Skande
|
Skande სკანდე |
|
|---|---|
| Village | |
 Skande
|
|
| Coordinates: 42°15′44″N 43°02′48″E / 42.26222°N 43.04667°ECoordinates: 42°15′44″N 43°02′48″E / 42.26222°N 43.04667°E | |
| Country |
 Georgia
|
| Region | Imereti |
| Municipality | Terjola |
| Elevation | 400 m (1,300 ft) |
| Population (2014) | |
| • Total | 434 |
Skande (Georgian: სკანდე), sometimes known as Skanda (სკანდა), is a village in the Terjola Municipality, Imereti, Georgia. It is located in western part of the country, in the small river valley of Chkhari, part of the Kvirila River system, some 15 km northeast of the town of Terjola. Its population as of the 2014 census was 434.
Skanda is home to a ruined fortress, which is the Scanda or Scandeis of the Eastern Roman authors of Late Antiquity and one of the strongholds contested between the Eastern Roman and Sasanian empires during their conflicts in Lazica. It maintained its importance as one of the key fortresses of Imereti down to the early 19th century.
Skanda is referenced in the Eastern Roman sources, such as the Novellae by the emperor Justinian I and historical accounts of the Justinianian era by Procopius and Menander Protector, as a fortress in the hinterland of Lazica, a kingdom on the Black Sea contested between the Eastern Roman and Sasanian Persian empires. The fortress of Skanda, coupled with that of Sarapanis, stood in difficult terrain, guarding the eastern approaches to the country, by the boundary of Iberia. Around 522, shortly after Lazica accepted the Eastern Roman suzerainty, the Laz garrisons of these two frontier strongholds were substituted with the imperial troops, who soon abandoned them due to difficulties in logistics. The Sasanian forces moved in and continued to occupy the fortresses until after the conclusion of the "Eternal Peace" in 532. The Laz destroyed both Skanda and Sarapanis in order to deny the Sasanian military the means of using them in the future, but, as the hostilities resumed in Lazica, the Persians restored Skanda in 551 and held it through the course of the conflict for nearly 25 years.
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