In the 6th century the small Caucasian Kingdom of Lazica on the eastern Black Sea became the battleground of the two greatest powers of the age. The Lazic War (541-562), known in Georgian tradition as the Great War of Egrisi, set the Byzantine Empire against Sasanian Persia for control of the Laz homeland.

A kingdom caught between empires

Lazica guarded the passes between the Black Sea and the Caucasus, a gateway both empires coveted. The war began when the Lazic king Gubazes II, alarmed by the Persian garrisons imposed on his land, appealed to the Byzantine emperor Justinian I for protection. In response the Sasanian shah Khosrow I invaded, determined to hold Lazica as a doorway to Byzantine territory and its trade routes.

The sieges of Petra

The conflict became a grinding war of sieges, above all around the coastal fortress of Petra. Justinian sent thousands of Roman troops, alongside Tzani auxiliaries from the mountains, to fight beside the Laz. For two decades armies marched back and forth across Lazica, and the kingdom’s own forces played a central part in the fighting.

An uneasy peace

After twenty years the two empires signed the Fifty-Year Peace of 562. Lazica was recognised as a Byzantine vassal, but at a price: Byzantium agreed to pay Persia an annual tribute. For the Laz the war confirmed their land’s place in the Christian Byzantine world, a turning point in the long history of Lazistan. King Gubazes II, assassinated during the war, remains its most remembered figure.

Learn more: Lazic War on Wikipedia.

Photo: ruins of the Petra fortress, a key battleground of the war, by MIKHEIL, CC BY-SA 4.0.