To the question of the identifying king Amazasp of Iberia, queen Dracontis and a royal official Anagranes mentioned in three Greek inscriptions found in Mtskheta

In 1993 and 1995, two well-processed fragments of a sandstone were found in the Bagineti district of Mtskheta, which are preserved at the Mtskheta Archaeological Institute (No. 01/2-8; No. 01-2-69). The inscription on it will be referred below as “Queen Dracontis’ Inscription from Bagineti”.

According to T. Kaukhchishvili, the sizes of the lower part of the fragment are: 12.5 × 17,5 × 9—10 cm., while the sizes of the upper part — 11 × 11 × 8—8.4 cm. Greek inscription is beautifully engraved on the tile and transcribed through Greek capital letters. The corners of the letters are incised and then connected by linking lines. At the top of the fragment are the remnants of two lines of inscription and only one letter is preserved at the top of the third line. There are seven lines on the lower fragment. The upper four lines consist of larger letters (height about 2 cm.), the lower four lines — of relatively tightly written smaller letters. The height of the letters in the seventh line is 1 cm. The inscription uses 17 letters of the Greek alphabet, some letters are used once, some numerously (Kaukhchishvili 2000: 227).

T. Kaukhchishvili offered such transcription of the inscription:

...ΛΕΩΣ

ΙΑΝΗΣ

ΦΕΥ...

ΤΡΟΠΟ...

ΝΑΜ.

ΑΝΙΟΝ ΚΤΙΣΑ

ΙΔΙΑΤΡΟΦΙΜΗ

ΔΡΑΚΟΝΤΙΔΙ ΒΑΣ

ΙΛΙΣΗ ΑΦΙΕΡΩΣΕΝ

And restored the text in the following manner:

[βασι]λέως...[τρο]φεύ[ς] [κάι ἐπὶ]τροπο[ς] νᾶμ[α] [βαλ]ανεῖον κτίσα[ς] ἰδίᾳ τροφίμῃ Δρακοντίδι βασιλίσ[σ]ᾐ ἀφιέρωσεν.

T. Kaukhchishvili’s translation is as follows:

“A king’s… foster-father and commander-in-chief sponsored the making of this underground pipeline and a thermae (or pipeline for thermae) and donated it to Queen Dracontis” (Kaukhchishvili 2000: 227).

D. Braund translated it almost in the same way: “…of … King, Anagranes, foster-father and steward with his own resources having fitted out (?) the bath-building (?) for his own nurtured Dracontis, queen, dedicated (it)” (Braund 2002: 26).

The inscription, as it appears from the text, is of a donative nature. The king’s only minister and commander-in-chief put the water pipe to the bath and sacrificed it to Queen Dracontis. The queen’s name is of Greek provenance and is confirmed for the first time in Georgian onomasticon.

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To the question of the identifying king Amazasp of Iberia, queen Dracontis and a royal official Anagranes mentioned…

To secure dating, T. Kaukhchishvili relied on the outline of the letters and attributed the inscription to the 2nd — 3rd centuries CE. The language of the inscription is Koine, written in smooth Greek. Several deviations from the classical norms are also seen. One case of iotacism ει/ι (βαλανεῖον—βαλανίον) is present and, also one σ is used instead of two in the word βασιλίσᾐ (Kaukhchishvili 2000: 227).

This inscription is probably related to another one found in Mtskheta, which mentions the King Amazasp. These two inscriptions were connected to each other by D. Braund. The scholar believed that the Queen Dracontis, mentioned in both inscriptions, must be the same person and also, he pointed out that she is the daughter of the king of Armenia, the daughter of Vologases, and also, she is the wife of Amazasp, king of Iberia. In this inscription D. Braund restored the name of the tutor and commander-in-chief1 Άναγράνης. Anagranes is indeed mentioned in his inscription from Mtskheta with the Reference to king Amazasp (see below) and D. Braund's logic is based on a dual title. In both inscriptions the same person has the title τροφεύς and ἐπὶτροπος and the word ... άνης is definitely seen in front of τροφεύς (Braund 2002: 23—24). It is difficult to determine who these two persons are and which king Amazasp of Kartli we are dealing with.

Another inscription which is connected with the previous one is “ Anagranes’ Inscription from Mtskheta with the Reference to King Amazasp ”.

