Vaxtang gorgasali biography of martin

History - Archive of The Messenger - "King Vakhtang Gorgasali"

The early reign of the Iberian king Vakhtang Gorgasali (447-502) saw the relative revival of the kingdom.

Though formally a vassal of the Persians, he secured Georgia’s northern borders by subjugating the Caucasian mountain peoples and brought the adjacent western and southern Georgian lands under his control.

The Life of Vakhtang Gorgasali states that the king was given at birth the Iranian name Varazkhosrovtang, rendered in Georgian as Vakhtang.

Gorgasali is an Iranian sobriquet meaning “wolf’s head”, which must have been bestowed on him due to the shape of the helmet he wore. He led his people, in an ill-fated alliance with the Eastern Roman Empire, into a lengthy struggle against Sassanid Iranian hegemony which ended with his defeat and the weakening of the kingdom of Iberia.

In 482 he led a general uprising against Persia and started a desperate war fo