534–547 AD: Ruling in the Shadow of the Lazic War

King Bakur II ascended the throne of Iberia (Kartli) in 534 AD, inheriting a kingdom that had fundamentally changed. His father, Dachi, had moved the capital to Tbilisi and secured a fragile peace with the Sassanid Empire. Bakur’s task was to maintain that peace, but he ruled during one of the most volatile periods in Caucasian history: the era of the Lazic War.

While his reign is often overshadowed by the colossal figures of his grandfather (Vakhtang Gorgasali) and his father, Bakur II was a stabilizer. He was a Chosroid king who understood that the survival of his people depended on invisibility. While the Roman Empire (under Justinian the Great) and the Persian Empire (under Khosrow I Anushirvan) tore each other apart in Western Georgia (Lazica), Bakur II managed to keep Eastern Georgia (Iberia) largely out of the fire.

The Geopolitical Stranglehold

Bakur II’s reign coincided with the “Eternal Peace” of 532 between Rome and Persia, which collapsed into brutal warfare by 541. Iberia was firmly in the Persian sphere of influence. The Sassanid Shahs viewed the King of Iberia not as a sovereign partner, but as a glorified governor (Wali).

Bakur II had to navigate a humiliating reality: Persian marzbans (viceroys) sat in Tbilisi, often wielding more real power than the King himself. Bakur’s strategy was one of passive resistance—strengthening the Christian church and the feudal nobility to ensure that even if the Persians controlled the politics, they could not control the culture.

The Expansion of Christianity

Unable to fight wars, Bakur fought for souls. He continued the construction projects of his father, patronizing the expansion of churches in the new capital of Tbilisi. It was during his time that the ecclesiastical structure of the Georgian Church began to solidify, acting as a “state within a state” that would survive the coming Persian abolition of the monarchy.

Bakur II died in 547 AD, leaving his son, Pharasmanes V, a kingdom that was intact but trembling on the edge of the abyss.