Editing Colchis (section)

=== 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>