Pacorus of the Lazi

Pacorus was a 2nd-century king of the Lazi, a people in Colchis. His appointment to kingship by the Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius (r. 138–161) is mentioned in the Historia Augusta, possibly written in the 4th century, immediately after reporting a visit to Rome by Pharasmanes, king of Iberia.^[1] Pacorus' accession might have marked the beginning of ascendancy of the Lazi in Colchis and solidification of a centralized Lazic kingdom.^[2]

The name Pacorus is the Latin form of the Greek Pakoros (Πακώρος), itself a variant of the Middle Iranian Pakur, derived from Old Iranian bag-puhr ('son of a god').^[3]^[4] The name "Bakur" is the Georgian (ბაკურ) and Armenian (Բակուր) attestation of Middle Iranian Pakur.^[3]

Pacorus is identified by the Georgian scholars Tedo Dondua and Akaki Chikobava with the "king Pacuros" of a Greek inscription on a silver cup found by a team of Russian archaeologists in a grave at Achmarda, in north Abkhazia, in 2005.^[2] The text conveys an Oriental-style royal message: "I, Pacuros, the king, gave to [my] sheep," apparently addressed to the king's subjects living in the area.^[2]

References

^ Magie, David (1967). The Scriptores historiae Augustae, Volume 1. Harvard University Press. pp. 122–123.
^ ^a ^b ^c Dundua, Tedo; Chikobava, Akaki (2013). Pacorus, the Lazi King, who was Overlord of Colchis/Western Georgia. Tbilisi: Meridian Publishers. pp. 9–13. ISBN 978-9941-10-718-4.
^ ^a ^b Rapp, Stephen H. Jr (2014). The Sasanian World through Georgian Eyes: Caucasia and the Iranian Commonwealth in Late Antique Georgian Literature. Routledge. p. 334. ISBN 978-1-4724-2552-2.
^ Marciak, Michał (2017). Sophene, Gordyene, and Adiabene: Three Regna Minora of Northern Mesopotamia Between East and West. Brill. p. 224. ISBN 978-90-04-35072-4.

[1] Magie, David (1967). The Scriptores historiae Augustae, Volume 1. Harvard University Press. pp. 122–123.

[pacorus-2] Dundua, Tedo; Chikobava, Akaki (2013). Pacorus, the Lazi King, who was Overlord of Colchis/Western Georgia. Tbilisi: Meridian Publishers. pp. 9–13. ISBN 978-9941-10-718-4.

[Rapp2014-3] Rapp, Stephen H. Jr (2014). The Sasanian World through Georgian Eyes: Caucasia and the Iranian Commonwealth in Late Antique Georgian Literature. Routledge. p. 334. ISBN 978-1-4724-2552-2.

[4] Marciak, Michał (2017). Sophene, Gordyene, and Adiabene: Three Regna Minora of Northern Mesopotamia Between East and West. Brill. p. 224. ISBN 978-90-04-35072-4.

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