Mirian III of Iberia
A request that this article title be changed to Mirian III is under discussion. Please do not move this article until the discussion is closed. |
Mirian III | |
---|---|
Iberia | |
Burial | Samtavro Monastery, Mtskheta |
Spouse | Abeshura Nana |
Issue | Rev II Aspacures II Anonymous daughter |
Dynasty | Chosroid dynasty |
Religion | Georgian Orthodox Church (after 326) Zoroastrianism (before 326)[2] |
Mirian III (
According to the early medieval Georgian annals and hagiography, Mirian was the first Christian king of Iberia, converted through the ministry of
Traditional chronology after
Name
"Mirian" is the Georgian form of the Iranian name of Mihrān.[7] The name is transliterated in Greek as Mithranes.[7] According to the Life of Vakhtang, his name was also associated with Mirdat, meaning "given by Mithra",[8] the name of the ancient Iranian sun god.[9] His name is rendered as Meribanes by the Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus (XXI, 6, 8).[10] The regnal numbers as in Mirian III are modern and were not used by the medieval Georgian authors. Since two kings preceded him with that name, Mirian has been assigned the ordinal "III" in Georgian historiography.[11]
Background and accession
Mirian was a member of the
Other branches of the Mihranid family were a few decades later established on other Caucasian thrones, one of them being in Gugark, and the other in the Armeno-Albania principality of Gardman.[16]
Early reign
The Life of the Kings recount Mirian's reign in much details. While its information about Mirian's participation—as an Iranian client king—in the Sasanid
Mirian, as a Sasanian vassal, took part in Narseh's brief war against the Romans from 297 to 298.[16] The war ended with a crushing Sasanian defeat, forcing Narseh to cede Armenia and Iberia to the Romans.[20][16] Mirian quickly adapted to this change in political situation, and established close ties with Rome.[21] This association was cemented by Mirian's conversion to Christianity[22]—according to tradition—through the ministry of Nino, a Cappadocian nun.[3] Nevertheless, as Ammianus Marcellinus recounts, Constantine's successor, Constantius, had to send in 360 embassies with costly presents to Arsaces of Armenia and Meribanes of Iberia to secure their allegiance during the confrontation with Iran.[23]
Conversion to Christianity
Mirian's conversion to Christianity might have occurred in 334, followed by the declaration of Christianity as Iberia's state religion in 337.
His conversion fostered the growth of the central royal government, which confiscated the pagan temple properties and gave them to the nobles and the church; the medieval Georgian sources give evidence of how actively the monarchy and the nobility propagated Christianity and of the resistance they encountered from the mountain folk.[25] The Roman historian Rufinus as well as the Georgian annals report that, after their conversion, the Iberians requested clergy from the emperor Constantine, who responded vigorously and sent priests and holy relics to Iberia. The Georgian tradition then relates a story of the construction of a cathedral in Mtskheta at Mirian's behest and the king's pilgrimage to Jerusalem shortly before his death.[24] According to tradition, Mirian and his wife Nana were interred at the Samtavro convent in Mtskheta, where their tombs are still shown.[4]
Family
The Georgian sources speak of Mirian's two marriages. His first wife was Abeshura, daughter of the last Arsacid Iberian king who also traced his ancestry to the ancient
References
- ^ მ. გ. ჯანაშვილი „საქართველოს ისტორია უძველეს დროითგან 985 წლ. ქრ. შ.“. ტომი I. საქართველოს ისტორია. I. უუძველესი ხანა. განყოფილება I. თავდაპირვანდელი ცნობები. თავი I. ქართველთა წინაპრები და სამშობლო. ტფილისი, ელექტრონითმბეჭდავი ამხ. „შრომა“, მიხეილის პრ. № 65. 1906. 139-ე გვერდის შენიშვნა.
- ^ a b c Rapp 2014, p. 355.
