Adarnase I of Iberia

Adarnase I ( _ka. ადარნასე I) or Adrnerse (ადრნერსე, also transliterated as Atrnerseh), of the Chosroid dynasty, was a presiding prince of Iberia (Kartli, eastern Georgia) from 627 to 637/642.

He was the son of Bakur III, the last king of Iberia, and a hereditary duke (eristavi) of Kakheti. In 627, he assisted the Byzantine-Khazar army with the siege of Tbilisi and was made ruler of Iberia by the Byzantine emperor Heraclius who had the pro-Sassanid prince Stephanus I executed. Somewhere between 637 and 642 (i.e., after the battle of al-Qādisiyyah and before that of Nihawānd), he joined his forces with the Albanian prince Javanshir in an attack on Iranian garrisons in Albania.Martindale, John Robert (1992), "The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire", pp. 13-14. Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521072336.] According to the 7th-century historian Movses Daskhurantsi, Adarnase wore three Byzantine titles. He is identified by the art historian Wachtang Djobadze with the honorary consul Adarnase (Adrnerse hypatos) recorded on an inscription from the Jvari Monastery at Mtskheta, Georgia. Cyril Toumanoff argues, however, that this Adrnerse is actually Adarnase II active in the late 7th century.Rapp, Stephen H. (2003), "Studies In Medieval Georgian Historiography: Early Texts And Eurasian Contexts", p. 344. Peeters Bvba, ISBN 90-429-1318-5.] His other titles are likely to have been those of patricius and, perhaps stratelates.

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