Theodosius III of Abkhazia From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

King of Abkhazia 975–978 Preceded by Demetrius III, Succeeded by Bagrat II

Theodosius III the Blind (Georgian: თეოდოს III) (also known as Theodosius the Sorrowed), was King of the Abkhazians from circa 975 to 978.

He was a son of George II of Abkhazia, who sent Theodosius to be brought up at the Byzantine capital, Constantinople. After his reigning brother Leon III died in 967, a rebel party of Meskhetian, Egrisian and Kartlian nobles put him as a rival king to his brother, Demetrius III. Victorious in the ensuing civil war, Demetrius had Theodosius captured and blinded. It was not until the death of childless Demetrius in 975, when Theodosius was able to ascend the throne.

During his short and unhappy reign, the kingdom became engulfed into complete chaos and feudal anarchy combined with the raids by the Kakhetians in the eastern frontiers of Kartli where the royal power had completely collapsed and a governor (eristavi), Ioanne Marushis-dze, allied with the Georgian Bagratid prince David III Kuropalates of Tao to install Theodosius’s nephew (sister’s son) Bagrat as a ruler of Kartli in 975. As the problems overwhelmed his kingdom, Theodosius was forced to abdicate, in 978, in favor of Bagrat who sent him to the court of David of Tao. Since then Theodosius disappeared from history.

See also

Abkhazian Kingdom Divan of the Abkhazian Kings

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References and further reading on the Kingdom of Abkhazia

• (English) Alexei Zverev, Ethnic Conflicts in the Caucasus 1988-1994, in B. Coppieters (ed.), Contested Borders in the Caucasus, Brussels: VUBPress, 1996
• Graham Smith, Edward A Allworth, Vivien A Law, Annette Bohr, Andrew Wilson, Nation-Building in the Post-Soviet Borderlands: The Politics of National Identities, Cambridge University Press (September 10, 1998), ISBN 0-521-59968-7
• Encyclopaedia of Islam
• (English) Center for Citizen Peacebuilding, Aspects of the Georgian-Abkhazian Conflict
• S. H. Rapp, Studies In Medieval Georgian Historiography: Early Texts And Eurasian Contexts, Peeters Bvba (September 25, 2003) ISBN 90-429-1318-5
• (English) Conflicting Narratives in Abkhazia and Georgia. Different Visions of the Same History and the Quest for Objectivity, an article by Levan Gigineishvili, 2003
• (English) The Role of Historiography in the Abkhazo-Georgian Conflict, an article by Seiichi Kitagawa, 1996
• (English) History of Abkhazia. Medieval Abkhazia: 620-1221 by Andrew Andersen
• Georgiy I Mirsky, G I Mirskii, On Ruins of Empire: Ethnicity and Nationalism in the Former Soviet Union (Contributions in Political Science), Greenwood Press (January 30, 1997) ISBN 0-313-30044-5
• Ronald Grigor Suny, The Making of the Georgian Nation: 2nd edition (December 1994), Indiana University Press, ISBN 0-253-20915-3, page 45
• Robert W. Thomson (translator), Rewriting Caucasian History: The Medieval Armenian Adaptation of the Georgian Chronicles: The Original Georgian Texts and Armenian Adaptation (Oxford Oriental Monographs), Oxford University Press, USA (June 27, 1996), ISBN 0-19-826373-2
• Toumanoff C., Chronology of the Kings of Abasgia and other Problems // Le Museon, 69 (1956), S. 73-90.

• (Russian) Вахушти Багратиони. История царства грузинского. Жизнь Эгриси, Абхазети или Имерети. Ч.1