The Christianisation of Georgia

The Black Sea Region:
Past, Present and Future
An international inter-disciplinary conference
Session B Paper Abstracts
B1. Cultural Exchange in the Prehistoric and Historic Periods

The Christianisation of Georgia

Emzar Kakhidze
Batumi Scientific-Research Institute, Georgia
emzkakh@hotmail.com

At the very early stages of its own history, western Georgia (Colchis of the Classical period, Lazica of early Byzantine times), as well as eastern Georgia (Iberia), had already been influenced by eastern countries, but starting from the great Greek colonisation onwards it gradually connected further with western Classical civilisation. Nevertheless, in spite of these circumstances, this region did not become a component member of the Graeco-Roman world. However, from the third century AD a tendency towards bringing together 'western' and local beliefs and cults can be observed. Due to foreign influence there was a crisis of polytheism and a striving for monotheism. It appears that close political and economic interrelation with the Roman world, together with a cultural readiness to accept new ideologies, guaranteed the spread of Christianity in Colchis via the coastal cities. (It is not impossible that this religion was introduced to the region from the first centuries AD. Along with the evangelised visits of Andrew and some other apostles, the Georgian Church acknowledges as facts the funeral of Simon the Cananean in Anakophia in Abkhazia and Mathias in Apsarus, near Batumi.) This process gained momentum in the fourth century, as attested by the punishment of Orentius, a Roman military server, and his six 'brothers' in the forts of the southeastern and eastern Black Sea littoral soon after AD 300. It should also be noted that the bishop of Pityus (present-day Pitsunda, Abkhazia), Stratophilus, together with Domnius, bishop of Trapezus, took part in the First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in AD 325. Several basilicas were built in western Georgia - in Petra (between Batumi and Kobuleti), Pichvnari (near Kobuleti), Vashnari (near Poti, ancient Phasis) and Archaeopolis (modern Nokalakevi to the northeast of Poti), Pityus. Their design was characteristic of the Middle East and, at the same time, very close to Byzantine architectural traditions. Christian burials and archaeological evidence linked with the new religion have been found in Pityus, Petra, Pichvnari, Makhvilauri (near Batumi) and in the hinterland. From this point of view it is interesting that the 'pro-Iranian' king of Lazi, Gobazes I, arrived in Constantinople in 465-466 with the paraphernalia of Christianity.
But we should not forget that, in contrast to coastal centres, the new ideology came across difficulties in the hinterland. The circumstances were the same in the eastern, less hellenised or Romanised regions and rural communities. Indeed, we have only minor archaeological indications of Christianity from the hinterland in the fourth to the fifth centuries. According to the written sources, inhabitants of Lazica's surrounding mountain regions, like the Tzani to the south or martial tribes to the north, embraced Christianity only in the sixth century. The situation in Lazica proper is not clear. The king of the Lazi, Tzathius I, had abandoned Christianity to aid his political ambitions with Persia but was re-baptised in 522. It is not at all accidental that the authors of Byzantine ecclesiastical literature considered that western Georgia was officially Christianised in the sixth century, and this conception is accepted without any criticism by a number of present-day scholars - though there are some others who suggest that Christianity was officially accepted in Lazica as soon as Iberia adopted it (early half of the fourth century). It is, of course, undoubtedly so that the significant part of the local population, particularly highlanders, were Christianised comparatively later, in the sixth century, and that, in turn, points to the final victory and stability of this religion.
As is well known, the history of Lazica in this century was distinguished by a decisive conflict between the Byzantine and Persian empires for control of the region. This confrontation had not only political, but also ideological meaning. The expansion of Iran, in geopolitical terms, meant the destruction of eastern Georgia's rear, as well as the creation of an additional play-ground for the removal of Byzantium from the Caucasus and then from the East. As for spiritual aspects, this could be regarded as an attempt to return back the western and, consequently, the whole of Georgia to the Oriental world. From this point of view, the Persian policy in Iberia, where fire worship and 'pro-Iranian' Monophysitism prevailed in comparison with Lazica, seems to be of an even more ideological character.
The victory of the pro-Byzantine cause was the result of ideological rather than political factors. It is well attested by the public meeting which was held somewhere in Lazica in 555. There, Christianity appeared to be of greater importance for the people than even the murder of their own king, Gobazes II, by Byzantine officers. On the other hand, Iran played a 'counterpart' role against the Byzantine plans to incorporate the Lazi, as well as the Tzani. The latter, like other 'barbarians', scorned Roman legislation and carried out robbing raids during the period of the fourth to fifth centuries, but their actions were spontaneous and not co-ordinated, and hence unable to remove from the region the machine that so successfully executed its own task of mixing and Romanisation. As a result, the Tzani were cut off from other Kartvelian (Georgian) language-speaking people and, consequently, their mother Church, and little by little became the supporters of Byzantine expansionistic policy in the region. In contrast to them, the Lazi had been relatively loyal towards the Roman or Byzantine state system. Eventually, with the help of eastern Georgians, they finally became independent ecclesiastically too, and together further contributed to the origination of a common Christian culture.
It is significant that western Georgia failed to develop because of very hard political cataclysms and a number of internal affairs (a lack of a strictly organised state system and an inability to overcome intra-tribal feuds). As a result, Colchis gave up its place to Iberia in the third century BC and hence the latter did not miss the chance to determine the form of a Georgian state system and culture. This structure became more visibly distinct after the establishment of an autonomous catholicosate and the creation of the Georgian writing system during the fifth century AD. Meanwhile the Lazian people, like many other eastern Christians, turned out to be under the control of Constantinople, and, consequently, they were forced to listen to the foreign Greek language during the ceremonial services performed in their churches.