ვაჭრობა და სასანური ირანის ინტერესები ლაზიკაში (VI ს.)

Abstract

Regional or international trade has always played an important role in the history of Georgia. Trade routes made it possible to establish close political, cultural and economic relations with neighboring as well as distant countries. Nevertheless, the study of trade and economic questions of 6th century Georgia so far have got far ess attention in the Georgian historiography than, for example, various military-political topics/questions of the same period. Throughout its history, Georgia has always had empires as neighboring states. Wars or piece agreements between those empires always influence the development of the country. Indeed all the empires (Byzantium, Sasanian Iran, the Arab state) discussed in this book had economic interests in Georgia or in trade-economic routes which run near the Georgian territory. The present paper deals with Sasanian Iran's trade interests in Lazica in the 6th century. Particular focus is made on the role of geography in Sasanian empire’s foreign policy. The empire’s relative poverty (in comparison with the Roman/Early Byzantine empire), conditioned by geographic factors, caused the empire’s projection of power to nearby rich lands which surrounded the populous, but poor Iranian Plateau. This was one of major reasons of centurylong wars with Byzantium in late antiquity. Projection of power to Syria, Arabian Peninsula, South Caucasus and Asia Minor also led to attempts by Sasanian rulers to reach the Mediterranean and the Black Seas. Thus, it should come as no surprise that at the time of Khosrow I Anushirvan, the Sasanian empire was simultaneously trying to reach the seashores of both the Black and Red Seas. Along with military reasons, Iran clearly wanted to control regional trade routes and reach transcontinental highways linking the Mediterranean in the south with India and to the north via Eurasian steppes with the Central Asia.