Adarnase I of Iberia

Who is Adarnase I of Iberia?

Adarnase I or Adrnerse, of the Chosroid dynasty, was a presiding prince of Iberia from 627 to 637/642.

He was the son of Bakur III, the last king of Iberia, and a hereditary duke 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, he joined his forces with the Albanian prince Javanshir in an attack on Iranian garrisons in Albania.

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 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. His other titles are likely to have been those of patrikios and perhaps stratelates.