ABOUT THE NOTE OF MOSES KHORENATS’I (CHRONOLOGY OF IBERO-PONTIC POLITICAL RELATIONS)

Abstract

Very strange dynasty appears in “History of the Armenians” written by Pseudo-Moses Khorenats’i. 1) Alexander appoints Dareh’s (Darius) nakharar (satrap) Mihrdat (Mithridates) to rule over the Iberians (Georgians); 2) king Valarshak alloted vitaxate of Gugark (Gogarene) to head of Mihrdat’s descendants; 3) Mihrdat, one of the pitiaxes, a contemporary of Artashes and Tigranes (Armenian kings), fights Pompejus to defend Pontus in the name of the Armenians; 4) taking advantage of chaos in Rome, Artashes attacks land between two seas (Asia Minor) and also Greece, with a large number of the ships; at last, he is killed by his own soldiers; 5) son of Mihrdat, named after his father, is captured by the Romans. Quite similar information is preserved in “Armenian Geography”. Here Artashes conquers the Greek islands in Aegean Sea, besieges the “famous castle”. The Pontic dynasty of Mithridatids is presented in Pseudo-Moses’ work, but ascribed to Georgian speaking Armenian province of Gugark (Gogarene). Why? To prescribe all the deeds of Mithridates VI Eupator to his ally Tigranes and also to king Artashes. How? Perhaps, seeing a formation of the theme Armeniakon in the early years of Heraclius rule, including also Pontus, why not to declare Pontus as subjugated to Armenia land in the past times?! Of course, there is no mention of Armeniakon in the narrative, as if the story passed on by mouth. Then, what was to be done with the Pontic royal dynasty? Keeping in mind that, for example, according to Josephus, Mithridates, a contemporary of Tigranes, defeated by Lucullus, fled to the Iberians, Pseudo-Moses transferred the whole dynasty into southern Georgian domains by that time subjugated to the Armenians. There the dynasty received new function as a fiction, that of pitiaxes of Gugark. They were ordered to defend Armenian Pontus from the Romans. And all the grand expeditions towards the West were headed by the Armenian kings.  For the same tendencies in “Armenian Geography” it could be also written by Pseudo-Moses in the 10s of the 7th c. Those scholars who think Moses to rely on some oral tradition are quite sure about kingdom of Pontus to intervent into Kartli/Iberia affairs as early as in the beginning of the 3rd c. B.C. Those scholars who think about the notes of Pseudo-Moses to be merely a fiction name Lysimachus in the same context. He assisted Azo, a pretender to Iberian throne. Next pretender, Pharnavaz, was assisted by Seleucus, and he was victorious.