Late Antique Historiography

Life of Vakhtang Gorgasali

Title(s):
  • Life of Vakhtang Gorgasali
  • History of Vakhtang Gorgasali
  • ცხორებაჲ ვახტანგ გორგასალისა
    (Ts‛khorebay vakhtang gorgaslisa, The life of Vakhtang Gorgasali)
Author:
Period covered:
411-552
Language:
Georgian
State of Preservation:
Full
Genre:
  • Secular history (epic history)
Remarks:
The Life of Vakhtang (Vaxtang) is exclusively preserved in the historiographical corpus K‛art‛lis ts‛khovreba (variants K‛art‛lis c‛xovreba, Kartlis Tskhovreba). It forms the core component of the corpus' second suite Ts‛khorebay vakhtang gorgaslisa (C‛xorebay vaxtang gorgaslisa, Tskhovreba Vakhtang Gorgaslisa), after which the text is named. Most scholars conflate the two distinct components of Ts‛khorebay vakhtang gorgaslisa into a single text attributed to Juansher Juansheriani. The work was later adapted into Armenian. It relies heavily on the hypothetical Hambavi mep‛et‛a; similar, truncated (but not identical) accounts of the period appear in the three Lists of Georgian rulers.
The work covers the period from the Sasanians' execution of the Chosroid King Mirdat IV (r. 409-411) in Seleucia-Ctesiphon and features the lengthy reign of Vakhtang I Gorgasali (r. 447-522).
Edition - Translation:
  • R. Metreveli (2008) (ed.) K‛art‛lis ts‛khovreba. Tbilisi: 85-150.
  • S. Qaukhch‛ishvili (1955) K‛art‛lis ts‛khovreba. Volume One. Tbilisi: 139-204.
  • I. Abuladze (1953) K‛art‛lis ts‛khovrebis dzveli somkhuri t‛argmani [=Patmut‛iwn Vrats‛]. T‛bilisi: 139-186. Reprinted as K‛art‛lis c‛xovreba: The Georgian royal annals and their medieval Armenian adaptation. Volume Two, ed. S. Rapp. Delmar (NY).
  • G. Pätsch (1985) Das Leben Kartlis: Eine Chronik aus Georgien 300-1200. Leipzig.
  • R.W. Thomson (1996) Rewriting Caucasian history: The medieval Armenian adaptation of the Georgian chronicles, the original Georgian texts and the Armenian adaptation (Oxford Oriental monographs). Oxford: 153-251.
  • S. Jones (2014) (ed.) Kartlis Tskhovreba: A history of Georgia. Tbilisi: 77-105.
Fragments:
Users:
Sources:
Bibliography:
  • V. Goliadze (1991) Vakhtang gorgasali da misi istorikosi. Tbilisi: 205-207.
  • I. Javakhishvili (1977) Dzveli k‛art‛uli saistorio mtserloba (V-XVIII ss.). Tbilisi.
  • B. Martin-Hisard (1983) 'Le roi géorgien Vaxt’ang Gorgasal dans l'histoire et dans la légende'. In: Temps, mémoire, tradition au môyen age: Actes des congrès de la Société des historiens médiévistes de l'enseignement supérieur public. Aix-en-Provence: 207-242.
  • S.H. Rapp (2001) 'From Bumberazi to Basileus: Writing cultural synthesis and dynastic change in medieval Georgia (K'art'li)'. In: Eastern approaches to Byzantium, ed. A. Eastmond. Aldershot: 101-116.
  • S.H. Rapp (2014) The Sasanian world through Georgian eyes: Caucasia and the Iranian commonwealth in late antique Georgian literature. Farnham: 271-329.
  • C. Toumanoff (1943) 'Medieval Georgian historical literature (7th-15th centuries)'. Traditio 1: 139-182.
  • C. Toumanoff (1963) Studies in Christian Caucasian history. Washington, D.C.