Colchis

Based on Wikipedia: Colchis

The Land Where Jason Sought the Golden Fleece

Before there was a country called Georgia, before the Silk Road carried goods between East and West, there was Colchis—a kingdom on the eastern shores of the Black Sea that the ancient Greeks considered the very edge of their known world. When Jason and the Argonauts sailed in search of the Golden Fleece, this was their destination. When Greek poets wanted to invoke a land of mystery and wealth, they spoke of Colchis.

But Colchis was far more than myth.

For roughly twelve hundred years, from about 1300 BCE until the first century BCE, Colchis existed as one of the earliest Georgian states—a sophisticated civilization that traded with the Greeks, paid tribute to Persian emperors, and developed metalworking techniques that rivaled anything in the ancient Mediterranean. The Colchians themselves were ancestors of today's Laz and Mingrelian peoples, speaking early forms of the Kartvelian languages that would eventually become modern Georgian.

A Geography of Extremes

To understand Colchis, you first have to understand its landscape, because geography shaped everything about this kingdom.

The region occupied what is now western Georgia, along with portions of modern Turkey, Russia's Black Sea coast near Sochi, and the territory of Abkhazia. It was hemmed in by mountains on three sides—the towering Greater Caucasus to the north, the Lesser Caucasus to the south, and the Likhi Range to the east. Only the Black Sea offered an opening to the outside world.

This meant that Colchis was both protected and isolated. Invading armies had to cross formidable mountain passes or approach by sea. But it also meant the region developed its own distinctive character, different from the kingdoms to its east and south.

The climate was astonishing for its wetness. Near the modern city of Batumi, annual rainfall reaches four thousand millimeters—about one hundred sixty inches. That's the highest rainfall anywhere in continental western Eurasia, comparable to tropical rainforests. The result was a landscape of temperate rainforests, wetlands, and alpine meadows, home to plants and animals found nowhere else on Earth.

Even today, Colchis harbors species that seem like living fossils—five species of rhododendron, the Caucasian salamander, and eight endemic species of lizards. These are Neogene and Palaeogene relics, meaning their closest relatives live in distant parts of the world, survivors from an age when the continents were arranged differently.

What the Ancients Said

The Greeks were fascinated by the Colchians, and what they wrote about them has puzzled historians ever since.

Herodotus, the "Father of History" writing in the fifth century BCE, made a startling claim. He called the Colchians "dark-skinned and woolly-haired" and declared that they were actually Egyptians—descendants of soldiers left behind by the Pharaoh Sesostris (probably Senusret the Third) during a legendary military campaign. As evidence, Herodotus cited the practice of circumcision, which he said the Colchians, Egyptians, and Ethiopians had practiced since ancient times.

For it is plain to see that the Colchians are Egyptians; and what I say, I myself noted before I heard it from others. When it occurred to me, I inquired of both peoples; and the Colchians remembered the Egyptians better than the Egyptians remembered the Colchians.

Modern historians have roundly rejected this theory. No Egyptian army ever reached the Caucasus—the region was shielded by powerful kingdoms like the Hittites, Assyrians, and Urartians that no Egyptian force could have bypassed. Whether Herodotus ever actually visited Colchis or Egypt is itself doubtful. His description might reflect Greek assumptions about distant peoples rather than firsthand observation.

But his account does tell us something important: the Colchians were distinctive enough to spark speculation. They weren't simply "Greeks living abroad" or "Persians under another name." They were their own people, with their own customs, striking enough that visitors felt compelled to explain where they came from.

A Babel of Languages

One of the most remarkable claims about Colchis concerns the city of Dioscurias, located at modern Sukhumi on the Abkhazian coast. Greek and Roman writers reported that between seventy and three hundred languages were spoken there.

