Kingdom of Iberia

In Greco-Roman geography, Iberia (Greek Ἰβηρία, Georgian: იბერია [ibɛriɑ]) was the name for a kingdom of the Southern Caucasus, centered on present-day Eastern Georgia. Around the first centuries BC and AD the land south of the Greater Caucasus and north of the Lesser Caucasus was divided between Colchis in the west, Caucasian Iberia in the center and Caucasian Albania in the east. To the southwest was Armenia and to the southeast Atropatene. Iberia, also known in Georgian as Kartli (Georgian: ქართლი), after its core province, was during Classical Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages a significant state in the Caucasus, either as an independent state or as a dependent of larger empires, notably the Sassanid and Roman empires. Its population, known as the Caucasian Iberians, formed the nucleus of the Georgians (Kartvelians), and the state, together with Colchis to its west, would form the nucleus of the medieval Kingdom of Georgia.

Starting in the early 6th century AD, the kingdom's position as a Sassanian vassal state was changed into effectively direct Persian rule. In 580, king Hormizd IV (578-590) abolished the monarchy after the death of King Bakur III, and Iberia became a Persian province ruled by a marzpan (governor).