A sandstone slab with the Greek inscription (field No. 01-6-81-1), discovered by an archeological expedition in 1996 near a Roman-type bath, is kept at the Mtskheta Institute of Archeology. The sizes of the inscription are: width — 32 cm, height — 29 cm, thickness — 8 cm. All four edges of the slab are well processed and not damaged, but according to T. Kaukhchishvili, it is also a continuation of the inscription starting on a well-processed slab — Queen Dracontis’ Inscription from Bagineti (Kaukhchishvili 2000: 227). The inscription was first published by T. Kaukhchishvili (Kaukhchishvili 1998: 11—14).

The letters of the inscription are equal and beautifully drawn (height of the letters — approximately 2,5 cm., width — approximately 2 cm.). It contains eight lines, there are 13—15 letters in each line, except for the eighth line. Here after 10 letters the whole word is spelled in two lines (six letters on the first line, three on the second) with the same capital letters as the whole inscription.

Transcription is a follows:

ΑΡΜΕΝΙΑCΟΥΟΛΟ-+

ΓΑΙCΟΥΓΥΝΑΙΚΙΔΕ

ΒΑCΙΛΕΩCΙΒΗΡΩΝ

ΜΕΓΑΛΟΥΜΑΖΑC

ΠΟΥΑΝΑΓΡΑΝΗCΟ

ΤΡΟΦΕVCΚΑΙΕΠΙΤΡ

ΠΟCΙΔΙΑΔΥΝΑΜΙ

ΤΟΒΑΛΑΝΙΟΝ ΑΦΙΕΡΩ

CΕΝ

T. Kaukhchishvili restored, completed and translated the text as follows:

Reconsruction: Ἀρμενίας Οὐλογαίσου γυνακί δὲ βασιλέως Ἰβήρων μεγάλου Ἀμαζάσπου Ἀναγράνης ὁ τροφεύς καί ἐπίτρ[ο]πος ἰδίᾳ δυνάμει τὸ βαλανεῖον ἀφιέρωσεν.

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Completed text: [woman’s name in dative + θυγατρὶ δὲ βασιλέως] Ἀρμενίας Οὐλογαίσου γυνακί δὲ βασιλέως Ἰβήρων μεγάλου Ἀμαζάσπου Ἀναγράνης ὁ τροφεύς καί ἐπίτρ[ο]πος ἰδίᾳ δυνάμει τὸ βαλανεῖον ἀφιέρωσεν.

Translation: woman’s name in dative + to the daughter of Vologases, king of Armenia, and to the wife of Amazasp, the Great king of Iberia, Anagranes, foster-father and commander-in-chief donated this bath built by his own expenses (Kaukhchishvili 2000: 228).

Thus, the inscription is a donation again. It mentions historical figures: the great king of Iberia, Amazasp, and the king of Armenia Vologases . Both of these names are well known according to historical sources. Regarding the identification of persons, T. Kaukhchishvili has indicated that Amazasp II was the son of Pharasmanes IV , who reigned in circa 3^rd century. She also mentioned that if this is the Amazasp mentioned in the inscription of Shapur I (242—272), it means that he definitely reigned in the middle of the 3^rd century. As for King Vologases (Valarsh) II of Armenia, he ruled the country in 186—198 CE. It is clear from the inscription that the daughter of Vologases (Valarsh) is the wife of the king of Iberia.

• T . Kaukhchishvili believes that the name “Anagranes” is Greek (ἄναγρον, ἂνιγρον 1. a sinner in need of religious purification, cast out, cursed; 2. donated, sacrificed + ending ης). The terms denoting the position of Anagranes are: τροφεύς and ἐπίτροπος. ἐπίτροπος is an official, in this case commander-in-chief and the only minister of Iberian king and τροφεύς – an educator, a tutor, a foster-father and a governor, which corresponds to Georgian “ mamamdzudze “ (Kaukhchishvili 2000: 228).

Anagranes mentioned in the inscription is not known from other sources apart from other inscriptions found in the same place. D. Braund believes that the tutor and royal official mentioned in the inscription of the Queen Dracontis from Bagineti and the tutor and royal official Anagranes of this inscription are both the same person (Braund 2002: 23—24). Therefore, Dracontis may be the daughter of the king of Armenia, but his name is lost in this inscription (Braund 2002: 27).

