| Byzantine–Georgian wars | |||||||||
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 A miniature depicting the defeat of the Georgian kingGeorge I at theBattle of Shirimni.TheSkylitzes Chronicle. George is shown as fleeing on horseback on the right andBasil II holding a shield and lance on the left. | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Byzantine Empire | Kingdom of Georgia | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Basil II Constantine VIII Romanos III Argyros Liparit IV of Kldekari Demetrius of Anacopia Constantine IX Monomachos Alexios V Doukas | George I Bagrat IV (POW) Tamar the Great David Komnenos Alexios I of Trebizond | ||||||||
TheByzantine-Georgian wars (Georgian:ბიზანტია-საქართველოს ომები,romanized:bizant'ia-sakartvelos omebi) were a series of conflicts fought during the 11th-13th centuries over several strategic districts in the Byzantine-Georgian marchlands.
The integrity of theByzantine Empire itself was under serious threat after a full-scale rebellion, led byBardas Skleros, broke out in 976. In the urgency of a situation, Georgian princeDavid III of Tao aidedBasil II and after the decisive loyalist victory at theBattle of Pankaleia, he was rewarded by lifetime rule of key imperial territories in eastern Asia Minor. However, David's rebuff of Basil inBardas Phocas’ revolt of 987 evokedConstantinople’s distrust of the Georgian rulers. After the failure of the revolt, David was forced to make Basil II the legatee of his extensive possessions.
This agreement destroyed a previous arrangement by which David had made his adopted son,Bagrat III of Georgia, his heir. When David died early in 1001, Basil II added his inheritance –Tao,Theodosiopolis,Phasiane and theLake Van region (Apahunik) with the city ofManzikert – to thetheme of Iberia.
The following year, the Georgian princeGurgen, the natural father of Bagrat III, marched to take David’s inheritance, but was thwarted by the Byzantine generalNikephoros Ouranos,Dux ofAntioch, forcing the successor Georgian Bagratids to recognize the new rearrangement. Despite these setbacks, Bagrat was able to become the first king of the unified Georgian state in 1008. He died in 1014, and his son,George I, inherited a longstanding claim to those territories in Tao which were in Byzantine hands.
Young and ambitious,George I launched a campaign to restore theDavid Kuropalates’ succession toGeorgia and capturedTao in 1014–1016. He also entered in an alliance with theFatimid Caliphate ofEgypt,Al-Hakim (c.996–1021), that putBasil in a difficult situation, forcing him to refrain from an acute response to George's offensive. Beyond that, the Byzantines were at that time involved in a relentless war with theBulgar Empire, limiting their actions to the west. But as soon asBulgaria was conquered in 1018, and Al-Hakim was no longer alive, Basil led his army against Georgia. After a failed first attempt, preparations for a larger-scale campaign against theKingdom of Georgia were set in train, beginning with the re-fortification ofTheodosiopolis. In the autumn of 1021 Basil, at the head of a largearmy reinforced by theVarangian Guards, attacked theGeorgians and theirArmenian allies, recoveringPhasiane and pushing on beyond the frontiers ofTao into inner Georgia. KingGeorge burned the city ofOltisi to keep it out of the enemy's hands and retreated toKola. A bloodybattle was fought near the village Shirimni at the Lake Palakazio (nowÇildir,Turkey) on September 11 and the emperor won a costly victory, forcing George I to retreat northwards into his kingdom. Plundering the country on his way, Basil withdrew to winter atTrebizond.
Several attempts to negotiate the conflict went in vain and, in the meantime, George received reinforcements from theKakhetians, and allied himself with the Byzantine commandersNicephorus Phocas andNicephorus Xiphias in their abortive insurrection in the emperor's rear. In December, George's ally, the Armenian kingSenekerim ofVaspurakan, being harassed by theSeljuk Turks, surrendered his kingdom to the emperor. During the spring of 1022, Basil launched a final offensive, winning a crushing victory over the Georgians atSvindax. Menaced both by land and sea, King Georgehanded overTao,Phasiane,Kola,Artaan andJavakheti, and left his infant sonBagrat a hostage in Basil's hands.
Shortly afterBagrat IV's ascension to the throne,Constantine VIII sent in an army to take over the key city-fortress ofArtanuji on behalf of the Georgian Bagratid prince Demetrius, son ofGurgen of Klarjeti, who had been dispossessed by Bagrat IV's grandfather,Bagrat III, of his patrimonial fief at Artanuji early in the 1010s. Several Georgians nobles defected to the Byzantines, but Bagrat's loyal subjects put up a stubborn fight.[1] The Byzantines overran the Georgian borderlands and besiegedKldekari, a key fortress inTrialeti province, but failed to take it and marched back on the regionShavsheti. The local bishop Saba of Tbeti organized a successful defense of the area forcing the Byzantines to change their tactics.
