crucial role in the consolidation of the tribes inhabiting the area. The Moschoi may have moved slowly to the northeast forming settlements as they traveled. One of these was Mtskheta, the future capital of the Kingdom of Iberia. The Mtskheta tribe was later ruled by a prince locally known as mamasakhlisi (“father of the household” in Georgian). The written sources for the early periods of Iberia's history are mostly medieval Georgian chronicles, that modern scholarship interpret as a semi-legendary narrative. One such chronicle, Moktsevay Kartlisay (“Conversion of Kartli”) mentions that a ruler named Azo and his people came from Arian-Kartli – the initial home of the proto-Iberians, which had been under Achaemenid rule until the fall of the Persian Empire – and settled on the site where Mtskheta was to be founded. Another Georgian chronicle, Kartlis Tskhovreba (“History of Kartli”) claims Azo to be an officer of Alexander’s, who massacred a local ruling family and conquered the area, until being defeated at the end of the 4th century BC by Prince Pharnavaz, at that time a local chief. The story of Alexander's invasion of Kartli, although legendary, nevertheless reflects the establishment of Georgian monarchy in the Hellenistic period and the desire of later Georgian literati to connect this event to the celebrated conqueror. Pharnavaz I and his descendants Pharnavaz, victorious in a power struggle, became the first king of Iberia (c. 302 – c. 237 BC). According to the later Georgian chronicles, after driving back an invasion, he subjugated the neighboring areas, including a significant part of the western Georgian state of Colchis (locally known as Egrisi), and seems to have secured recognition of the newly founded state by the Seleucids of Syria. Pharnavaz is also said to have built a major citadel, the Armaztsikhe, and a temple to the god Armazi, and to have created a new system of administration, subdividing the country into several counties called saeristavos. His successors controlled the mountain passes of the Caucasus, with the Daryal (also known as the Iberian Gates) being the most important of them. The period following this time of prosperity was one of incessant warfare as Iberia was forced to defend against numerous invasions into its territories. Some southern parts of Iberia, that were conquered from the Kingdom of Armenia, in the 2nd century BC were reunited to Armenia and the Colchian lands seceded to form separate princedoms (sceptuchoi). At