Based on the information about historical figures mentioned and, also on palaeographic data, T. Kaukhchishvili dates the inscription back to the 2^nd — 3^rd centuries CE. Characteristic signs: two types of writing Α — punctuated and straight, two representations of υ through Υ and V, ε, ο, ς are rounded, the parts Β, Ρ, Φ are also rounded, μ has widened lateral lines but is angular. Of special interest is the writing of ω — it is connected by two angular broken lines between two parallel vertical lines. There is one ligature (ΝΗ) and two cases of iotacism: βαλανιον (= βαλανεῖον) — strength (= power). ἐπίτρπος is an unintentional mistake of the performer, lapsus calami (Kaukhchishvili 2000: 228).

For a complete solution of this thorny issue, we consider it necessary to review all the necessary options for the identification of the persons mentioned in the inscription. Queen Dracontis, as well as her tutor and royal official Anagranes, are not known from other sources, hence they can neither help us to identify King Amazasp and king Vologases, nor can they help us to date the inscription accurately.

For the exact identification of Amazasp we must mention all the Amazasps that are known to us from the Georgian narratives. From the “Conversion of Kartli” and “Life of Kartli” we know one Amazasp who is the heir of Arsok and a “co-ruler” of Deruk (“Conversion of Kartli”) or Derok (“Life of Kartli”). Also another Amazasp is known from these two sources — son of Ghadam (Adam) and predecessor of Rev the Just (Abuladze 1963; Kaukhchihvili 1955) The inscription of Kaaba-i-Zardosht of Shabur I also mentions King Amazasp of Iberia, who seems to have reigned in Iberia in the middle of the 3rd century. This Amazasp G. Tsereteli equated with the prince

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To the question of the identifying king Amazasp of Iberia, queen Dracontis and a royal official Anagranes mentioned… mentioned in another Persian inscription — Habza (Tsereteli, manuscript)2. This also aligns with the identification of T. Mgaloblishvili and S. Rapp (Mgaloblishvili, Rapp 2010: 263—290). It should be additionally noted that Mgaloblishvili and Rapp identified this Amazasp with the Amazasp of the Anagranes inscription (Mgaloblishvili, Rapp 2010: 273). However, since the prince Habza is a Manichaean, they think he may be the third-century king Amazasp, as well as the Amazasp from the Anagranes’ inscription, rather than the Amazasp of the “Life of Kartli”, the son of Ghadam, since Manichaeism did not exist during the reign of Amazasp, son of Ghadam. Consequently, Mgaloblishvili and Rapp only acknowledge the information from “Life of Kartli” and for them the Amazasp from epigraphic material is only Amazasp III (Mgaloblishvili, Rapp 2010: 273). At the same time, Amazasp III is Parthia's candidate for the throne of Iberia against the pro-Roman Mihrdat II, an anti-king (Mgaloblishvili, Rapp 2010: 275). However, it should be mentioned that Rapp and Mgaloblihvili somehow ignored the importance of king Vologases in dating Anagranes’ inscriptions. Thus, their argument is not very strong.

The inscription of Vespasian from Mtskheta mentions Yamazaspuh, who is considered by some scholars to be a prince, although T. Kaukhchishvili's translation clarifies that it is not Amazasp, as it is in the inscriptions of Dracontis and Anagranes, but Yamazaspuh — a female (Kaukhchishvili 2000: 25)1. Moreover, the context shows that the queen is mentioned here and not the prince. The existence of the names of a woman and a man with the same origin does not seem unusual in Iberia. Therefore, the Yamazaspuh in the inscription of Vespasian cannot be in any way related to the inscriptions of Dracontis and Anagranes.

There is also another Amazasp, mentioned in the inscription of the 2nd century found in Rome. This Amazasp was not a king, he belonged only to the royal dynasty, and he did not reign as a king. Apparently he died during the emperor Trajan's eastern expedition. Consequently, even this Amazasp cannot be the Amazasp mentioned in the inscriptions of Anagranes and Dracontis.

The only possible options left are the Amazasp from the Persian inscriptions and the two Amazasps from “Life of Kartli” and “Conversion of Kartli”. In order to solve the connection of the Amazasp of Persian inscriptions to Amazasp mentioned in Georgian narratives, and also to Amazasp mentioned in Anagranes’ inscriptions it is necessary to consider two well-established facts:

• •    Amazasp of Persian inscriptions, probably the same Habza, reigned in the 60s of the 3^rd century;

• •    Amazasp mentioned in the inscription of Anagranes is a younger contemporary of the King Vologases the I of Armenia or of Vologases II of Armenia (aka Vologases V of Parthia), due to the fact that he is married to his daughter.

