Bacurius III

Bacurius III
King of Iberia
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Reign?-580
PredecessorPharasmanes VI
DynastyChosroid dynasty

Bakur III (Georgian: ბაკურ III, Latinized as Bacurius) (died 580) was the last Chosroid king (mepe) of Iberia (natively known as Kartli; ancient Georgia) upon whose death the Iberian monarchy was abolished by Sassanid Iran.

The name Bacurius is the Latin form of the Greek Bakour (Βάκουρ), itself a variant of the Middle Iranian Pakur, derived from Old Iranian bag-puhr ('son of a god').[1][2] The name "Bakur" is the Georgian (ბაკურ) and Armenian (Բակուր) attestation of Middle Iranian Pakur.[1]

He succeeded his father, King P'arsman VI, as the king of Iberia. The date of his accession to the throne is unknown but he ruled as contemporary of Hormizd IV of Iran.[3] Bakur's authority was rather limited and hardly extended beyond his fortress at Ujarma while the capital Tbilisi, and Inner Iberia was governed more directly by the Sassanids. When he died in 580, Hormizd IV took opportunity to abolish the kingship in Iberia.[4] He was father of Adarnase I of Iberia.

  1. ^ a b Rapp, Stephen H. Jr (2014). The Sasanian World through Georgian Eyes: Caucasia and the Iranian Commonwealth in Late Antique Georgian Literature. Routledge. p. 334. ISBN 978-1-4724-2552-2.
  2. ^ Marciak, Michał (2017). Sophene, Gordyene, and Adiabene: Three Regna Minora of Northern Mesopotamia Between East and West. Brill. p. 224. ISBN 978-90-04-35072-4.
  3. ^ Martindale, John Robert (1992), The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, p. 169. Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-07233-6.
  4. ^ Suny, Ronald Grigor (1994), The Making of the Georgian Nation: 2nd edition, p. 23. Indiana University Press, ISBN 0-253-20915-3