Artag

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Artag (Artaces or Artoces in Greek and Roman sources) (d. 63 BC), from the Arsacid (Arshakunian) dynasty, was king of Caucasian Iberia in 81-63 BC.

He was a son of Arshak I, Armenian prince who had been enthroned in Iberia in 93 BC. This close association with Armenia brought upon the country an invasion (65 BC) by the Roman general Pompey, who was then at war with Mithridates VI of Pontus, king of Pontus and Armenia.

Alarmed by the Roman occupation of Caucasian Albania, Artag promised peace and friendship; but Pompey, informed that he was secretly arming so as to fall upon the Romans on their march in the passes of the Caucasus, advanced in the spring of 65 BC, before resuming the pursuit of Mithridates, to the Iberian strongholds of Harmozica and Seusamora (Tsumar) at Mtskheta. Artoces, surprised by the enemy before he was aware of it, hastily burnt the bridge over the Kura and retreated negotiating into the interior. Pompey occupied the fortresses and followed the Iberians to the other bank of the river; by which he hoped to induce them to immediate submission. But Artoces retired farther and farther into the interior, and, when at length he halted on the river Pelorus, he did so not to surrender but to fight. The Iberian archers however withstood not for a moment the onset of the Roman legions, and, when Artoces saw the Pelorus also crossed by the Romans, he surrendered, and sent his children as hostages. He finished out his life as a tributary of Rome officially named as a “friend and ally of Rome".

He was succeeded by his son Bartom in 63 BC.