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David III of Tao

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Ancient History,
Classical History and Mythology

   David of Tao as depicted on a bas-relief from the Oshki Monastery. It
   was David’s use of Byzantine imagery that influenced the appearance of
   royal power of Georgia in the following two centuries.
   Enlarge
   David of Tao as depicted on a bas-relief from the Oshki Monastery. It
   was David’s use of Byzantine imagery that influenced the appearance of
   royal power of Georgia in the following two centuries.

   David III Kuropalates ( Georgian: დავით III კუროპალატი, Davit’ III
   Kuropalati) or David III the Great (დავით III დიდი, Davit’ III Didi)
   also known as David II (c. 930s – 1000) was a Georgian prince of the
   Bagratid family of Tao/ Tayk, a historic region in the
   Georgian–Armenian marchlands, from 966 until his murder in 1000.
   Kuropalates was a Byzantine courtier title bestowed upon him in 978 and
   again in 990.

   David is best known for his crucial assistance to the Byzantine
   Macedonian dynasty in the 976- 9 civil war and his unique role in the
   political unification of various Georgian polities as well as his
   patronage of Christian culture and learning. Between 987 and 989, David
   joined his friend Bardas Phocas in a revolt against the Byzantine
   emperor Basil II, but was defeated and agreed to cede his lands to the
   empire on his death. Yet he was able to secure for his heir, Bagrat
   III, an opportunity to become the first ruler of a unified Georgian
   kingdom.

History

   David was a representative of the Second House of Tao, a branch of the
   Kartli line of the Georgian Bagrationi (Bagratid) dynasty which held
   sway over Tao (a province on the historic Georgian-Armenian border
   known to the Armenians as Tayk; now part of Turkey) since the
   extinction of the original Tao line in the 940s.

Alliance with the Byzantine Empire

   He succeeded his father, Adarnase Kuropalates (958-961), as a prince of
   Tao in 966, and through his expansionist policy and flexible diplomacy
   began assembling a larger state. In order to enact his ambitious plans,
   David had to secure his independence from the Byzantine Empire which
   would reach its greatest height under the emperor Basil II ( 975-
   1025).

   The Byzantines' eastern neighbors – the fragmentized Armenian and
   Georgian monarchies – rarely threatened the empire directly, but were
   of particular interest to Constantinople as they controlled strategic
   international trade routes that run through their domains. The
   Byzantines had already annexed the Armenian princedoms of Taron (966)
   and Manzikert ( 968) and posed a potential danger to the constellation
   of several Georgian Bagratid principalities known as Tao-Klarjeti.
   However, the integrity of the empire itself was under serious threat
   after a full-scale rebellion, led by Bardas Sklerus, broke out in the
   Asian provinces in 976. Following a series of successful battles the
   rebels jeopardized Constantinople. In the urgency of a situation, the
   young emperor Basil requested aid from David of Tao, who promptly
   responded and sent 12,000 first-rate cavalry troops under the command
   of Tornikios to reinforce the recently defeated loyal Byzantine general
   Bardas Phokas, guarantying thereby his victory at the battle near
   Caesarea on 24 March 979.
   The Bagratid domains in Tao-Klarjeti, c. 780-1000
   Enlarge
   The Bagratid domains in Tao-Klarjeti, c. 780-1000

   David's reward was the lifetime rulership of key imperial territories
   in eastern Anatolia known to the contemporary Georgian sources as the
   "Upper Lands of Greece" (ზემონი ქუეყანანი საბერძნეთისანი), consisting
   chiefly of northwestern Armenian lands: the city of Theodosiopolis or
   Karin (Geo. Karnu-kalaki, present-day Erzurum, Turkey), Phasiane (Geo.
   Basiani, Arm. Basean), Hark, Apahunik, Mardali (Mardaghi),
   Khaldoyarich, and Chormayri. On this occasion, he was bestowed upon
   with the high Byzantine courtier title of kuropalates. Basil II also
   rewarded David’s commander Tornikios’ valor by funding a Georgian
   Orthodox monastery on Mount Athos. Although populated now chiefly with
   Greek monks, it is to this day known as Iveron, "of the Iberians"
   (i.e., Georgians).

   These formidable acquisitions made David the most influential ruler in
   the Caucasus, enabling him to interfere in and arbitrate dynastic
   disputes in both Georgia and Armenia. The medieval Georgian authors
   call him "greatest of all the kings of Tao" and the 11th-century
   Armenian chronicler Aristakes Lastivertsi describes him as


   David III of Tao

    a mighty man, a builder of the world, very honorable, a lover of the
     poor, indeed, the definition of peace. For in his day it was as the
     prophecy states: everyone reposed under his vine and his fig tree.


   David III of Tao

   Being in control of highly important commercial centers, his
   principality profited from taxing the major trading routes running
   through southwestern Caucasus and eastern Anatolia. David invested
   these revenues in extensive building projects: constructing towns,
   forts and churches, and promoting Georgian monastic communities and
   cultural activities both in Georgia and abroad.

