Nana was the daughter of a man named Oligotus—though some sources suggest this may be a corruption of Aurelius Valerius Sogus Olympianus, a Roman governor of Theodosia. Others propose she was the daughter of Theothorses, a Bosporan king. Either way, her roots seem to trace to the Greco-Roman world along the shores of the Black Sea—what the ancients called the Euxine.
At its height, the Kingdom of the Bosporus encircled much of the Black Sea, centered on the northeastern shore. Later, this region would also be known as the Kingdom of Pontus.
Nana herself appears to have been a devout pagan, opposed to Christianity—until, as the story goes, she contracted a mysterious illness. A captive Christian slave healed her, and she immediately requested baptism. Her husband, Mirian, was a Zoroastrian noble from Iran. The two of them ruled Iberia, the eastern Georgian kingdom, and were contemporaries of Emperor Constantine, who reportedly celebrated the news of another Christian monarch nearby.
Nana and Mirian are traditionally said to be buried at the Samtavro Convent in Mtskheta, where their tombs are still visited.
Their kingdom, Iberia, lay north of Armenia and was part of what are now called the Georgian Kingdoms—alongside Colchis, Circassia, and others. Colchis, of course, was famed in myth as the land of the Golden Fleece, the destination of Jason and the Argonauts. Today, the whole region is known as the Caucasus.
Curiously, the names Iberia and Albania appear here in the Caucasus—and also in Europe. We know Albania today as a Balkan nation, and Iberia as the peninsula that includes Spain and Portugal. Yet no direct connection is known between them.
Theories abound: perhaps Albania in the Balkans was named by migrating Visigoths from the Steppe, or perhaps it was simply a linguistic coincidence. As for Iberia, ancient geographer Strabo used the name for both regions—leading some to believe the Romans later adapted it into Hibernia (an early name for Ireland), though that may be conflation rather than cause.
What remains is a web of names, stretched across mountains and centuries, stitched together by story, language, and the chance of ancestral memory.
A Work Progressing 
Queen Nana of Iberia
Nana of the Bosporus
Nana was the daughter of a man named Oligotus—though some sources suggest this may be a corruption of Aurelius Valerius Sogus Olympianus, a Roman governor of Theodosia. Others propose she was the daughter of Theothorses, a Bosporan king. Either way, her roots seem to trace to the Greco-Roman world along the shores of the Black Sea—what the ancients called the Euxine.
At its height, the Kingdom of the Bosporus encircled much of the Black Sea, centered on the northeastern shore. Later, this region would also be known as the Kingdom of Pontus.
Nana herself appears to have been a devout pagan, opposed to Christianity—until, as the story goes, she contracted a mysterious illness. A captive Christian slave healed her, and she immediately requested baptism. Her husband, Mirian, was a Zoroastrian noble from Iran. The two of them ruled Iberia, the eastern Georgian kingdom, and were contemporaries of Emperor Constantine, who reportedly celebrated the news of another Christian monarch nearby.
Nana and Mirian are traditionally said to be buried at the Samtavro Convent in Mtskheta, where their tombs are still visited.
Their kingdom, Iberia, lay north of Armenia and was part of what are now called the Georgian Kingdoms—alongside Colchis, Circassia, and others. Colchis, of course, was famed in myth as the land of the Golden Fleece, the destination of Jason and the Argonauts. Today, the whole region is known as the Caucasus.
Curiously, the names Iberia and Albania appear here in the Caucasus—and also in Europe. We know Albania today as a Balkan nation, and Iberia as the peninsula that includes Spain and Portugal. Yet no direct connection is known between them.
Theories abound: perhaps Albania in the Balkans was named by migrating Visigoths from the Steppe, or perhaps it was simply a linguistic coincidence. As for Iberia, ancient geographer Strabo used the name for both regions—leading some to believe the Romans later adapted it into Hibernia (an early name for Ireland), though that may be conflation rather than cause.
What remains is a web of names, stretched across mountains and centuries, stitched together by story, language, and the chance of ancestral memory.
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