Teodos II

Teodos II, called the Blind, was the last king of Abkhazia of the old dynasty, a son of Giorgi II whose troubled reign ended when the nobility replaced him with his nephew Bagrat III of Georgia. The Chronicle of Kartli explains that Giorgi had sent two of his younger sons, Teodos and Bagrat, to be raised in Constantinople so that there would be no struggle between them and their brothers. When Leon III died and Demetre II succeeded, certain men of the country summoned Teodos to oppose him. He came from Byzantium to Samtskhe, gathered Meskhian nobles at Margis Mere, and was defeated by Demetre's army in a surprise attack. He fled to Adarnase, lord of Dzama in Kartli, where Demetre's troops besieged him for about three months before the defenders obtained an oath that he might depart in peace. He spent a year with David III Kuropalates in Tao and then went on to Kvirike II of Kakheti.

Demetre next sent envoys proposing that the brothers rule their patrimony jointly, as he and Leon had done, and Kvirike, undertaking to avenge him if anything went wrong, sent Teodos home. He came to his brother under an oath sworn by the Katholikos before the Living Pillar at Mtskheta, and after a few days Demetre broke it and had his eyes gouged out. The deed provoked such indignation that the nobles tried to raise another brother, nicknamed the Straw King, but Demetre was too strong. When Demetre died without heirs, the whole country brought out the blinded Teodos and made him king.

The chronicle says that under Teodos the Blind the land fell into decay and the ordinances of the first kings were overturned. After three years the nobles, led by Ivane Marushisdze of Kartli, begged David III Kuropalates of Tao for his adopted son Bagrat, the son of Teodos's sister Gurandukht and the Bagrationi prince Gurgen. Bagrat was consecrated king of Abkhazia in 978 and sent his uncle Teodos to David in Tao, where he disappears from the record. The Divan of the Abkhazian Kings gives Teodos two years; Toumanoff dates his reign about 976 to 978, other scholars 975 to 978.