„მუზების ტაძარი“ პონტოს კიდეში და ელინური პაიდეიას საკითხი ΙΙΙ-ΙV საუკუნეების საქართველოში

ანოტაცია

Scarce written records survive about education in Georgian kingdoms in antiquity. The gap can be partly filled with information provided by a 4th-century Greek rhetorician, philosopher and statesman, Themistius, about a Hellenic school (ἀνάκτορον τῶν Μουσῶν) near Phasis, at the "edge of Pontus" (ἐν τῇ ἐσχατιᾷ τοῦ Πόντου), which scholars identify either as Poti or Sinope or Neocaesarea. The exact location of the school is difficult to establish as Themistius mentions also the river Thermodon, which is quite far from Phasis. However, according to the myths he relates, the region was inhabited by the Colchians and supposedly bordered with Armenian settlements. The study of Byzantine sources shows that the mentioning of Phasis together with Thermodon is not confusing but serves as an additional proof for associating the place of the school with Colchis. The article examines all relevant details from Themistius' Oratio 27 in terms of philological analysis and also considers the 3rd-4th century historical and cultural context. I share the opinion that the school must have been situated near the eastern and not the western border of Pontus’ diocese. However, the identification of the city is the task of a further interdisciplinary study that would examine the information provided in Themistius' text in the light of archeological evidence from the territories of Ancient Colchis and Iberia (first of all, the writing tools discovered in Mtskheta, etc.).