history. At the time of the Roman invasion it seems to have
paid a nominal homage to Mithradates the Great and to have been ruled
over by Machares, his second son. On the defeat of Mithradates by
Pompey, it became a Roman province. After the death of Pompey,
Pharnaces, the son of Mithradates, rose in rebellion against the Roman
yoke, subdued Colchis and Armenia, and made head, though but for a short
time, against the Roman arms. After this Colchis was incorporated with
Pontus, and the Colchians are not again alluded to in ancient history
till the 6th century, when, along with the Abasci or Abasgi, under their
king Gobazes, whose mother was a Roman, they called in the aid of
Chosroes I. of Persia (541). The importance of the district, then
generally called Lazica from the Lazi (cf. mod. Lazistan) who led the
revolt, was due to the fact that it was the only remaining bar which
held the Persians, already masters of Iberia, from the Black Sea. It had
therefore been specially garrisoned by Justinian under first Peter, a
Persian slave, and subsequently Johannes Tzibos, who built Petra on the
coast as the Roman Headquarters. Tzibos took advantage of the extreme
poverty of the Lazi to create a Roman monopoly by which he became a
middleman for all the trade both export and import. Chosroes at once
accepted the invitation of Gobazes and succeeded in capturing Petra
(A.D. 541). The missionary zeal of the Zoroastrian priests soon caused
discontent among the Christian inhabitants of Colchis, and Gobazes,
perceiving that Chosroes intended to Persianize the district, appealed
to Rome, with the result that in 549 one Dagisthaeus was sent out with
7000 Romans and 1000 auxiliaries of the Tzani (Zani, Sanni). The "Lazic
War" lasted till 556 with varying success. Petra was recaptured in 551
and Archaeopolis was held by the Romans against the Persian general
Mermeroes. Gobazes was assassinated in 552, but the Persian general
Nachoragan was heavily defeated at Phasis in 553.

By the peace of 562 the district was left in Roman possession, but
during the next 150 years it is improbable that the Romans exercised
much authority over it. In 697 we hear of a revolt against Rome led by
Sergius the Patrician, who allied himself with the Arabs. Justinian II.
in his second period of rule sent Leo the Isaurian, afterwards emperor,
to induce the Alans to attack the Abasgi. The Alans, having gained
knowledge of the district by a trick, invaded Lazica, an