The younger contemporary of King Vologases of Armenia, be it Valarsh (Vologases) I or Valarsh (Vologases) II, could not be the ruler in the 60s of the 3rd century, as Valarsh II's reign ended in 198 CE and a marriage, supposedly aimed at bringing the two royal families closer together, would take place under his rule and even if afterwards, after 60 years of his reign his daughter would be too old to marry someone. Consequently, Amazasp from the Persian inscriptions cannot be related to the King Amazasp associated with the inscriptions of Anagranes and Dracontis.

Now as for Amazasp I and Amazasp II mentioned in “Life of Kartli” and “Conversion of Kartli”. What do we know about them?

We have very little information about Amazasp I. He is referred to as the “co-ruler” of Derok (Deruk). Supposedly, he reigned in 106—116 CE and was the son of Mithridates I (Mihrdat I). He cannot be identified with the person mentioned in the Vespasian stele since this inscription mentions Yamazapuhi, female name not a male name. The brother of Mithridates I is Amazasp,

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mentioned in the Roman epigram, whose name seems to have been given to his nephew. The younger contemporary of Amazasp I seems to be King Valarsh (Vologases) I of Armenia (117— 140) (Bournoutian 2002: 42) who also happened to be a Parthian prince. Romans made Sohaemus king of Armenia after his death. Pharasmanes the Valiant is the successor of Amazasp according to “Life of Kartli” and “Conversion of Kartli”. Pharasmanes is considered to be the contemporary of Hadrian and Antonius Pius and his reign is dated based on this information. However, there is no any proof that Hadrian became emperor in the same year Pharasmanes became the king, therefore it is permissible that Hadrian was a contemporary of late Amazasp I. In this case, the King of Iberia, Amazasp, mentioned in the inscriptions of the Queen Dracontis and Anagranes, and the King of Armenia Vologases (Valarsh) might be contemporaries also. This coincidence makes possible to identify Iberian king Amazasp and Armenian king Vologases mentioned in Dracontis and Anagranes’ inscriptions with Amazasp I and Vologases I (Valarsh I) consequently.

As for the Amazasp II — “Conversion of Kartli” tells us only a name about him. We know his predecessor — Pharasmanes and the successor — Rev the Just. “Life of Kartli" offers a rather extensive narrative about him and according to it, the following important information can be distinguished:

• •    Before Amazasp II, Pharasmanes the Valiant was a king, then his successor — Adam (Ghadam), who reigned in 161—164 CE³, then Queen Ghadana ruled on behalf of Adam's son, Pharasmanes. It seems that this Pharasmanes reached adulthood and even managed to rule the country in his own name, afterwards his son Amazasp II became the king, hence the lower chronological limit of the beginning of Amazasp II rule does not fall below 180 CE;

• •    In the first years of Amazasp's reign, his rule was not challenged internally, but he fought several battles against the Ossetians and his nobles and his commander-in-chief ( spaspet ) stood by him;

• •    Armenians were his ally at first and then they deserted;

• •    Amazasp turned to Persians after losing alliance with Armenia (?)

• •    The Ossetians, the “Megris” (western Georgians), the king of the Armenians, the dukes (eristavi) (?) of Amazasp, the “Greeks” (the Romans in this context — N.Ph.) opposed Amazasp II;

• •    Rev the Just who became king after the defeat of Amazasp is the son of Armenian king and the nephew of Amazasp II.

Let us discuss the possibility that Amazasp of Anagranes’ inscription is Amazasp II of the “Life of Kartli”. Then it turns out that Amazasp married the daughter of the Armenian king, Vologases (Dracontis?) And at the same time, his sister married the Armenian king Vologases. In our opinion, such a dual dynastic marriage is impossible. Even if these dual marriages took place, supposedly Dracontis first married Amazasp, when Iberian king still had a good relationship with the king of Armenia, and Iberian social contract was generally calm, i.e. no one was opposing the king, he was fighting only with external enemies, and Rev the Just's mother, Amazasp's sister, since Rev the Just is a younger contemporary of Amazasp, either married at the same time or after his brother's marriage. More likely that happened afterwards. But in our opinion, a double dynastic marriage is still out of the question. Consequently, either Amazasp II is not Amazasp from the inscription of Anagranes, or Vologases is not the husband of Amazasp's sister, and therefore the father of Rev the Just is not Vologases II4, but is another king of Armenia, supposedly, Vologases’ successor — Khosrow I. If this is the case, it turns out that in the first years of his reign Khosrow

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To the question of the identifying king Amazasp of Iberia, queen Dracontis and a royal official Anagranes mentioned… married Amazasp's sister, and at the end of his reign, after about 15—20 years, after his son became an adult, he enthroned him on Iberian throne.

