC AD 562 |date=1994 |publisher=Calendon Press |isbn=0198144733 |pages=154}}</ref>

Gocha R. Tsetskhladze explains that although Colchis and neighboring Iberia were once viewed as not having been under Achaemenid rule, "ever more evidence is emerging to show that they were, forming a lesser part of the [[Satrapy of Armenia|Armenian satrapy]]".{{sfn|Tsetskhladze|2021|p=665}}

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px">
File:Exhibition- Georgia - (6) A Story of Encounters, 2023-2024, Art & History Museum, Brussels.jpg|Second century BC Greek bronze torso from Colchis, [[Cinquantenaire Museum]]
<!-- Images missing: caption2 = Colchian golden earrings, fourth century BC, [[Georgian National Museum]]
caption3 = Colchian necklace, fifth century BC, [[Georgian National Museum]] -->
File:Colchis riders pendants - pair.JPG|Colchian pendants, riders and horses on wheeled platforms, [[Georgian National Museum]]
</gallery>

=== Under Pontus ===
[[Mithridates VI Eupator|Mithridates VI]], king of [[Kingdom of Pontus|Pontus]], quelled an uprising in the region in 83&nbsp;BC and gave Colchis to his son [[Mithridates of Colchis|Mithridates]], who, soon being suspected in having plotted against his father, was executed. During the [[Third Mithridatic War]], Mithridates VI made another of his sons, [[Machares]], king of Bosporus and Colchis, who held his power, but only for a short period. On the defeat of [[Mithridates VI of Pontus]] in 65&nbsp;BC, Colchis was occupied by [[Pompey]],<ref>''Pompey'', Nic Fields p.&nbsp;29</ref> who captured one of the local chiefs (sceptuchus) Olthaces, and installed [[Aristarchus of Colchis|Aristarchus]] as a ''[[dynast]]'' (63–47 BC). On the fall of Pompey, [[Pharnaces II of Pontus|Pharnaces II]], son of Mithridates, took advantage of [[Julius Caesar]] being occupied in [[Ancient Egypt|Egypt]], and reduced Colchis, [[Armenia]], and some part of [[Cappadocia]], defeating [[Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus]], whom Caesar subsequently sent against him. His triumph was, however, short-lived. Under [[Polemon I of Pontus|Polemon I]], the son and heir of Zenon, Colchis was part of the [[Kingdom of Pontus|Pontus]] and the [[Bosporan Kingdom]]. After the death of Polemon (8&nbsp;BC), his second wife [[Pythodorida of Pontus]] retained possession of Colchis as well as of Pontus, although the kingdom of Bosporus was wrested from her power. Her son and successor, [[Polemon II of Pontus]], was induced by Emperor [[Nero]] to abdicate the throne, and both Pontus and Colchis were incorporated in the Province of [[Galatia]] (63) and later, in [[Cappadocia (Roman province)|Cappadocia]] (81). [[Phasis (town)|Phasis]], [[Sukhumi|Dioscurias]] and other Greek settlements of the coast did not fully recover after the wars of 60-40 BC and Trebizond became the economical and political centre of the region.{{sfn|Rayfield|2012|p=28}}

=== Under Roman rule ===
{{Main|Georgia in the Roman era|Caucasian campaign of Pompey|Lazica}}
Despite the fact that all major fortresses along the sea coast were occupied by the Romans, their rule was relatively loose. In 69, the people of Pontus and Colchis under [[Anicetus (pirate)|Anicetus]] staged a major uprising against the [[Roman Empire]], which ended unsuccessfully. The lowlands and coastal area were frequently raided by fierce mountain tribes, with the [[Svaneti]] and [[Heniochi]] being the most powerful of them. Paying a nominal homage to [[Rome]], they created their own kingdoms and enjoyed significant independence.

Under Hadrian, the Romans established relations with Colchian tribes. Hadrian sent his advisor, [[Arrian]], to tour Colchis and Iberia. Arrian depicted a turbulent fluctuation of tribal powers and boundaries, with various hostile and anarchic tribes in the area. The Laz controlled most of coastal Colchis, while other tribes such as the [[Sanigs]] and [[Abasgoi]] escaped Roman jurisdiction. Other tribes, like the [[Apsilae]], were becoming powerful and their king with the Romanised name Julianus was recognized by Trajan.{{sfn|Rayfield|2012|p=33}} Arrian listed the following peoples in his [[Periplus of the Euxine Sea]] written in 130-131 (from south to north): Sanni, [[Machelones]], [[Heniochi]], Zudreitae, [[Laz people|Lazi]], [[Apsilae]], [[Abasgoi]], [[Sanigs]] and [[Zygii|Zilchi]].<ref name="ArrianFalconer1805">{{cite book |author1=Arrian |first2=Thomas |last2=Falconer |title=Arrian's Voyage Round the Euxine Sea: Translated and Accompanied with a Geographical Dissertation and Maps: to which are Added Three Discourses, I. On the Trade to the East Indies by Means of the Euxine Sea, II. On the Distance which the Ships of Antiquity Usually Sailed in Twenty-four Hours, III. On the Measure of the Olympic Stadium |url=https://archive.org/details/gri_33125009310745 |year=1805 |publisher=J. Cooke |page=[https://archive.org/details/gri_33125009310745/page/n20 9]}}</ref>

According to traditional accounts [[Christianity]] began to spread in the early first century by [[Andrew the Apostle]], [[Simon the Zealot]], and [[Saint Matthias]]. A change in burial patterns in the 3rd century was possibly due to Christian influence.{{sfn|Rayfield|2012|p=33}} The [[Hellenistic civilization]], local [[paganism]] and [[Mithraic Mysteries]] would, however, remain widespread until the fourth century. [[Goths]], dwelling in the [[Crimea]] and looking for new homes, raided Colchis in 253, but were repulsed with the help of the Roman garrison of [[Pitsunda]]. By the first century BC, the Lazica (or the Laz) kingdom was established in the region. Lazica became known as Egrisi in 66 BC when Egrisi became a vassal of the Roman Empire after the [[Caucasian campaign of Pompey]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediapeop00west |url-access=limited |last=West |first=Barbara A. |publisher=[[Facts on File]] |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-8160-7109-8 |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediapeop00west/page/n483 461]}}</ref>