The Political Geography of Meskheti (the Moschian Country) in the 1st Century A.D.

The paper examines a section of the Ibero-Armenian marchlands. At the end of the 1st century B.C. the Moschian country, which comprised the basins of the Chorokhi and the Upper Mtkvari (Kura), was divided into three parts: one part (the provinces of Artaani, Javakheti and Samtskhe in the Upper Mtkvari basin) was held by the Iberians, another (Klarjeti, Shavsheti and Achara in the Lower Chorokhi basin) by the Colchians, and another (Speri and Tao in the Upper and Middle Chorokhi basin and Kola in the Upper Mtkvari valley) by the Armenians. Political map of the South Caucasus changed in the 1st century A.D. when Greater Armenia lost it frontier territories to the kingdoms of Iberia, Lesser Armenia and Pontus Polemoniacus. The bulk of information on the political geography of the area is derived from Pliny’s Natural History. Analysis of Pliny’s accounts demonstrates that: (1) The north-wester border of Greater Armenia lay along the Parihedri Mountains, i. e. the Chorokhi- Euphrates watershed, and the Heniochi/Coraxici, or Kola Mountains, i.e. the westernmost section of the Mtkvari-Araxes watwershed. Hence, the basins of the Chorokhi and the Upper Mtlvari were situated outside the boundaries of the kingdom of Greater Armenia; (2) The Romans gave the land of the Armenochalybes located in the Upper Chorokhi valley (= the province of Speri of the mediaeval writers) to Aristobulus, king of Lesser Armenia; (3) The kingdom of Iberia extended its southwestern borders as far as the Pontic Mountains, approximately from modern Pazar to Gonio, and the sources of the Mtkvari. Thus, the lands in the Middle and Lower Chorokhi (Tao, Klarjeti, and Shavsheti) and the Upper Mtkvari (Kola, Artaani, Javakheti and Samtskhe) were in Iberia by the mid-fi rst century. These lands are described as the Moschorum tractus by Pliny. Only the coastal section of the Chorokhi, from Artvin to the mouth (i. e. western part of Klarjeti and Achara), might be under the control of the Lazi. Pliny’s description of the South Caucasus is based on the reports from the Armenian campaigns of Domitius Corbulo and other Roman generals, and, therefore, is a valuable source for the historical geography of the region of his time.