Lazia (Pontus)

Laz people

The Laz are ethnically a branch of the Georgian people. The ancestors of the Laz (including the Chaldaeans, the Tzans, and many others) are cited by many classical authors from Scylax (sixth century BC) to Procopius and Agathias (both sixth century AD), but the Laz themselves are cited by Pliny as early as the first century AD. It seems that the Colchians of Pontus, or the Chani (by the Greek transcription "Tzanoi") were called the "Lazi" at the time when the great Caucasian state of Lazians existed on the traditional territory of Colchis, in the Rioni (or Phasis) valley basin. The Pontic Lazi (Chani/Tzanoi), which later were incorporated within the Byzantine Empire, and differed from the Colchian Lazi, have retained the old name "Lazi" till today.

History

What is now Lazistan was, at least nominally, included in the Roman province of Polemonian Pontus. By the early fifth century AD, as the Roman hold on the eastern Black Sea coast weakened, the coastal tribes seem to have been united by the Laz, who seized control of Colchis. The former Kingdom of Colchis was reorganized by the Romans into the Province of Lazicum ruled by Roman legati. In the early 3rd century, newly established Roman Lazicum was given a certain degree of autonomy. which by the end of the century developed into full independent Kingdom of Lazica on the basis of smaller principalities of Suans, Apsilae and Sanigs. Lazica survived more than 250 years until in 562 AD it was formed as client state by the Byzantine Empire (378-457), later of the Persian Empire (457-522). During Byzantine times, the word Colchi gave way to the term Lazica.

Beyond Rhizaeum there is a territory occupied by the Tzannoi, called Sannoi in early times; who live between the Byzantine and the Lazica. there is a certain settlements there named Athenae, Archabis and Apsarus. at the present time people who live there are neither subjects of the Romans nor of the king of the Lazica. Roman emperors were paying them each year a fixed amount of gold, with the condition that they should never plunder the country thereabout. In the sixth century, Emperor Justinian I's campaigns were waged against the warlike tribes Sannoi or Tzannoi. Justinian went to great lengths to reduce the Laz to submission to the empire, cutting down forests, building roads, erecting fortifications, and in the process, converting the population to Christianity. The Roman period was marked by further Hellenization of the region in terms of language, economy and culture.

Lazica remained a client state of the Byzantine from 522 until the arrival of the Arabs in the seventh century. In the 790s the reincorporation of Lazica with the Abkhazians ousted the Tzan-Laz from western Georgia; thereafter, the Lazs lived under nominal Byzantine suzerainty in the Chaldia. With the collapse of direct Byzantine rule in eastern Anatolia after the Crusader Capture of Constantinople in 1204, the theme of Chaldia, with its capital at Trebizond, was captured by Alexios Komnenos, troops provided by his relative, Tamar of Georgia. That same month Alexios was proclaimed as emperor of the Empire of Trebizond.

Administration

Mainly rural areas of Trebizond Empire appear to have been predominantly Laz in ethnic composition, the Laz monopolizing its coastal shipping and even transporting Trebizontine troops in their small craft. In the tenth century the Arab geographer Abul Feda regarded Trebizond as being largely a Lazian port. Byzantine authors, such as Pachymeres, and to some extent Trapezundines such as Lazaropoulos and Bessarion, regarded the Trapezundian Empire as being no more than a Lazian border state.

The Empire was organised in traditional Byzantine fashion into 7 banda, comprising from west to east Trikomia, Palaiomatzouka, Matzouka, Trebizond, Gemora, Sourmaina and Rhizaion, plus the thema of Greater Lazia, it appears that Lazia was the general Greek name for the western Lazic tribes (the earlier Sanni) lying outside of the direct control of the Lazic Kingdom. theme contained lands between modern Pazar including Ardeşen and Arhavi-Hopa areas, the borders of this district remained basically identical over 300 years later.

The Lazic coast and its hinterland was neither Greek nor Trapezuntine-controlled, apart from a few points on the coast. The uniqueness of the appellation points to the likely absence of any effective administration. Probably the castles, such as Kiz Kulesi at Atina (Pazar), were garrisoned by the Laz frontier lords likewise defended the Pontic passes with their own castles and garrisons, and there is strong evidence (including the church itself) that Makriaigalou (now Kemalpaşa) was somehow held by them too. It is likely that the interior was inhabited only by Lazs and Hemshin minority, who dwell among them.

It is likely that the majority of the Empire’s armed forces was made up native elements, comprised chiefly of Tzannoi (in fact actually Laz). These latter were probably the responsibility of the office of Grand Constable, a post actually held for much of this period by a Laz family with the surname of Tzanichites.

Ecclesiastically, the western part of Lazistan belonged to the jurisdiction of the Metropolite of Trebizond who used the title ‘Exarchos pasis Lazicus' to describe it. In the relatively limited territory of Empire of Trebizond there was enough room for three dioceses: Trebizond, which was the only diocese established far in the past, Cerasous and Rizaion in Lazia, both formed as upgraded bishoprics. All three dioceses survived the Ottoman conquest (1461) and generally operated until the 17th century, when the dioceses of Cerasous and Rizaion were abolished. the diocese of Rizaion and the bishopric of Of were abolished at the time due to the Islamisation of the Laz and of the region respectively.

Trapezuntine Civil War

During Trapezuntine civil war, native Lazic nobility persuaded Anna, called Anachoutlou, the eldest daughter of the emperor Alexios II, to escape in Lazia, where she was proclaimed empress as being the nearest legitimate heir of her brother Basilios. The Lazs, the Tzans, and all the provincials, preferred a native sovereign of the House of Grand Komnenoi to the domination of a Byzantine scion of Palaiologos. her supporters escorted her to Trebizond. Wherever she went, according to William Miller, the people joined the revolt and when Anna, reinforced by the troops sent by the Georgian king George V, arrived at the walls of Trebizond on July 17, 1341 she was admitted without resistance and acclaimed empress. The nobles of the Lazian faction now became the sole possessors of political power, and used the name of the empress Anna to govern the empire by an association of powerful chiefs.

Timeline of Lazia