Tzath I of Lazica
king of Lazica
Tzath I (Georgian: წათე), Tzathius or Tzathios (Greek: Τζάθιος) in Byzantine sources, was king of Lazica (western Georgia) from 521/522 to an unknown date. He rejected Sassanid Persian overlordship and turned to the Byzantine emperor Justin I (r. 518–527) for aid. He was the first Christian king of Lazica.
Tzath was the son of Damnazes, of whom almost nothing is known. Upon his father's death, in 521 or 522, he refused to recognize the traditional suzerainty exercised by the Persian ruler over Lazica, rejected Zoroastrianism, and instead turned to the Byzantine Empire. He went to Constantinople, where he was received by Emperor Justin I, baptized as a Christian, and wedded to a noble wife, Valeriana. After having received the insignia and royal robes that signified both his royal status and his submission to the Byzantine emperor, he returned to Lazica.
Tzath is mentioned for the last time with the outbreak of the Iberian War in 527, when Lazica was attacked by the Persians, who had easily overrun the rebellious Iberians. He sent for aid to Emperor Justinian I (r.
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This entry incorporates text from “Tzath I of Lazica” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.