Even if we take these numbers as exaggeration—and ancient writers were prone to embellishment—the underlying reality is significant. Dioscurias was a trading hub where merchants from across the Caucasus converged. The Caucasus mountains have always been one of the most linguistically diverse regions on Earth, home to language families found nowhere else. Today, the region still contains dozens of distinct languages, many of which have no known relatives.

The Colchians themselves spoke early Kartvelian languages—the family that includes modern Georgian, Mingrelian, and Laz. But their kingdom was a patchwork of different peoples. Ancient sources mention the Machelones, Heniochi, Zydretae, Lazi, Chalybes, Tibareni, Mossynoeci, Macrones, and many others. Some of these tribes lived along the coast, others in the mountains. Not all of them were ethnically Colchian in the strict sense, but they fell within Colchis's political orbit.

Gold, Iron, and Honey

Colchis was famous throughout the ancient world for its natural wealth, and this reputation may explain why the Greeks set their Golden Fleece myth there.

The Colchians were skilled metalworkers. By the Late Bronze Age, roughly the fifteenth to eighth centuries BCE, they had developed sophisticated techniques for smelting and casting metals. They produced farming implements, weapons, and decorative objects that circulated throughout the Black Sea region.

But the Golden Fleece legend may have a more literal basis. One ancient practice for extracting gold from streams involved placing sheepskins in flowing water. Gold particles would catch in the wool, and the fleece would then be hung to dry before being shaken or combed to recover the gold. A fleece laden with gold dust might indeed appear golden.

Beyond metals, Colchis exported timber, honey, and wax. The mild, wet climate produced excellent grazing land for cattle and horses. The wetlands were home to abundant waterfowl, and Colchian pheasants became so popular in Rome that moralists condemned them as symbols of decadent excess. The very word "pheasant" comes from the Phasis River—the modern Rioni—that flowed through the heart of Colchis.

What Colchis lacked was salt. The interior regions had no natural salt deposits, so demand was met through coastal production and imports from the northern Black Sea coast. This may explain why Colchis was so oriented toward maritime trade—they needed the sea not just for exports but for basic necessities.

Between Empires

Colchis's position at the edge of multiple civilizations meant it was constantly negotiating with—or resisting—powerful neighbors.

The earliest references to Colchis may come from Assyrian inscriptions. The Assyrian king Tukulti-Ninurta the First, reigning from 1243 to 1207 BCE, claimed to have defeated forty kings of the "Nairi lands" and marched through mountains no Assyrian had seen before. Later inscriptions mention "the countries on the shores of the Upper Sea"—the Black Sea—suggesting Assyrian awareness of the Colchian region.

More certain is Colchis's encounter with Urartu, a kingdom centered in what is now Armenia and eastern Turkey. In the mid-eighth century BCE, the Urartian king Sarduri the Second inscribed his victory over "Qulha" on a stele. Most scholars identify Qulha as an early form of "Colchis," though the exact location of the kingdom Sarduri conquered remains disputed. Some argue it referred to a different region entirely, perhaps near modern Göle in Turkey.

The name confusion matters because it illustrates how fluid ancient geography could be. The Greeks may have applied the name "Colchis" to a region the Urartians knew by another name, or to an area that only partially overlapped with the Urartian "Qulha." Myths and politics didn't always line up with actual places.

By the sixth century BCE, Colchis had come under the influence of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. The southern tribes—the Macrones, Moschi, and Marres—were incorporated into the empire's nineteenth satrapy, a province. The northern tribes apparently submitted more voluntarily, paying tribute rather than being directly administered. According to some sources, this tribute included sending one hundred boys and one hundred girls to the Persian court every five years—though it's unclear whether these were Colchians themselves or captives obtained through war or purchase.

The Greeks Arrive

Greek colonization of the Black Sea coast brought Colchis into direct contact with the Mediterranean world. The city of Phasis, at the mouth of the river of the same name, became a major Greek trading post. So did Dioscurias to the north.

