Pharasmanes II of Iberia

Pharasmanes II
Relief of King Pharasmanes
13th King of Iberia
Reign	117–138
Predecessor	Amazasp I
Successor	Ghadam
Born	Mtskheta, Kingdom of Iberia
Died	138
Spouse	Ghadana
Issue	Ghadam
Dynasty	Pharnavazid dynasty
Father	Amazasp I of Iberia
Religion	Georgian paganism

Pharasmanes II the Valiant or the Brave (Georgian: ფარსმან II ქველი) was a king of Iberia (Kartli) from the Pharnavazid dynasty, contemporary of the Roman emperor Hadrian (r. 117–138). Professor Cyril Toumanoff suggests AD 116–132 as the years of Pharasmanes’ reign. He features in several Classical accounts.

The medieval Georgian annals report Pharasmanes' joint rule with Pharasmanes Avaz, diarchs (one source has the extra pair: Rok and Mihrdat), but several modern scholars consider the Iberian diarchy unlikely as it is not corroborated by the contemporary evidence. Pharasmanes is reported to have been the son of his predecessor, King Amazasp I. He is said to have married Ghadana, daughter of King Vologases III of Parthia who ruled in Armenia. According to the medieval Life of Kings, the traditional friendship of the two dyarchs soured at the instigation of the Iranian wife of Mihrdat. Toumanoff regards this information a back-projection of the historically recorded enmity of Pharasmanes I of Iberia and his brother Mithridates of Armenia. The chronicle then continues a story of an Armenian-Roman alliance and their invasion of the Iranian-backed Iberia in which Pharasmanes finds his death.

The Georgian royal annals describe Pharasmanes in the following way:

The contemporary Classical authors, with more solid historical background, focus on Pharasmanes’ uneasy relations with Rome. He refused in 129 to come and pay homage to the emperor Hadrian.