Battle for Tbilisi (627-628)
Battle for Tbilisi in 627–628, an episode in the ongoing war between Byzantium and Iran (602–628). After several defeats in the battle with Iran, Emperor Heraclius concluded an alliance with the Western Turkic Khaganate in 626, whose rulers, in turn, were trying to expel Iran from the Caucasus countries and thus export Chinese and Central Asian silk to Byzantium without the mediation of Iranian merchants. Such a unity of interests led to the formation of the Military Alliance against Iran. The allies came to Tbilisi in the summer of 627 at the request of the rulers of the Western Turkic Khaganate. Heraclius's aim was to defeat Iran and return the lost territories, while the Turks were interested in taking possession of the Silk Road. After a two-month futile siege, Heraclius marched into the heart of Iran (along the way, the army of Turkic allies gradually withdrew from him). On December 12, 627, near Mosul (near the ruins of Nineveh), Heraclius gained victory. In 628, Kavad Sheroe, who ascended the Iranian throne, returned to the Byzantine Empire the territories conquered by Khosrow II (591–628) (including “a large part of Kartli up to Tbilisi”). The peace with Iran was separate, as Heraclius concluded it without agreement with his allies. In 628, when the Turks, allies of Heraclius, approached Tbilisi again and laid siege to it, Heraclius was in the Gardabani region. According to Georgian sources — Conversion of Kartli and Georgian Chronicles — the defense of Tbilisi together with the Iranians was led by the Kartli chieftain Stephen I, who died in one of the battles. In the autumn of 628, the Turks captured Tbilisi. Heraclius took the Iranian part of Kartli from the Turks and installed Adarnase I, a Byzantine-oriented, Dyophysite by faith, as the ruler of Kartli.
Literature: გოილაძე ვ., აბრეშუმის დიდი სავაჭრო გზა და საქართველო, თბ., 1997; მისივე, რატომ არ მონაწილეობდა იმპერატორი ჰერაკლე 628 წელს თბილისის აღებაში?, «მნათობი», 1997, № 5; საქართველოს ისტორიის ნარკვევები, ტ. 2, თბ., 1973.
V. Goiladze
