Rev I of Iberia

Rev I the Just (Georgian: რევ I მართალი, Rev Martali) was a king of Iberia (natively known as Kartli, i.e., eastern Georgia) from 189 to 216 AD. His reign inaugurated the local Arsacid dynasty.^[1]

He is known exclusively from the medieval Georgian annals which make him a son of the king of Armenia, whom Professor Cyril Toumanoff identifies with the Arsacid, Vologases II (r. 186-198). Rev was enthroned by the rebellious Iberian nobles who deposed his maternal uncle, Amazasp II, last of the Pharnabazids. Rev is reported to have married a "Greek" princess Sephelia who is said to have brought an idol of Aphrodite to Iberia, but there is no indication of a local cult of this Greek goddess having ever existing.^[1]

The Georgian chronicle Life of the Kings says that Rev, albeit pagan, was sympathetic to the doctrines of Christianity and came to be known as martali, or "the Just" for his patronage of a local embryonic Christian community. Toumanoff illustrated that this sobriquet is a direct translation of dikaios, an epithet frequently used in the titulature of the Arsacid kings of Parthia.^[1]

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