Adarnase I

Adarnase I was the prince whom the Byzantine emperor Heraclius set over Tbilisi after the siege of 627 to 628, restoring the line of Vakhtang Gorgasali to power after decades of Guaramid rule. The Georgian Chronicles describe him as a descendant of Dachi, son of Vakhtang, living in Kukheti, east of Tbilisi, when the emperor summoned him and gave him the city; Toumanoff identifies him as a son of Bakur III, the last Khosroid to be called king, and as hereditary eristavi of Kakheti from about 580. In 627 Heraclius joined with the Western Turks to besiege Tbilisi, whose Persian garrison and Guaramid prince Stepanoz I defied him. The city fell in 628 and Stepanoz was put to death; the Armenian historian Movses Daskhurantsi records that Adarnase assisted the besiegers and held three Byzantine dignities, probably including that of patrikios. Toumanoff dates his rule from 627 to about 637 or 642; the year 639 given here is one reckoning of his death. Little is recorded of his government beyond cooperation with Javanshir, prince of Caucasian Albania, against the Persian garrisons remaining in the region on the eve of the Arab conquest. An inscription at the church of Jvari has been attributed to him, though Toumanoff assigned it to his grandson Adarnase II. He was succeeded by his son Stepanos II, and through him the Khosroid house continued as princes of Iberia and of Kakheti down to the martyr Archil and the childless Juansher, whose death ended the dynasty.