The emperor Constantine VIII then sentDemetrius of Anacopia, an exiled Georgian prince, who was considered by many as a legitimate pretender to the throne, to take a Georgian crown by force. Constantine's death in 1028 rendered the Byzantine invasion abortive, and, in 1030, theregent,queen dowagerMariam paid a visit to the new emperorRomanos III (c.1028–1034). She negotiated a peace treaty, and returned with the high Byzantine title ofCuropalates for Bagrat in 1032. Mariam also brought him a Byzantine princess Helena as wife.
In 1033, the royal court faced another dynastic trouble, this time with Bagrat's half-brotherDemetrius of Anacopia, a son of George I of his second marriage withAlda of Alania. Demetrius and Alda lived inAnacopia, a fortress inAbkhazia, which had been bequeathed to them by the late king George I. The efforts by Bagrat's motherMariam to win Demetrius's loyalty to the crown went in vain. Threatened by Bagrat, Alda defected to theByzantines and surrendered Anacopia to the emperorRomanos III in 1033,[2] who honored her son Demetrius with the rank ofmagistros. According toThe Georgian Chronicles: King Bagrat defeated a united army of his opponents and then besieged Anacopia, then he went back, leaving Otago Chachasdze and his army to take charge of the fortress.
In 1038Liparit IV, Duke ofKldekari was on the verge of capturing the Georgian city ofTbilisi, which had been under theMuslim sway for centuries; but fearing his growing power the Georgian nobles thwarted the plan and persuaded the king to make peace with theemir of Tbilisi. As a result, Liparit turned into a sworn enemy of Bagrat and began actively cooperating with foreign powers for vengeance. In 1039, he pledged his support to Bagrat's half-brotherDemetrius of Anacopia who returned to Georgia with a Byzantine army to seize the crown.[3]
Pretenders enjoyed numerous successes against the royal armies, despite their efforts to take a key fortressAteni went in vain, Liparit and the Byzantines won a major victory at theBattle of Sasireti, where Bagrat suffered a crushing defeat and was forced to withdraw from his eastern possessions to take refuge in the western Georgian highlands.[3] However Demetrius died unexpectedly in 1042. Alda, with Demetrius's son David, fled to her nativeAlania. Liparit continued the struggle against Bagrat and became a major champion of the Byzantine influence in the region.[3]
Bagrat appealing to the emperorConstantine IX, it was arranged, through the Byzantine mediation, that Liparit should receive nearly a half of the realm (south of theMtkvari River) only as a dutiful subject to the king of Georgia. Thus, in the period of 1045–1048, Liparit IV, Duke of Trialeti,Argveti,Lower andUpper Iberia, Prince-Constable of Georgia, became the most powerful person in the kingdom. Not without a good reason, the Arab chroniclerIbn al-Athir calls him "king of theAbasgians [i.e. Georgians]." Liparit, called Liparites by Byzantine writers, was at the same time a Byzantine dignitary with the prestigious rank ofmagistros (and possibly alsocuropalates).[4][5]
During the Seljuk campaigns inAnatolia in 1048, Liparit, who had been fighting on the Byzantine side, was captured at theBattle of Kapetron. Bagrat took advantage of this, and returned to his eastern possessions. The king's fortunes were quickly reversed, however, upon Liparit's return from captivity in 1049 or 1051.[6] The rebellious duke forced Bagrat to flee toConstantinople where he was kept, as a result of Liparit's intrigues, for three years. In the absence of Bagrat (1050–1053), Liparit was an effective ruler of Georgia; he even installed Bagrat's sonGeorge II as king and declared himself a regent. After Bagrat's return in 1053, Liparit again warred against him. Eventually, in 1060, he was arrested by his followers and surrendered to the king, who forced him into a monastery under the name of Anton. Liparit died shortly thereafter at Constantinople and was reburied to his patrimonial monastery atKatskhi in Georgia.[3]
The second half of the 11th century was marked by the strategically significant invasion of theSeljuq Turks, who by the end of the 1040s had succeeded in building a vast empire including most ofCentral Asia andPersia. The Seljuk threat prompted the Georgian and Byzantine governments to seek a closer cooperation. To secure the alliance, Bagrat's daughterMaria married, at some point between 1066 and 1071, to the Byzantine co-emperorMichael VII Ducas.
