Vakhtang I

(Gorgasal). Year of birth unknown; died 502. Tsar of Iberia (Kartli).

Vakhtang I fought for the centralization of state power. During his reign most of Tbilisi was rebuilt, so that the state’s capital could be moved there from Mtskheta. Vakhtang I carried on a prolonged struggle with Sassanid Iran for the independence of Kartli. In 484 he led the great anti-Sassanid uprising of Georgians and Armenians. The treachery of the Georgian and Armenian feudal lords doomed the uprising. The Persians called him “Gorgasal”—“Wolf’s Head”—because he wore a helmet on which a wolf’s head was depicted. He was killed in battle with the Persians. The Georgian people composed songs and verses in honor of Vakhtang I.