Vorarbeiten zu einer Königsliste Kaukasisch-Iberiens. 4. Von den Arsakiden zu den Sasaniden

Abstract

After Xepharnug, who may have lived at the time of Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius, no Iberian king is mentioned in contemporary and classical sources for hundred years. When emperor Valerian fell in Persian captivity in AD 260, Amazaspos reigned in Iberia, who paid hommage to victorious Shapur. He married Drakontis, daughter of the Armenian Arsacid Vologaeses, who may have been titular ruler of Armenia under Persian overlordship. In this way the last Pharnabazids were indeed also Arsacids, as is maintained in Georgian historical tradition. In the second quarter of the 4 th century one Dades ruled, who took over the name Fl(avius) from the so-called second or later Flavians, the house of Constantine the Great. This marks, according to Braund (1993), the end of the Pharnabazids, who must have held Roman citizenship for centuries. The Georgian Chronicle connects the dying-out of the former dynasty with Sasanian rise to power. Abeshura, heiress of the last Pharnabazid king Aspagur, is married to Mirian, son of the Persian great-king, but dies childless. Modern scholars identify Mirian (called Mihran in Armenian historiography) often with Meribanes, an Iberian king mentioned by Ammianus Marcellinus. The date of his attestation (AD 360/61) causes however chronological problems.