One dramatic encounter occurred in 400 BCE, when the Ten Thousand—the Greek mercenaries immortalized in Xenophon's Anabasis—reached the Black Sea coast after their famous march through the Persian Empire. Shortly after arriving at Trapezus (modern Trabzon), they fought a battle against the Colchians and won decisively. It was a brief clash, but it shows that Colchis remained capable of fielding significant military forces even as Greek influence expanded.

The Greek presence accelerated Colchis's development. Trade connections multiplied. Coins circulated. Greek culture seeped into local practices, though the Colchians never became Greek themselves. Archaeological evidence from Colchian burials shows names that are Greek, Anatolian, Iranian, and possibly Abkhaz—but conspicuously few Kartvelian names, which puzzles historians given that the population was likely predominantly Kartvelian-speaking.

Cities and Towns

Colchis was no mere collection of villages. By the end of the second millennium BCE, urbanization was well advanced in at least some parts of the kingdom.

The chief city was probably Aia, also written as Aea or Cyta—modern Kutaisi—which tradition held to be the birthplace of the sorceress Medea. If you've read Euripides's Medea, you know her as the woman who helped Jason steal the Golden Fleece, married him, and later took terrible revenge when he abandoned her. Whatever the historical truth behind such legends, Kutaisi was clearly an important center.

Dioscurias, later called Sebastopolis by the Romans and now known as Sukhumi, served as the main port. Its role as a polyglot trading hub has already been mentioned. Phasis (modern Poti) sat at the river's mouth. Sarapana (Shorapani) controlled inland routes. Pityus (Pitsunda) lay to the north, and Apsaros (Gonio) guarded the southern approaches.

Each of these cities had its own character. Dioscurias traded with the interior mountain tribes. Phasis connected Greek traders to Colchian goods. The inland cities controlled mining regions and agricultural hinterlands.

What Colchis Became

Colchis did not vanish so much as transform. Over the centuries, the name "Colchian" gradually became associated specifically with the Laz people of the southern Black Sea coast. The kingdom itself merged with or was succeeded by Egrisi, the name that Georgians themselves used for the region.

Eventually, Colchis and the eastern Georgian kingdom of Iberia would together form the foundations of the medieval Kingdom of Georgia. The Georgian nation traces its origins to both these ancient states—Colchis providing the western, coastal heritage, Iberia the eastern, inland one. The modern Georgian language descends from the Kartvelian family that the Colchians spoke three thousand years ago.

This continuity is remarkable. Few regions can trace their cultural and linguistic heritage so far back with such confidence. The Greek myths remembered Colchis as a land of sorcery and golden fleeces. The Assyrians knew it as a distant kingdom of mountain kings. The Persians counted it among their subjects. But to the people who lived there, it was simply home—a place of rainfall and forests, gold dust and pheasants, where their ancestors had lived since the Middle Bronze Age and where their descendants would remain for millennia to come.

The Connection to Colchicine

There's one final twist to the Colchis story that connects it to modern medicine.

The autumn crocus, Colchicum autumnale, takes its name from Colchis—the ancient Greeks believed the plant originated there, in the land of the sorceress Medea, who was famous for her knowledge of poisons and potions. The plant contains colchicine, a compound that has been used for thousands of years to treat gout.

When the French military officer Nicolas Husson brewed his "Eau Médicinale" in 1760, he was drawing on this ancient tradition. Benjamin Franklin himself, suffering from gout, would eventually try Husson's remedy. The medicine worked because it contained colchicine—and colchicine worked because of the peculiar chemistry of a plant that the Greeks named after the most mysterious kingdom they knew.

In this way, Colchis lives on not just in Georgian heritage but in pharmacies around the world. Every time someone takes colchicine for gout or pericarditis, they're using a compound named for a Bronze Age kingdom on the Black Sea—a kingdom of golden fleeces and metalworking princes, of polyglot markets and pheasants bound for Roman tables, of dark forests and mountain torrents flowing down to the sea.