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In Greco-Roman geography, Iberia (Greek , (グルジア語:იბერია) (:ibɛriɑ)) was the name for a kingdom of the Southern Caucasus, centered on present-day Eastern Georgia. Around the first centuries BC and AD the land south of the Greater Caucasus and north of the Lesser Caucasus was divided between Colchis in the west, Caucasian Iberia in the center and Caucasian Albania in the east. To the southwest was Armenia and to the southeast Atropatene. Iberia, also known in Georgian as Kartli ((グルジア語:ქართლი)), after its core province, was during Classical Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages a significant state in the Caucasus, either as an independent state or as a dependent of larger empires, notably the Sassanid and Roman empires. Its population, known as the Caucasian Iberians, formed the nucleus of the Georgians (Kartvelians), and the state, together with Colchis to its west, would form the nucleus of the medieval Kingdom of Georgia.〔Ronald Grigor Suny. ''The Making of the Georgian Nation''. Indiana University Press, p. 13 ISBN 0-253-20915-3.〕〔William Coffman McDermott, Wallace Everett Caldwell. ''Readings in the History of the Ancient World''. p. 404.〕 Starting in the early 6th century AD, the kingdom's position as a Sassanian vassal state was changed into effectively direct Persian rule. In 580, king Hormizd IV (578-590) abolished the monarchy after the death of King Bakur III, and Iberia became a Persian province ruled by a ''marzpan'' (governor). The term ''Caucasian Iberia'' is used to distinguish it from the Iberian Peninsula in Western Europe. ==Name== The provenance of the name "Iberia" is unclear. One theory on the etymology of the name Iberia, proposed by Giorgi Melikishvili, was that it was derived from the contemporary Armenian designation for Georgia, ''Virkʿ'' ((アルメニア語:Վիրք), and Ivirkʿ () and Iverkʿ ()), which itself was connected to the word Sver (or Svir), the Kartvelian designation for Georgians.〔 Yeremyan, Suren T. ''«Իբերիա»'' (Iberia). Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia. vol. iv. Yerevan, Armenian SSR: Armenian Academy of Sciences, 1978, p. 306.〕 The letter "s" in this instance served as a prefix for the root word "Ver" (or "Vir"). Accordingly, in following Ivane Javakhishvili's theory, the ethnic designation of "Sber", a variant of Sver, was derived the word "Hber" ("Hver") (and thus Iberia) and the Armenian variants, Veria and Viria.〔 According to another theory, it is derived from a Colchian word, "Imer", meaning "country on the other side of the mountain", that is of the Likhi Range, which divided Colchis and Iberia from each other. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Kingdom of Iberia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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