In the eastern part of the same empire, an autonomous coastal theme of Greater Lazia was established. With the Georgian intervention in Chaldia and collapse of Byzantine Empire in 1204, Empire of Trebizond was established along the southeastern coast of the Black Sea, populated by a large Kartvelian-speaking population. Map of the Trebizond Empire in Anatolia, c. In 780, kingdom of Abkhazia incorporated the former territories of Lazica via a dynastic succession, thus ousting the Pontic Lazs (formerly known as Tzanni) from western Georgia thereafter, the Tzanni lived under nominal Byzantine suzerainty in the theme of Chaldia, with its capital at Trebizond, governed by the native semi-autonomous rulers, like the Gabras family, of possibly "Greco-Laz" or simply Chaldian origin. The 10th-century Arab geographer Abul Feda regards city of Trebizond as being largely a Lazian port. From the second half of the eight century the Trebizond area is referred to in Greek sources (namely of Epiphanius of Constantinople) as Lazica. According to Geography of Anania Shirakatsi of the 7th century, Colchis ( Yeger in Armenian sources, same as Lazica) was subdivided into four small districts, one of them being Tzanica, that is Chaldia, and mentions Athinae, Rhizus and Trebizond among its cities. As the result of Muslim invasions, the ancient metropolis, Phasis, was lost and Trebizond became the new Metropolitan bishop of Lazica, since then the name Lazi appears the general Greek name for Tzanni. Emperor Heraclius's offensive in 628 AD brought victory over the Persians and ensured Roman predominance in Lazica until the invasion and conquest of the Caucasus by the Arabs in the second half of the seventh century. By the mid-third century, the Lazi tribe came to dominate most of Colchis, establishing the kingdom of Lazica.įrom 542 to 562, Lazica was a scene of the protracted rivalry between the Eastern Roman and Sassanid empires, culminating in the Lazic War, where 1,000 Tzanni auxiliaries under Dagisthaeus participated. The second-century historian Arrian notes that Tzanni, same as the Sanni are neighbours of the Colchians, while the latter were now referred to as the Lazi. The first-century historians Memnon and Strabo remark in passing that the people formerly called Macrones bore in his day the name of Sanni, a claim supported also by Stephanus of Byzantium.
Roman control remained likewise only nominal over the tribes of the interior. The former southern provinces of Colchis were reorganized into the Roman province of Pontus Polemoniacus, while the northern Cholchis became the Roman province of Lazicum. Mithridates VI conquered the Colchis, and gave it to his son Mithridates of Colchis.Īs a result of the brilliant Roman campaigns between 88-63 BC, led by the generals Pompey and Lucullus, the kingdom of Pontus was completely destroyed by the Romans and all its territory, including Colchis, was incorporated into the Roman Empire. Culturally, the kingdom was Hellenized, with Greek as the official language. The Achaemenid Empire was defeated by Alexander the Great, however following the Alexander's death a number of separate kingdoms were established in Anatolia, including Pontus, in the corner of the southern Black Sea, ruled by the Persian nobleman Mithridates I. Trebizond's trade partners included the Proto-Laz tribes of Mossynoeci.Įthnic map of the Caucasus in the 5th and 4th centuries BCīy the sixth century BC, the tribes living in the southern Colchis ( Macrones, Mossynoeci, Marres etc.) were incorporated into the nineteenth satrapy of Persia.
In the eighth century, several Greek trading colonies were established along the shores of the Black Sea, one of them being Trebizond ( Greek: Τραπεζοῦς, romanized: Trapezous) founded by Milesian traders from Sinope in 756 BC.
Colchis was an important region in Black Sea trade – rich with gold, wax, hemp, and honey. In the thirteenth century BC, the Kingdom of Colchis was formed as a result of the increasing consolidation of the tribes inhabiting the region, which covered modern western Georgia and Turkey's north-eastern provinces of Trabzon, Rize and Artvin. Modern theories suggest that the Colchian tribes are direct ancestors of the Laz- Mingrelians, they constituted the dominant ethnic and cultural presence in the south-eastern Black Sea region in antiquity, and hence played a significant role in the ethnogenesis of the modern Georgians. The Lazuri-speaking ancestors of the modern Laz originally hailed from the northeast, from the southern part of Abkhazia, and settled in the present homeland of the Laz in antiquity. Boundaries of southern part of Colchis, from Reditus Decem Millium Graecorum, 1815 History Origins