Demetrius ( ka, დემეტრე, ) (died 1042) was a
Georgian
Georgian may refer to:
Common meanings
* Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country)
** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group
** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians
**Georgian scripts, three scrip ...
prince of the
Bagrationi royal dynasty, and a claimant to the
throne of Georgia. He was the younger son of
George I of Georgia
:''There was also a Giorgi I, Catholicos of Kartli who ruled in 677–678.''
Giorgi I ( ka, გიორგი I) (998 or 1002 – 16 August 1027), of the House of Bagrationi, was the king of Georgia from 1014 until his death in 1027. He was 2 ...
by his second wife
Alda, daughter of the king of
Alania
Alania was a medieval kingdom of the Iranian Alans (proto-Ossetians) that flourished in the Northern Caucasus, roughly in the location of latter-day Circassia, Chechnya, Ingushetia, and modern North Ossetia–Alania, from its independence from th ...
.
After the death of George I, some Georgian nobles wished to enthrone Demetrius instead of his half-brother
Bagrat IV (r. 1027–1072), but to no avail. Alda and Demetrius lived in their fief at
Anacopia
New Athos or Akhali Atoni ( ka, ახალი ათონი, ''Akhali Atoni''; ab, Афон Ҿыц, ''Afon Ch'yts''; russian: Новый Афон; ''Novy Afon'', gr, Νέος Άθως, ''Neos Athos'') is a town in the Gudauta ''raion'' of ...
, a fortified maritime town in
Abkhazia
Abkhazia, ka, აფხაზეთი, tr, , xmf, აბჟუა, abzhua, or ( or ), officially the Republic of Abkhazia, is a partially recognised state in the South Caucasus, recognised by most countries as part of Georgia, which vi ...
, which had been bequeathed to them by the late king George I. The efforts by Bagrat's mother
Mariam to win Demetrius's loyalty to the crown went in vain. Threatened by Bagrat, Alda defected to the
Byzantines and surrendered Anacopia to the emperor
Romanos III
Romanos III Argyros ( el, Ρωμανός Αργυρός; Latinized Romanus III Argyrus; 968 – 11 April 1034), or Argyropoulos was Byzantine Emperor from 1028 until his death. He was a Byzantine noble and senior official in Constantinople whe ...
who honored her son Demetrius with the rank of ''
magistros
The ''magister officiorum'' (Latin literally for "Master of Offices", in gr, μάγιστρος τῶν ὀφφικίων, magistros tōn offikiōn) was one of the most senior administrative officials in the Later Roman Empire and the early centu ...
''. This happened in 1033.
In 1039, Demetrius returned to Georgia with Byzantine troops.
Liparit IV, of the
Liparitid clan, the most powerful noble in Georgia, supported the rebellious prince and launched initially a successful campaign against Bagrat's army.
[Robert Bedrosian, "Liparit IV Orbēlean", p. 586. In: Joseph Reese Strayer (1983), '']Dictionary of the Middle Ages
The ''Dictionary of the Middle Ages'' is a 13-volume encyclopedia of the Middle Ages published by the American Council of Learned Societies between 1982 and 1989. It was first conceived and started in 1975 with American medieval historian Josep ...
''. Scribner, . However, Demetrius died unexpectedly in 1042. Alda, with Demetrius’s son David, fled to her native Alania. The 18th-century Georgian scholar
Prince Vakhushti
Vakhushti ( ka, ვახუშტი, tr) (1696–1757) was a Georgian royal prince (''batonishvili''), geographer, historian and cartographer. His principal historical and geographic works, '' Description of the Kingdom of Georgia'' and the ''G ...
argues that David’s descendants flourished in Alania and produced a line of local princes of which came
David Soslan
David Soslan ( ka, დავით სოსლანი, tr) (died 1207) was a prince from Alania and second husband of Queen Tamar, whom he married in c. 1189. He is chiefly known for his military exploits during Georgia's wars against its Musli ...
, the second husband of Queen
Tamar of Georgia
Tamar the Great ( ka, თამარ მეფე, tr, lit. "King Tamar") ( 1160 – 18 January 1213) reigned as the Queen of Georgia from 1184 to 1213, presiding over the apex of the Georgian Golden Age. A member of the Bagrationi dynasty ...
(r. 1184–1213). Demetrius may also have had a daughter, Irene (died 1108), the official mistress of the Byzantine emperor
Constantine IX Monomachus
Constantine IX Monomachos ( grc-x-medieval, Κωνσταντῖνος Μονομάχος, translit=Kōnstantinos IX Monomachos; 1004 – 11 January 1055), reigned as Byzantine emperor from June 1042 to January 1055. Empress Zoë Porphyrogenita ...
in the mid-1050s and then the wife of ''
sebastokrator
''Sebastokrator'' ( grc-byz, Σεβαστοκράτωρ, Sevastokrátor, August Ruler, ; bg, севастократор, sevastokrator; sh, sebastokrator), was a senior court title in the late Byzantine Empire. It was also used by other rulers wh ...
''
Isaac Komnenos.
Anacopia, ceded by Alda and Demetrius to the emperor, would remain under the Byzantine sway until being recovered by Bagrat’s son and successor
George II George II or 2 may refer to:
People
* George II of Antioch (seventh century AD)
* George II of Armenia (late ninth century)
* George II of Abkhazia (916–960)
* Patriarch George II of Alexandria (1021–1051)
* George II of Georgia (1072–1089)
* ...
in 1074. This happened after the
Battle of Manzikert
The Battle of Manzikert or Malazgirt was fought between the Byzantine Empire and the Seljuk Empire on 26 August 1071 near Manzikert, theme of Iberia (modern Malazgirt in Muş Province, Turkey). The decisive defeat of the Byzantine army and th ...
(1071). Profiting by the defeat of the Byzantines at the hands of the
Seljuqids, Georgia regained a number of key territories lost to the Empire in the course of the 11th century, including Anacopia as well as the fortresses located in the
Thema of Iberia.
[Mariam D. Lordkipanidze. "Concerning the History of Byzantine-Georgian Relations in the Seventies of the Eleventh Century", in: ''Actes du XVe congrès international d'études byzantines, Athènes, Septembre 1976'', 1979: 192-4.]
References
{{authority control
11th-century people from Georgia (country)
1042 deaths
Bagrationi dynasty of the Kingdom of Georgia
Georgian princes
Year of birth unknown
Magistroi