- ^ a b Lang, David Marshall (1956), Lives and legends of the Georgian saints, pp. 13-39. London: Allen & Unwin
- ^ a b Machitadze, Archpriest Zakaria (2006), "The Feast of the Robe of our Lord, the Myrrh-streaming and Life-giving Pillar, Equals-to-the-Apostles King Mirian and Queen Nana, and Saints Sidonia and Abiatar (4th century)" Archived 2012-03-06 at the Wayback Machine, in The Lives of the Georgian Saints Archived 2008-06-14 at the Wayback Machine. Pravoslavie.Ru. Retrieved on April 15, 2009.
- ^ a b Rapp 2003, pp. 293–295.
- ^ a b Toumanoff, Cyril (1967). Studies in Christian Caucasian History. Georgetown University Press. pp. 83–84, 377.
- ^ a b Rapp 2014, p. 225.
- ^ Rapp 2014, p. 224, 225 (note 209).
- ^ Mayor 2009, p. 1.
- ^ Aleksidze 2018; Toumanoff 1969, p. 21
- ^ Rapp 2003, pp. 293–295; Toumanoff 1967, pp. 83–84, 377
- ^ Toumanoff 1969, p. 22; Rapp 2014, pp. 243–244; Pourshariati 2008, p. 44; Lenski 2002, p. 157; Bowman 2005, p. 489; Stausberg, Vevaina & Tessmann 2015, p. 121
- ^ Pourshariati 2008, p. 49.
- ^ a b c Rapp 2014, pp. 243–244.
- ^ Rapp 2017, p. 9.
- ^ a b c d Toumanoff 1969, p. 22.
- ^ Rapp 2014, p. 247.
- ^ a b c Rapp 2017, p. 1.
- ^ Rapp 2017, p. 29.
- ^ Weber 2016.
- ^ Suny 1994, p. 15.
- ^ Lenski 2002, p. 157.
- ISBN 0-14-044406-8
- ^ ISBN 0-19-826373-2
- ISBN 0-19-511031-5
- ^ Toumanoff 1969, pp. 21–23.
Sources
- Aleksidze, Nikoloz (2018). "Mirian (Meribanes)". In Nicholson, Oliver (ed.). ISBN 978-0-19-866277-8.
- Brunner, Christopher (1983). "Geographical and Administrative divisions: Settlements and Economy". The Cambridge History of Iran: The Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian periods (2). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 747–778. ISBN 978-0-521-24693-4.
- Lenski, Noel (2002). Failure of Empire: Valens and the Roman State in the Fourth Century A.D. University of California Press.
- Stausberg, Michael; Vevaina, Yuhan Sohrab-Dinshaw; Tessmann, Anna (2015). The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Zoroastrianism. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
- Mayor, Adrienne (2009). The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome's Deadliest Enemy. Princeton University Press. pp. 1–448. ISBN 9780691150260.
- Bowman, Alan (2005). The Cambridge Ancient History: Volume 12, The Crisis of Empire, AD 193-337. Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–965.
- ISBN 978-1-4422-4146-6.
- Rapp, Stephen H. (2003). Studies in Medieval Georgian Historiography: Early Texts and Eurasian Contexts. Peeters. ISBN 978-2-87723-723-9.
- Rapp, Stephen H. (2014). The Sasanian World through Georgian Eyes: Caucasia and the Iranian Commonwealth in Late Antique Georgian Literature. Routledge. ISBN 978-1472425522.
- Rapp, Stephen H. (2017). "Georgia before the Mongols (2017)". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History. Oxford University Press: 1–39.
- Rayfield, Donald (2013). Edge of Empires: A History of Georgia. Reaktion Books. ISBN 978-1780230702.
- ISBN 0-253-20915-3.
- Pourshariati, Parvaneh (2008). Decline and Fall of the Sasanian Empire: The Sasanian-Parthian Confederacy and the Arab Conquest of Iran. London and New York: I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1-84511-645-3.
- S2CID 151606969. (registration required)
- S2CID 151472930. (registration required)
- Weber, Ursula (2016). "Narseh". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica, Online Edition. Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation.