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In ancient geography, Colchis or Kolchis (Georgian: კოლხეთი Kolkheti; Laz: Kolxa; Greek —
Κολχίς, kŏl´kĬs) was an ancient
Georgian kingdom and region[1]
in the Caucasus, which played an important role in the ethnic and cultural
formation of the Georgian nation[2]
The Kingdom of Colchis as an early Georgian state contributed significantly
in development of the medieval Georgian statehood after its unification with
eastern Georgian Kingdom of Iberia-Kartli[3].
Now mostly the western part of Georgia, it was in Greek
mythology the home of Aeëtes and Medea and the destination of the Argonauts,
as well as being the possible homeland of the Amazons. The ancient area is
represented roughly by the present day Georgian provinces of Mingrelia,
Imereti, Guria, Ajaria, Svaneti, Racha, Abkhazia and the modern Turkey’s Rize
Province and parts of Trabzon and Artvin provinces.
One of the most important elements in the modern Georgian nation, the
Colchians were probably established in the Caucasus
by the Middle Bronze Age[4].
GEOGRAPHY AND
TOPONYMS
The Kingdom of Colchis, which existed from the sixth
to the first centuries B.C.E., is believed to be the first Georgian
state[5].
A proto-Georgian tribal union that emerged at the eastern
Black Sea coast by the end of the 13th century BC later on transformed itself
into the Kingdom
of Colchis[6].
According to most classic authors, Colchis was the country bounded on the
southwest by Pontus, on the west by the Pontus Euxinus as far as the river
Corax (probably the present day Bzybi River, Abkhazia, Georgia), on the north
by the chain of the Greater Caucasus, which lay between it and Asiatic
Sarmatia, on the east by Iberia and Montes Moschici (now the Lesser
Caucasus), and on the south by Armenia. There is some little difference in
authors as to the extent of the country westward: thus Strabo makes Colchis begin at Trapezus
(Trebizond), while Ptolemy, on the other hand, extended Pontus to the river Phasis.
Pityus was the last town to the north in Colchis.
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The first
ancient authors to mention the name of Colchis
were Aeschylus and Pindar. The earlier writers only mention it under the name
of Aea (Aia), the residence of the mythical king Aeetes. The main river was
the Phasis (now Rioni), which was according to some writers the south
boundary of Colchis, but more probably flowed through the middle of that
country from the Caucasus west by south to the Euxine, and the Anticites or
Atticitus (now Kuban).
Arrian
mentions many others by name, but they would seem to have been little more
than mountain torrents: the most important of them were Charieis, Chobus or
Cobus, Singames, Tarsuras, Hippus, Astelephus, Chrysorrhoas, several of which
are also noticed by Ptolemy and Pliny. The chief towns were Dioscurias or
Dioscuris (under the Romans called Sebastopolis, now Sukhumi)
on the sea-board of the Euxine, Sarapana (now Shorapani), Phasis (now Poti),
Pityus (now Pitsunda), Apsaros (now Gonio), Surium (now Surami), Archaeopolis
(now Nokalakevi), Macheiresis, and Cyta or Cutatisium (now Kutaisi), the traditional birthplace of
Medea. Scylax mentions also Mala or Male, which he, in contradiction to other
writers, makes the birthplace of Medea.
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EARLIEST HISTORY
The area was home to the well-developed bronze culture known as the Colchian
culture, related to the neighbouring Koban culture, that emerged towards the
Middle Bronze Age. In at least some parts of Colchis
the process of urbanization seems to have been well advanced by the end of
the second millennium BC, centuries before Greek settlement. Their Late
Bronze Age (15th to 8th Century BC) saw the development of an expertise in
the smelting and casting of metals that began long before this skill was
mastered in Europe. Sophisticated farming
implements were made and fertile, well-watered lowlands blessed with a mild
climate promoted the growth of progressive agricultural techniques.
Colchis was inhabited by a number of related, but still pretty different
tribes whose settlements lay chiefly along the shore of the Black
Sea. The chief of those were the Machelones, Heniochi, Zydretae,
Lazi, Tibareni, Mossynoeci, Macrones, Moschi, Marres, Apsilae (probably
modern-day Abkhaz-speakers), Abasci (possibly modern-day Abaza), Sanigae,
Coraxi, Coli, Melanchlaeni, Geloni and Soani (Suani). These tribes differed
so completely in language and appearance from the surrounding nations that
the ancients originated various theories to account for the phenomenon.
Herodotus, who states that they, with the Egyptians and the Ethiopians, were
the first to practice circumcision, believed them to have sprung from the
relics of the army of Pharaoh Sesostris III (1878-1841 BC), and thus regarded
them as Egyptians. Apollonius Rhodius states that the Egyptians of Colchis
preserved as heirlooms a number of wooden tablets showing seas and highways
with considerable accuracy. Though this theory was not generally adopted by
the ancients, it has been defended – but not with complete success, by some
modern writers. There seems to have been a Negroid component (which predates
the Arab slave trade) along the Black Sea
region, whose origins could very well be traced to an Ancient Extra-African
expedition, although this cannot be verified by archaeological evidence.
Modern theories suggest that the main Colchian tribes are direct
ancestors of the Laz-Mingrelians, and played a significant role in
ethnogenesis of the Georgian and Abkhazian peoples.
In the 13th century BC, the Kingdom of Colchis
was formed as a result of the increasing consolidation of the tribes
inhabiting the region. This power celebrated in Greek mythology as the
destination of the Argonauts, the home of Medea and the special domain of
sorcery, was known to Urartians as Qulha (aka Kolkha, or Kilkhi). Being in
permanent wars with the neighbouring nations, the Colchians managed to absorb
part of Diaokhi in the 750s BC, but lost several provinces (including the
“royal city” of Ildemusa) to the Sarduris II of Urartu following the wars of 750-748
and 744-742 BC. Overrun by the Cimmerians and Scythians in the 730s-720s BC,
the kingdom disintegrated and came under the Achaemenid Persian Empire
towards the mid-6th century BC. The tribes living in the southern Colchis
(Tibareni, Mossynoeci, Macrones, Moschi, and Marres) were incorporated in the
19th Satrapy of the Persia,
while the northern tribes submitted “voluntarily” and had to send to the
Persian court 100 girls and 100 boys in every 5 years. The influence exerted
on Colchis by the vast Achaemenid Empire
with its thriving commerce and wide economic and commercial ties with other
regions accelerated the socio-economic development of the Colchian land.
Subsequently the Colchis people appear to
have overthrown the Persian Authority, and to have formed an independent
state[7].
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GREEK COLONIZATION
The advanced economy
and favorable geographic and natural conditions of the area attracted the
Milesian Greeks who colonized the Colchian coast establishing here their
trading posts at Phasis, Gyenos, and Dioscurias in the 6th-5th centuries BC.
It was considered "the farthest voyage" according to an ancient
Greek proverbial expression, the easternmost location in that society's known
world, where the sun rose. It was situated just outside the lands conquered
by Alexander the Great. Phasis and Dioscurias were the splendid Greek cities
dominated by the mercantile oligarchies, sometimes being troubled by the Colchians
from hinterland before seemingly assimilating totally. After the fall of the
Persian Empire, significant part of Colchis locally known as Egrisi was
annexed to the recently created Kingdom
of Iberia (Kartli) in
ca. 302 BC. However, soon Colchis seceded
and broke up into several small princedoms ruled by sceptuchi. They retained
a degree of independence until conquered (circa 101 BC) by Mithradates VI of Pontus.
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