Aspacures II of Iberia

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Aspacures II (or Varaz-Bakur I, Georgian: ვარაზ-ბაკურ I), of the Chosroid Dynasty, was the king of Iberia (Kartli, eastern Georgia) from c. 363 to 365.

His name, recoded by the contemporaneous historian Ammianus Marcellinus (XXVII 12. 16), is evidently a Latinized rendition of Varaz-Bakur or Varaz-Bakar of the later, early medieval, Georgian chronicles. According to Ammianus, Aspacures was made king of Iberia by the Iranian Sassanid ruler Shapur II after the overthrow of his elder brother, Sauromaces. His being described as "an impious man and a hater of the faith" by the Georgian chronicler Leonti Mroveli is significant in this regard: the term implied at that time Zoroastrian religious sympathies; and connote also his pro-Iranian political orientation. Leonti, indeed, then goes on to tell us of his becoming an Iranian vassal.[1]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Toumanoff, Cyril (1963), Studies in Christian Caucasian History, pp. 460-461. Georgetown University Press.
Preceded by
Sauromaces II		 King of Iberia
363-365		 Succeeded by
Mihrdat III
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