Classical Iberia was a Georgian kingdom, not Spain
Greco-Roman writers called Kartli—in today’s eastern Georgia—Iberia. The Caucasian kingdom swung between independence and Sassanid or Roman overlordship, adopted Christianity under Mirian III in the fourth century, and later helped seed medieval Georgia. Historians say Caucasian Iberia to avoid the Spanish mix-up.
The name has a surprising trail. It probably began with Old Persian vrkān, the land of the wolves, which became Parthian and later Persian terms for Georgians, passed into Old Armenian as virk, and reached Greek as Ibēría and Latin as Hiberia. The historian Adolfo Domínguez Monedero argues that Greeks attached the same word to peoples at both ends of their known world because both lands were linked with legendary riches: Tartessos in the west and the Golden Fleece of Colchis in the east.
Local chronicles about the kingdom's birth are treated by scholars as partly legendary, including a tale that Alexander the Great invaded. Pharnavaz emerged as the first king, reigning roughly 302 to 237 BC, reportedly taking much of Colchis and winning Seleucid recognition. His heirs held the Caucasus passes, above all the Daryal Pass, nicknamed the Iberian Gates. Mtskheta served as the early capital.
Pompey marched in during 65 BC while fighting Mithridates VI, but Rome never held the land permanently. Instead, Iberia accepted Roman protection and kept broad autonomy: an inscription at Mtskheta calls King Mithridates I a friend of the Caesars, and Pharsman II is said to have visited Rome under Antoninus Pius. Culturally the court looked east, writing in an Aramaic-derived script, dressing in Iranian fashion and honouring Mithras and Zoroastrian fire altars, as silver cups from rich burials show.
After the Sasanian Empire rose in 224, Iberia paid tribute to Shapur I, until the Peace of Nisibis in 298 returned it to Roman vassalage. Around 319 Mirian III and his nobles converted, a turn tied to the preaching of Saint Nino, a woman from Cappadocia. Persia regained the upper hand after 363, and Vakhtang I, called Gorgasali, later revived the kingdom, made Tbilisi his capital and rose against Persia in 482.
Source: Kingdom of Iberia
