Mariam ( ka, მარიამი) was a daughter of

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

Bagrat IV of Georgia Bagrat IV ( ka, ბაგრატ IV; 101824 November 1072), of the Bagrationi dynasty, was the King of Georgia from 1027 to 1072. During his long and eventful reign, Bagrat sought to repress the great nobility and to secure Georgia's sovereign ...

( r. 1027–1072) by his

Alan Alan may refer to: People *Alan (surname), an English and Turkish surname * Alan (given name), an English given name **List of people with given name Alan ''Following are people commonly referred to solely by "Alan" or by a homonymous name.'' *A ...

wife Borena. She was possibly married, as the second wife, to the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

dignitary

Theodore Gabras Theodore Gabras ( el, Θεόδωρος Γαβρᾶς) was a Byzantine governor in the Pontus who was involved in a minor unsuccessful rebellion against the Emperor Alexios I Komnenos around the year 1091. Theodore Gabras is an Eastern Orthodox mart ...

. Mariam was mentioned in the Georgian annals on one occasion only as being present at the deathbed of her father Bagrat IV in November 1072.Lynda Garland & Stephen Rapp. ''Mary 'of Alania': Woman and Empress Between Two Worlds'', p. 103. In: Lynda Garland (ed., 2006), ''Byzantine Women: Varieties of Experience, 800-1200''. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., . The name Mariam (Maria) was also borne—as a

Byzantine empress This is a list of Roman and Byzantine empresses. A Roman empress was a woman who was the wife of a Roman emperor, the ruler of the Roman Empire. The Romans had no single term for the position: Latin and Greek titles such as '' augusta'' (Greek ...

—by Bagrat's other, better-documented daughter who was born as

Martha Martha (Hebrew: מָרְתָא‎) is a biblical figure described in the Gospels of Luke and John. Together with her siblings Lazarus and Mary of Bethany, she is described as living in the village of Bethany near Jerusalem. She was witness to ...

in Georgia. Professor

Cyril Toumanoff Cyril Leo Toumanoff (russian: Кирилл Львович Туманов; 13 October 1913 – 4 February 1997) was a Russian-born Georgian historian and genealogist who mostly specialized in the history and genealogies of medieval Georgia, Armenia, ...

, a student of the medieval

Caucasian Caucasian may refer to: Anthropology *Anything from the Caucasus region ** ** ** ''Caucasian Exarchate'' (1917–1920), an ecclesiastical exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Caucasus region * * * Languages * Northwest Caucasian l ...

genealogies, identifies Mariam with the anonymous "Alan" woman of "very good birth" known from

Anna Komnene Anna Komnene ( gr, Ἄννα Κομνηνή, Ánna Komnēnḗ; 1 December 1083 – 1153), commonly Latinized as Anna Comnena, was a Byzantine princess and author of the ''Alexiad'', an account of the reign of her father, the Byzantine emperor, ...

's ''

Alexiad The ''Alexiad'' ( el, Ἀλεξιάς, Alexias) is a medieval historical and biographical text written around the year 1148, by the Byzantine princess Anna Komnene, daughter of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. It was written in a form of artificial ...

'' to have married, as his second wife, the Byzantine nobleman Theodore Gabras, ''

dux ''Dux'' (; plural: ''ducēs'') is Latin for "leader" (from the noun ''dux, ducis'', "leader, general") and later for duke and its variant forms (doge, duce, etc.). During the Roman Republic and for the first centuries of the Roman Empire, '' ...

'' of Trebizond in 1091. This lady was a cousin of Eirene, another bride from Georgia at the Byzantine court, who was married to the ''

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, brother of the emperor

Alexios I Komnenos Alexios I Komnenos ( grc-gre, Ἀλέξιος Κομνηνός, 1057 – 15 August 1118; Latinized Alexius I Comnenus) was Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118. Although he was not the first emperor of the Komnenian dynasty, it was during ...

. Eirene was mother of the fiancée of

Gregory Gabras Gregory Gabras ( el, Γρηγόριος Γαβρᾶς, Grēgorios Gabras) was the son of the Byzantine governor of Trebizond, Theodore Gabras who was involved in a minor unsuccessful rebellion against the Emperor Alexios I Komnenos around the year ...

, Theodore's son of his first marriage. Thus, Gregory's engagement with a Komnenid princess was quietly broken off as they were now considered close relatives and according to civil and the ecclesiastical laws, such marriages were forbidden. Alexios, however, was worried about Theodore's reaction, so he kept Gregory at the court as a hostage in order to ensure Theodore's continued good behavior, reassuring Theodore with the claim that he was contemplating marrying Gregory to one of his own daughters. Theodore's subsequent attempt at abducting his son brought the Gabrades in conflict with

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

. No further details are known about Theodore's wife.Alan princess, second wife of Theodoros Gabras
''

Prosopography of the Byzantine World The Prosopography of the Byzantine World (PBW) is a project to create a prosopographical database of individuals named in textual sources in the Byzantine Empire and surrounding areas in the period from 642 to 1265. The project is a collaboration b ...

''. Accessed January 15, 2012.

References

{{authority control Bagrationi dynasty of the Kingdom of Georgia Gabras family Princesses from Georgia (country) 11th-century Byzantine women 11th-century Byzantine people Byzantine people of Georgian descent 11th-century people from Georgia (country) 11th-century women from Georgia (country)