Trade Routes Passing Through Tbilisi

Trade Routes Passing Through Tbilisi, major road arteries that, according to Strabo’s accounts, linked the ancient capital of the Kingdom of Kartli—Mtskheta—with Caucasian Albania and Armenia. Additionally, a branch of the Great Silk Road passed through Tbilisi, through which Chinese and Central Asian silk was exported to the countries of the Black and Mediterranean Sea basins. The fact that these routes traversed Tbilisi is further evidenced by the marking of the station "Philado" (Tphilado – per S. Eremian and N. Lomouri) at the location of present-day Tbilisi on the Tabula Peutingeriana (Castorius’s map), compiled in the 4th century CE.

While the Tabula Peutingeriana reflects the state of the 1st century CE, accounts from Strabo and other authors regarding these routes originate from the records of Patrocles—a contemporary of Seleucus I (312–281/280 BCE), the governor of the Southern Caspian region at the turn of the 4th–3rd centuries BCE. Seleucus I intended to connect the Black and Caspian Seas via a canal, which indicates that the great trade route passing through the Transcaucasian countries was extensively utilized by the beginning of the 3rd century BCE, and "Tphilado" (Tbilisi) was one of the stations situated along this path. After Tbilisi became the capital of the Kingdom of Kartli, these trade routes acquired even greater significance for the city. The intensive participation of Tbilisi’s citizens in trade operations is evidenced by the immense wealth carried away from Tbilisi in 628 CE by the forces of the Western Turkic Khaganate.

Literature: გოილაძე ვ., აბრეშუმის დიდი სავაჭრო გზა და საქართველო, თბ., 1997; ლომოური ნ., ძველი საქართველოს სავაჭრო გზების საკითხისათვის, «ისტორიის  ინ-ტის შრომები», 1958, ტ. 4, ნაკვ. 1.

V. Goiladze