Late Antique Historiography

Tale of the kings

Title(s):
  • Tale of the kings
  • ჰამბავი მეფეთა
    (Hambavi mep‛et‛a, Tale of the kings)
Author:
Period covered:
Remote antiquity-6th c.
Language:
Georgian
State of Preservation:
Hypothetical
Genre:
  • Secular history (epic history)
Remarks:
The work may have commenced with the establishment of the world's first king (and perhaps the creation of the earth), addressed early Christian kings including Mirian and Vakhtang Gorgasali, and seems to have extended down to the Sasanians' suppression of the eastern Georgian monarchy, ca. 580. It parallels, mimics, and may have selectively employed (orally?) the lost Sasanian/Parthian epic Khwaday-namag (Book of kings). Surviving remnants in the Life of the kings refer to a source called Ts‘khorebay sparst‘a, Life of the Iranians/Persians.
Edition - Translation:
Fragments:
Users:
Sources:
Bibliography:
  • P. Ingoroqva (1941) 'Leonti mroveli, k‛art‛veli istorikosi 'hambavt‛a-mtserali' me-8 saukunisa'. Akad. n. maris sakhelobis enis, istoriisa da materialuri kulturis institutis moambe 10: 93-152.
  • S.H. Rapp (2014) The Sasanian world through Georgian eyes: Caucasia and the Iranian commonwealth in late antique Georgian literature. Farnham: 353-375.