Despite the territorial losses toBasil II, the Georgian kings succeeded in retaining their independence and in uniting most of the Georgian lands into a single state. Many of the territories ceded to the empire were conquered by theSeljuk Turks towards the 1070s-1080s, securing thetheme of Iberia by the help of Byzantine governor,Gregory Pakourianos, who began to evacuate the region shortly after the disaster inflicted by the Seljuks on the Byzantine army atManzikert. On this occasion,George II of Georgia was bestowed with the Byzantine title ofCaesar, granted the fortress ofKars and put in charge of the Imperial Eastern limits.
Relations between the two Christian monarchies were then generally peaceful except for the episode of 1204, when EmperorAlexios III Angelos seized a sizable donation of the then Georgian regentQueen Tamar, that was meant for the monks ofMount Athos. Infuriated by this action, Tamar used this hostile act as a pretext for her expansion along the southwestern coast of theBlack Sea, populated by a large Georgian-speaking population.[7]
Tamar's ambitions were aided by the ongoingFourth Crusade, which eventually fractured the Byzantine Empire.
A Georgian army under the command ofAlexios andDavid Komnenos attacked the Byzantines from the east in late March or early April 1204. According to Georgian chronicles the expedition took eight days, it reached Trebizond viaLazona and seizedTrebizond in April. The local commanderdoux Nikephoros Palaiologos, did not put up an effective defence against the Georgian forces.[8]
On April 13, 1204,Constantinople fell to theCrusaders, where they established theLatin Empire. According to medieval sources, newly incorporated territories were given to Alexios and David Komnenos, where they founded a pro-Georgian state, theEmpire of Trebizond. Alexios was proclaimedemperor, while David was appointedstrategos. Some scholars believe that the new state was subject to Georgia, at least in the first years of its existence, at the beginning of the 13th century.[9]
The following year, David Komnenos commanded the Georgian troops in a successful campaign that resulted in the conquest of territories between Trebizond andHeraclea Pontica, while Alexios defeated theSeljuks and recapturedAmisos,Sinope,Oinaion andChalybia.
Tamar's political involvement in the Fourth Crusade, her exploitation of the Byzantine decline, and military campaigns, decisively expanded the Kingdom of Georgia's influence and number of tributaries, turning her kingdom into one of the most powerful Christian states at the time.
In the second half of the 13th century, when the political integrity ofGeorgia was broken and the state was divided into two kingdoms, Georgian influence in theEmpire of Trebizond began to decline, and pro-Byzantine tendencies appeared in separate groups of the ruling circles ofTrebizond. This resulted in a struggle for political hegemony in the Empire of Trebizond between the Georgian and Byzantine parties that lasted for years. In 1281, a coup took place in Trebizond, organized by the Georgian party.Emperor John II, who became the son-in-law of the royal house of the ByzantinePalaiologos, was deposed from the throne and even captured. Then he was released from prison, but he was not allowed to stay in Trebizond, and the deposed king went toConstantinople. In 1282, duringJohn's absence from Trebizond, his relative,King David VI Narin of Georgia (David I ofImereti), tried to restoreGeorgian influence in theempire andbesieged the capital. After the failure of the siege, the Georgian army occupied several provinces of the empire,[10] including the historicalChaneti (Lazeti), and helped John's sisterTheodora, daughter ofManuel I and his second wifeRusudan, to seize power, though soon in 1285 John II returned to the empire and regained power, and Queen Theodora took refuge in Georgia.
In the subsequent Trepizuntine civil war the Greek party, supported by theGenoese, and byByzantine mercenaries were opposed by the local nobles, who considered themselves the patriotic champions of native rights. The opposition persuadedAnna, called Anachoutlou, the elder daughter of EmperorAlexios II of Trebizond and hisGeorgian wifeJiajak Jaqeli, to quit her monastic dress and escape toLazia, where she was crowned empress and gained control over the region, and all the native Laz and the Tzan people,[11] recognised her as the legal heir to the throne for being nearest legitimate heir of her brotherBasil.
On July 17, 1341, Anna entered Trebizond triumphantly, followed byLaz warriors of the Georgian KingGeorge V (1314–1346) as well as by Trapezuntine Laz of thebandon of Greater Lazia, and ascended to the throne. She was crowned empress, supported, on the one hand, by theAmytzantarios family and, on the other, by the Laz, the Tzan[12] and, in general, the people of the provinces of the Empire of Trebizond. The prevalence of the indigenous Amytzantarioi after Anna's ascension to the throne had provoked continuous attempts by the opposing Scholarioi to overthrow her with the support of other noble families.
The conflicts between the aristocratic families of Trebizond marked the reign of Anna, who was continuously under the threat of being deposed by the Scholarios family, as well as other aristocratic circles related to Constantinople. The attempts of the Scholarios family were supported by Constantinople, which was disappointed with the fall of Eirene Palaiologina and the ascent of Anna.
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