In the end, the sources we have do not seem to be enough to allow us the identification of Amazasp I or Amazasp II mentioned in the inscriptions of Queen Dracontis with the Amazasp of the queen Dracontis’ inscription as well as it does not allow us to identify whether Vologases I or Vologases II is mentioned in these inscription. Both options seem possible. However, some additional comments can be made about this issue (see below).

Now as for the title and personality of Anagranes. D. Braund expressed an interesting opinion in this regard. He pointed out that there was a position of τροφεύς at the court of the Seleucids and Ptolemies, and that influence from these countries on Iberia was evident in Hellenistic period. So, the functions of this official should be the same in Iberia also. In addition, given that the Queen is Armenian, he suggested that Anagranes is her foster father and presumably he himself is of Armenian background: “we cannot assume that a king would always appoint a τροφεύς from within his kingdom: an outsider might well be préférable” (Braund 2002: 30). But in the same article he also thinks it permissible that Anagranes might have been an Iberian (Braund 2002:30).

In this regard, we note that first of all there is no evidence that Anagranes is the queen's tutor, there are only three inscriptions related to this context. The first (see above) directly states that he is the king's foster-father (Kaukhchishvili 2000: 227), In the second it is also explicitly stated that he was the king's foster-father (Kaukhchishvili 2000: 228—229), therefore there is no controversy in this issue. As for his ethnicity, there is nothing controversial here either. D. Braund assumes his Armenian background based only on the fact that he is the Queen's foster-father. On the basis of all information, the establishment of Anagranes' Armenian provenance is not well supported. In addition, it is also noteworthy that Anagranes is not only a foster-father but also a commander-in-chief and the only minister ( epitropos ) of the Iberian king. The epitropos , as Seraphita's inscription indicates, is “the achiever of king's many victories” (Tsereteli 1970: 770; Meliqishvili 1970), most likely, the commander – aka spaspet, who is less likely to have been an Armenian in Iberia since Iberia had quite frequent conflict with Armenia.

Another inscription connected with these historical figures is “Anagranes’ Inscription Mentioning Iberian Daughters”. During the excavations of Bagineti in 1993 and 1996, two fragments of sandstone slabs were discovered. These slabs were parts of one whole slab (the sizes of both fragments are: 34 × 24 × 8—9 cm.).

According to T. Kaukhchishvili, currently eight lines are preserved. Only the left section of the first four lines is left, and the below four lines are preserved – twice as wide as the top, although it also lacks the right section. The letters are freely written and well differentiated. The letters in all rows are of the same height (3 cm.). It seems that the beginning of the inscription was written more widely. 16 letters are preserved (some letters are used several times), the full alphabet is missing 7 letters (ζ, κ, ξ, π, τ, χ, ψ) (Kaukhchishvili 2000: 228—229).

Transcription of the inscription is as follows:

ΒΑΣΙΛ..

ΩΣ. ΑΝ...

ΕΥΣ ΒΟ...

ΟΥ. ΒΑ...

ΡΗΛΙΗΟΙΑ..

ΙΒΗΡΩΝΘΥΓΑ

ΩΝ ΘΕΟΥΟ...

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ΔΕΜΕΓΑΛΟ

T. Kaukhchishvili restored and translated the text in the following manner:

Restored text: Βασιλ[έως]...ως. Ἀν[αγράνης?] [τροφ]εὺς. βο ου. βα... ρηλιηοια...Ἰβήρων θυγα[τέρ]. ων θεοῦ <ου> δέ μεγάλο[υ].

Translation: “Of king’s… foster-father Anagranes (?)… Of god of Iberian daughter, of great…” (Kaukhchishvili 2000: 228—229).

T. Kaukhchishvili believes that if her assumption was correct and ΑΝ... ΕΥΣ... is Ἀναγράνης τροφεὺς, the name of the king probably would have been “Amazaspos”.

