Adarnase IV of Iberia

Adarnase IV
King of Georgians
Reign	888-923
Successor	David II of Iberia
Died	923
Issue	David II of Iberia Sumbat I of Iberia
Dynasty	Bagrationi dynasty
Father	David I of Iberia
Religion	Georgian Orthodox Church

Adarnase IV (Georgian: ადარნასე) (died 923) was a member of the Georgian Bagratid dynasty of Tao-Klarjeti and prince of Iberia/Kartli, responsible for the restoration of kingship, which had been in abeyance since it had been abolished by Iran in the sixth century, in 888.

The numbering of successive rulers in the early Bagratid period is very confused in that it moves between the different branches of the family. Hence, Adarnase, known as “IV” for being the fourth Adarnase as the prince of Iberia, is also known as “II” as a sovereign of Tao-Klarjeti and “I” as the king of Iberia.

Adarnase was the only son of David I, the prince of Iberia with the Byzantine title of curopalates, who was murdered by his cousin Nasra in 881. As Adarnase was still a minor, the Byzantine emperor – pursuant to the policy of division – appointed as curopalates, not Adarnase, but his cousin Gurgen. Nasra’s subsequent attempt to dispossess Adarnase of patrimonial inheritance was defeated with the help of the Armenian king Ashot I in 888. The victory allowed Adarnase to claim a royal status for him. The historian Valeri Silogava has surmised that Adarnase's crowning as king might have occurred, in a symbolic move, at the ancient Iberian capital of Mtskheta, as suggested by an asomtavruli inscription—probably a 17th-century reinstatement of an earlier epigraph—at the Samtavro Monastery.

Allied with the resurgent Armenians, Adarnase then launched, from his base in Lower Tao, a policy of expansion. Not being a curopalates and having Armenia's example before him, Adarnase assumed the title of king and subsequently defeated his rival curopalates Gurgen. The Byzantine government adapted itself to the circumstances and, upon Gurgen death in 891, recognized Adarnase as curopalates.

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