Command, experience and origin: warriors from NW Colchis (300-400 AD)
This work is supported by Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia (SRNSFG) GSDF-24-12-89; Project Title: North-Western Colchis (Abkhazia) in Antiquity
Keywords:
Colchian warriors, Apsilian warriors, legion, Exculcatores, Lanciarii, Balistarii, spearman, javelin man, Comitatenses, ConfederatesAbstract
This paper aims to examine military communities and imagined spaces of conflicts in northwestern Colchis during AD 300-400. Weapon graves provide a valuable dataset for reassessing in the military composition of warriors in historical Apsilia, including those situated in the region’s mountainous hinterland. The study examines the extent to which these burials show meaningful parallels with Germanic assemblages and with materials associated with the Chernjakhov and Przeworsk cultural horizons, thereby allowing a more detailed reconstruction of the imperial security system in Colchis. A central aim is to assess indications of ethnicity as expressed through funerary practice, conceptual links, sensory/material properties, and patterns of military mobility.
These issues are essential for developing an alternative interpretation that addresses the following question: Was the presence and character of these military groups a matter of confederate alliances concerning Black Sea security (including the navigable parts of Colchis), or rather a response to the challenges of a dynamic frontier? - This question matters because the textual record does not allow direct links to be established between the growth of Roman power and influence in the mountainous zones of Colchis during this period.
The research is based on published archaeological materials from historical Apsilia and Pythius including evidence presented in my doctoral dissertation. By applying comparative approaches, the paper situates northwestern Colchis within a broader Caucasian frontier framework.
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