T. Kaukhchishvili pointed out that the sacrificial inscription probably refers to the king, the daughters of the Iberian (king?), God and something great (μεγάλου), an official of the king must have sacrificed something to the daughters of the king. μεγάλου here must be defining θεοῦ. As for the beginning of the fifth line (ρηλιηοια ...), if this word is a proper name or its ending, T. Kaukhchishvili thinks that it is possible to restore the form in the following manner: Κύριλλα, Κυρίλλη, Κυριλλοῦς, Μυριλέα. These are female names. It is true that there are many such names for men, but here must be the name for woman or women (Kaukhchishvili 2000: 228—229).

Thus the inscription should have contained the name of the king, then the names of his official and the daughters (or at least one), and then the prayer to the great God. It is difficult to ascertain what was done and what was sacrificed to the king's daughters and what they asked the great God in their prayers (Kaukhchishvili 2000: 228—229).

T. Kaukhkhchishvili dated the inscription according to the outline of the letters approximately back to the 2nd — 3rd cc. CE based on the round and angular letters (C, Ο, Ε, Ω) used parallelly. Also of note is the punctuation mark in second and fourth lines, which is often used from the time of Hadrian (from the 30s of the 2nd century) to the middle of the 3rd century (Kaukhchishvili 2000: 228—229).

This inscription is related to two other inscriptions dated back to the same period — the inscription of the Queen Dracontis and the inscription of Anagranes mentioning the King Amazasp. T. Kaukhchishvili's assumption about the mentioning of the King Amazasp is correct, considering the fact that other inscriptions show that Anagranes was King Amazasp's official.

The meaning of the beginning of one word βο is not specified by T. Kaukhchishvili, in this regard we can say with much certainty that this is the beginning of the word. Many words begin in this way, but our attention is drawn to the fact that statistically most often this combination of letters is found as part of the word “βολῆ”. One of the meanings of this word is “a tax”. Given that Anagranes appears in other inscriptions as a donator, a sponsor of various constructions, it is possible that here this word may have the same meaning. Perhaps, some form of taxing was used to sponsor the construction.

We should pay attention to another aspect — issue of Roman citizenship among Iberian royals since these inscriptions might give us some clue. Kaukhchishvili, while restoring the content of “Queen Dracontis’ Inscription from Bagineti” did not restore one part, more specifically, the ending of the word “ιανης” in the second line. The words searched in the Greek epigraphic database with this combination of letters, are mostly proper names. This is the ending of the following names in dative case: Ἁδριανῆς, Μαρκιανῆς, Ἰουλιανῆς, Ποντιανῆς, Φλαβιανῆς, Τραιανῆς, Βαρβαριανῆς, Οὐλπιανῆς and etc. Our attention was drawn to the fact that it may also be a designation of the Flavius family name. The name of the king, who bore the name of Flavius, is engraved on a large silver plate found in Eastern Georgia dated back to the 2nd — 3rd cc. CE. In this regard, there is an opinion that some of the kings of Kartli were Roman citizens (Dundua 2017: 152—156). The inscription on this silver plate and the inscription of the Queen Dracontis are chronologically

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To the question of the identifying king Amazasp of Iberia, queen Dracontis and a royal official Anagranes mentioned… synchronous. In the second line of this inscription the name of the king seems to be mentioned. None of the names of the well-known kings of Iberia mentioned in “Life of Kartli” or “Conversion of Kartli” (Mithridates, Pharasmanes, Khseparnug, Ghadam, Amazasp, Rev the Just, Vache, Bakuri) of the 2nd — 3rd centuries can have the ιανης ending in dative case. Therefore, in our opinion, here the only option is Iberian kings’ Roman nomen — Flavius. Note that the silver plate mentioning the king Flavius Dade of Iberia and the inscription of Queen Dracontis, within a wide chronological range (2nd — 3rd centuries), are still synchronous. Therefore, we can speculate that queen Dracontis might be the wife of an Iberian king who himself or his predecessor had Roman citizenship, of some king who is related to king Fravius Dades. The possibility of identification of Flavius Dades and king Amazasp mentioned in other inscriptions should not be ruled out also, however, we are prone to think that these two are different persons. The identity of Dracontis' husband Amazasp was difficult to establish (see discussion above), we could not rule out neither Amazasp I nor Amazasp II, however, we do know who had a pro-Roman orientation — Amazasp I. Accordingly, this inscription dates all three inscriptions related to Anagranes to the era of Amazasp I.