Issue of succession

   Having no children of his own, David adopted his kinsman, the young
   prince Bagrat, heir to the Bagratid throne of Kartli (Iberia). He did
   so at the request of the energetic Georgian nobleman Iovane
   Marushis-dze. Through his fortunate bloodlines Bagrat was destined to
   sit upon two thrones. Furthermore, through his mother Gurandukht,
   sister of the childless Abkhazian king Theodosius III, Bagrat was a
   potential heir to the realm of Abkhazia. Making a plan for the creation
   of an all-Georgian state, David occupied Kartli for his foster-son in
   976 and repulsed the troops from the easternmost Georgian kingdom of
   Kakheti, which had recently occupied the western sector of Kartli with
   its rock-hewn city of Uplistsikhe. Two years later, in 978, David and
   Marushis-dze secured the crown of Abkhazia for Bagrat by displacing
   Theodosius III.
   A processional cross of David of Tao by the goldsmith Asat
   Enlarge
   A processional cross of David of Tao by the goldsmith Asat

   David’s good fortunes changed in 987 when he, anxious to make his
   extensive possessions a hereditary Bagratid domain, joined his
   long-time friend Bardas Phokas in a rebellion against the emperor
   Basil. Once the rebels were defeated by the Byzantine- Rus' forces in
   989, Basil dispatched a strong force under John of Chaldea to punish
   the Georgians, and David had to submit. Reconciled with the emperor, he
   was granted, in c. 990, the title of kuropalates again in return for
   his promise that upon his death the lands previously placed under his
   sovereignty would revert to the Byzantine Empire.

   Another problem arose around the same year, when Bagrat of Abkhazia
   planned a punitive expedition against the non-submissive duke Rati of
   Kldekari in Lower Kartli. Persuaded that his foster-son intended to
   attack Tao and kill him, David crushed the army led by Bagrat’s natural
   father Gurgen on its march to Kldekari. As a medieval Georgian
   chronicler relates:


   David III of Tao

    Bagrat then went [to David] alone, fell at his feet and swore that he
    was going against Rati. [David] believed that too and released him in
                                   peace.


   David III of Tao

Last years

   After the reconciliation with the emperor and his kinsmen, David led a
   series of successful raids against the Muslim emirates of Lake Van and
   Azerbaijan. Bagrat II of Georgia (grandfather of Bagrat, David’s
   adoptee), and Gagik I of Armenia allied themselves with David, who
   recaptured Manzikert from the Marwanid emir of Diyarbakr about 993 and
   raided Akhlat, another important stronghold of this Kurdish dynasty, in
   997. Mamlan, the Rawwadid emir of Azerbaijan, was also twice defeated,
   the second time decisively, in 998, near Archesh.

   David was murdered by his nobles early in 1000. According to Aristakes,


   David III of Tao

     they had mixed poison into the communion on Good Thursday, and had
   given it to him [Dawit'] to drink, causing that venerable man to choke
       to death. [This was] because they had wearied of him, and were
        interested in promises [made to them] earlier by the emperor.


   David III of Tao

Wars of the Kuropalates’ succession

   A map of the Caucasus, c. 830-1020
   Enlarge
   A map of the Caucasus, c. 830-1020

   Basil II was at that time in the eastern provinces of his empire,
   wintering on the plain of Tarsus following his campaign against the
   Fatimid dynasty in Syria. On hearing of David’s death he marched
   north-eastward to claim the lands David had promised to the emperor.
   The local Georgian and Armenian nobility submitted without any serious
   resistance. The only notable incident occurred when a quarrel between a
   Georgian soldier and a Varangian Guardsman over a bale of hay developed
   into a major fight, involving 6,000 Varangians and taking the lives of
   thirty Georgian high-ranking nobles.

   King Bagrat, David’s foster-son, met with Basil but, unable to prevent
   the annexation of David’s realm, had to recognize the new borders in
   reward of the imperial title of kuropalates. Despite this setback,
   Bagrat was able to become the fist king of an all-Georgian unified
   monarchy, a result made possible largely by the efforts of David of
   Tao, who, as the modern scholar Stephen Rapp puts in, "appropriately
   ranks high on any "Top Ten" list of Georgian history."

   There is some disagreement among modern scholars on whether David ceded
   to the Byzantines only those lands which had been granted to him as a
   reward for his assistance against the rebel Bardas Sklerus, or if it
   was the whole of his principality that was acquired by Basil II. As the
   former was endowed upon David for lifetime stewardship, it would be
   more reasonable to assume that he conceded his entire realm, i.e.,
   Thither Tao/Tayk and the adjacent Armenian counties up to Lake Van.
   Whatever the extent of David’s domain, the Georgian kings would not so
   easily reconcile with the loss of those territories, leading to a
   series of conflicts with the Byzantine Empire in the 11th century.
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