Guaram I (Guram I or Gurgen I; cargo. ______ I; died in about 591 or 602) – the first ruler of the Kartli Erismtavarism (571 / 586-591 / 602); the first of the Georgian rulers to receive the title of kuropalate from the emperors of Byzantium; founder of the Guaramid dynasty; according to some historians, the first representative of Bagration on the throne of Georgia.

Biography

Historical sources

Guaram I is mentioned in several medieval Georgian historical sources, including the Life of Vakhtang Gorgasal by Juansher Juansheriani, the Address of Georgia and the History and Narration of Bagration by Sumbat Davitis-dze. Guaram is also reported in the writings of his contemporaries who lived in Byzantium: in the History of Theophanes the Byzantine, he is called Gurgen (cf. Greek _________), and in the Church History of John of Ephesus – Gorgonius. The events in which Guaram I participated are also described in the writings of other medieval authors: Menander the Protector, Theophilact Simokatta, Evagrius Scholastic, Sebeos, Theophanes the Confessor, Ibn Jarir at-Tabari, Hovhannes Draskhanakertzi, Stepanos Taronetsi, and also in "Shakhtar".

Origin

According to the testimony of Juansher Juansheriani, Guaram I was the grandson of the king of Iberia Vakhtang I Gorgasali from the Khosroid dynasty and his second wife, the Byzantine woman, Elena. However, the work of this author does not indicate who Guaram’s father was. In turn, Sumbat Davitis-dze, who lived in the 11th century, wrote that Guaram was the grandson of Vakhtang I by his mother, that his father’s name was Bagrat, and that his grandfather was Guaram, and that he was the first to be called Bagration by his father’s name. The same author cited the legendary genealogy of the Guaram ancestors, tracing it to the Israelite kings David and Solomon. The Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus also mentioned the Jewish origin of the Georgian Bagrations in his work „On the Administration of the Empire". Vakhushti Bagrationi adhered to the same opinion about the ancestors of Guarama. According to these sources, Guaram I is often referred to as the first ruler of Georgia from the Bagration clan.

However, a number of historians consider this evidence to be erroneous, since the earliest reliable evidence of Georgian Bagration dates back to the second half of the 8th century. They suggest that the first representatives of this clan who settled in Georgia were either Vasak, the younger brother of the Armenian prince Smbat VII Bagratuni, or Ashot I Kuropalat. These researchers adhere to the point of view first expressed by Kirill Tumanov, according to which the father of Guaram was Leon, the youngest son of Vakhtang Gorgasali. In this opinion, Guaram belonged to that branch of the Khosroid dynasty, whose representatives were deprived of the opportunity to claim the throne of the Iberian kingdom.

early years

Almost nothing is known about the early years of Guaram I’s life. The data on the death of Guaram’s grandfather and father, preserved in the legends, allow us to date the beginning of his reign of his hereditary possessions to the 540s. However, this assumption is most likely unlikely. There is also an opinion that Guaram could have been the heir to the throne of Iberia during the time of Bakur III, but this is also unlikely to be true. It is only known for certain that by the beginning of the 570s Guaram ruled over the western regions of the Iberian kingdom: Klarjeti and Javakheti.

Anti-Sassanian uprising in Iberia (571-572)

The first dated evidence of Guaram I dates back to 571, when he, along with other rulers of Sassanid Iberia, joined the uprising raised against the Sassanian state by the Armenian prince Vardan III Mamikonian. It is assumed that in the same year at the meeting of aznauri Guaram was elected ruler of the lands that were part of the Iberian kingdom. In Georgian sources Guaram I is referred to as eismtavar („the leading prince" or „head of the people"). That is, contrary to the reports of medieval authors, he was not a king, but only a prince, „the first among equals." Such a limitation of the power of Guarama, according to some sources, was associated with the struggle for power still waged between the Eristavians at that time, according to others, with the unwillingness of the Iberian nobility to obey the autocratic monarch. According to a number of testimonies, Guaram received power only by agreeing not to deprive him of his possessions and not to punish the Eristavians who were disobedient to him.

Soon after the beginning of the uprising, its leaders turned to Emperor Justin II for help, which was one of the reasons for the start of a new Iranian-Byzantine war in 572. Probably at the same time the Byzantine emperor recognized the rights of Guaram I to rule over Iberia.

Unlike the actions of the Armenians, medieval authors very briefly describe the actions of the Iberians during this uprising. It is only reported that, despite the help of Byzantium, already in 572 the uprising in Iberia ended in failure. Although the Armenians continued to resist the invasions of the Iranians for some time, in the end they too were forced to submit to the rule of the Sassanids again. The leaders of the rebels fled to Byzantium. So, Guaram first took refuge in Lazika, subject to the Byzantine emperor, and from there he moved to Constantinople. In the capital of Byzantium, Guaram spent at least several years.

