In earliest times, the area of Caucasian Iberia was inhabited by several related tribes stemming from the Kura-Araxes culture.
The Saspers (who were mentioned by Herodotus), may have played a crucial role in the consolidation of the tribes inhabiting the area.[citation needed] The Moschoi may have moved slowly to the northeast forming settlements as they traveled. One of these was Mtskheta, the future capital of the Kingdom of Iberia. The Mtskheta tribe was later ruled by a prince locally known as mamasakhlisi (“father of the household” in Georgian).
The written sources for the early periods of Iberia's history are mostly medieval Georgian chronicles, that modern scholarship interpret as a semi-legendary narrative. One such chronicle, Moktsevay Kartlisay (“Conversion of Kartli”) mentions that a ruler named Azo and his people came from Arian-Kartli – the initial home of the proto-Iberians, which had been under Achaemenid rule until the fall of the Persian Empire – and settled on the site where Mtskheta was to be founded. Another Georgian chronicle, Kartlis Tskhovreba (“History of Kartli”) claims Azo to be an officer of Alexander’s, who massacred a local ruling family and conquered the area, until being defeated at the end of the 4th century BC by Prince Pharnavaz, at that time a local chief.
Status
Vassal state of the Seleucid Empire
(302–159 BC)
Client state of the Roman Republic
(65–63 BC, 40–36 BC, 30–1 AD)
Client state of the Roman Empire
(1–129 AD, 131–260 AD)
Vassal state of Sassanid Persia
(260–265 AD)[5]
Client state of the Eastern Roman Empire
(298–363 AD)
Vassal state of Sassanid Persia
(363–482 AD, 502–523 AD)
Direct Sassanid Persian rule
(523–580 AD)
