Theodosius III of Abkhazia

Theodosius III the Blind (Georgian: თეოდოს III) (also known as Theodosius the Sorrowed), was King of the Abkhazians from circa 975 to 978.

He was a son of George II of Abkhazia, who sent Theodosius to be brought up at the Byzantine capital, Constantinople. After his reigning brother Leon III died in 967, a rebel party of Meskhetian, Egrisian and Kartlian nobles put him as a rival king to his brother, Demetrius III. Victorious in the ensuing civil war, Demetrius had Theodosius captured and blinded. It was not until the death of childless Demetrius in 975, when Theodosius was able to ascend the throne.

During his short and unhappy reign, the kingdom became engulfed into complete chaos and feudal anarchy combined with the raids by the Kakhetians in the eastern frontiers of Kartli where the royal power had completely collapsed and a governor (eristavi), Ioanne Marushis-dze, allied with the Georgian Bagratid prince David III Kuropalates of Tao to install Theodosius’s nephew (sister’s son) Bagrat as a ruler of Kartli in 975. As the problems overwhelmed his kingdom, Theodosius was forced to abdicate, in 978, in favor of Bagrat who sent him to the court of David of Tao. Since then Theodosius disappeared from history.

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