216–234 AD: The Fall of Parthia and the Rise of the Sassanid Threat

King Vache, son of Rev the Just, ruled during a geopolitical earthquake. For centuries, the balance of power in the Middle East had been between Rome and Parthia. Georgian kings knew how to play this game. But during Vache’s reign, the game board was flipped over.

In AD 224, the Parthian Empire collapsed. From its ashes rose the Sassanid Empire, led by the fanatical and expansionist Ardashir I. The Sassanids were not like the Parthians; they were aggressive centralizers who wanted to impose Zoroastrianism and erase local autonomies. Vache found himself ruling a small kingdom on the edge of a new, terrifying superpower.

The New Order

Vache was an Arsacid by blood (Parthian lineage). The rise of the Sassanids was personal—they were hunting down and exterminating his distant relatives across Iran. Vache faced a monumental choice: fight a suicidal war or adapt.

He chose survival. As the Sassanids consolidated power, Vache strengthened the fortifications of Iberia. He maintained the alliance with Rome (under the Severan dynasty) but was careful not to provoke the new Persian masters too early. His reign was a tense period of watching the southern horizon, waiting for the Sassanid armies to march north.

The Zoroastrian Pressure

With the Sassanids came aggressive missionaries. While his father Rev had been open to monotheism, Vache had to deal with the influx of militant Zoroastrian fire-worship. He managed to maintain the independence of the Georgian pantheon (Armazi/Zaden) against this cultural imperialism, a feat of diplomatic resistance that preserved Georgian identity for a few more decades.