Ruler of Kartli

The following news about Guaram I dates back to the reign of the emperor Mauritius, who ascended the throne in 582. According to medieval Georgian sources, no later than 586, an embassy of the Iberians arrived at the court of Mauritius, who raised a new revolt against the Sassanids. The ambassadors, on behalf of the Eristavs, turned to the emperor with a request to give them as rulers one of those descendants of Vakhtang I Gorgasali who were in Byzantium. The choice of Mauritius fell on Guaram: he was endowed with the title of kuropalata and sent to Iberia. Upon arrival in Mtskheta, Guaram overthrew the Sassanid marzpan who ruled the Iberians and himself became the ruler of the surrounding lands. According to Theophanes the Byzantine and Juansher Juansheriani, Tbilisi became the capital of Guaram. However, according to other sources, Guaram could have returned to Iberia as early as 582, and with the consent of the Shahinshah Ormizd IV, first to receive the control of Klarjeti, and then Kartli. There is no doubt only that in 586 Guaram was already recognized as the ruler of Kartli both in Byzantium and in the Sassanid state.

Additional information about Guaram I is provided by numismatic research. According to them, he was the first ruler of Kartli who began to mint his own coins. Several silver coins have survived, made under Guaram and his successors in imitation of the Sassanian drachmas. One of them, dated to the "seventh year of Ormizd" (that is, 586), simultaneously depicts the shahinshah Ormizd IV, Zoroastrian symbols and a Christian cross, as well as engraved the abbreviation "GN", that is, "Gurgen". On this basis, it is concluded that the name Guaram (or Guram) was the personal name of this Kartlian ruler, and the name Gurgen was used as a throne name, which was reflected on the coins and in the writings of Byzantine authors. However, it is also possible that the word „Gurgen" minted on the coins was not a name, but a toponym, the name of Kartli in its Middle Persian form: „Gorgan" or „Gurgan". The use of Sassanid samples by Guaram I for his coins by a number of historians is interpreted as a fact confirming the subordination of the Kartlian Eismtavar to the power of the Shahinshahs. According to other researchers, Guaram’s use of his own monogram and Christian symbols on coins is likely to indicate the pro-Byzantine orientation of the ruler of the Kartlian Erismtavarism.

It is assumed that Guaram I skillfully took advantage of the war that had been waged between Byzantium and the Sassanid state for many years: first he won the favor of Ormizd IV, and when in 588 and 589 the Sassanian army suffered several heavy defeats from the Byzantines and the Khazars, he recognized his submission to Mauritius. Perhaps these events should include Guaram’s obtaining the title of kuropalat. As a ruler subject to the Byzantine emperor, Guarama is mentioned in the message about the raid carried out at that time by the army of „oats, durdzuk and dido" to Adurbadagan. This attack was organized by the ruler of Kartli with money received from the Byzantines. According to Juanshera Juansheriani, it was the threat of a retaliatory invasion by the Sassanids that forced Guaram to launch extensive construction activities in his possessions, during which Erismtavar began to „strengthen fortresses and cities." According to L.N. Gumilev, Guaram I was also an intermediary in the coordination of anti-Sassanid actions between the rulers of Byzantium and the Turkic Kaganate.

Probably Guaram I lived to see the end of the Iranian-Byzantine war of 572-591. It is assumed that after the partition of Iberia under the Treaty of Ctesiphon, he was forced to leave Tbilisi, which remained under the rule of the Sassanids, and move his residence to Mtskheta, which passed to the Byzantines. Thus, by the end of his reign, the power of Guaram I extended only to a part of the former Iberian kingdom, which later became known as Kartli.

There is not much information about other events of Guaram I’s reign in medieval sources. He is credited with the founding of the Jvari monastery in Mtskheta and the beginning of the construction of the Sioni church in Tbilisi. The construction of both of these temples was completed after his death.

The exact date of Guaram I’s death is not known. It is believed that this could have happened in about 591 or 602. The first date is conditioned by the evidence contained in the „Appeal of Georgia" that Guaram was still alive when Bartholomew became the Iberian catalikos in 591. The second date is determined by the first reliable mention of the successor of Guaram as the ruler of the Kartli Erismtavarism, his eldest son Stephanos I the Great. Demeter, the youngest son of Guaram, is mentioned in sources with Byzantine titles as Honorary Consul and Ipat. The descendants of Guaram I are known as the Guaramids.