arrested and imprisoned at the citadel of Tbilisi, where he was strangled. Eudemus I was canonized by the Georgian Orthodox Church as a holy hieromartyr. Six years later stubborn King of Kakheti was finally ousted from the power, losing the heir – Prince David, in the fateful battle of Magharo. Rostom, loyal vassal of the Shah, became the new ruler of Kakheti. Taking shelter in Imereti, deposed Kakhetian King had his grandson Heraclius sent to the Russian court. In 1658, Teimuraz I travelled to Moscow, thus becoming the first Georgian King to visit Russia. In 1661, seventy-two years old King was captured during the Imeretian campaign of the King of Kartli, Vakhtang V (1658–1675). Teimuraz I was escorted as an honoured prisoner through Kartli to Shah Abbas II's court – the Shah urged him to accept Islam, offered him meat on a fast day and, when Teimuraz I declined, threw wine in his face and imprisoned him in Astrabad by the Caspian. Here, the most valiant Georgian King of the seventeenth century died in 1663. Teimuraz I was buried in the Alaverdi Monastery. In 1656, Shah Abbas II made another attempt to settle Turkoman tribes in Kakheti. As a result, in 1659, Georgians revolted again, tens of thousands Turkomans were massacred, or forced to leave Kakheti. The location, Gatsqvetila (‘Exterminated’), where the most Qizilbashes were slaughtered, became infamous. By 1660, Shah acknowledged his failure in Kakheti. However, Safavids also threatened retaliation if rebel leaders did not surrender. Bidzina Cholokashvili, Shalva and Elizbar Eristavis of Ksani chose to sacrifice their lives to avoid further bloodshed and traveled to Isfahan, where they were executed. The events of the 1659 Uprising produced numerous oral traditions, especially in mountainous regions of eastern Georgia – Tusheti, Pshavi and Khevsureti, where poems dedicated to local heroes became popular. In the nineteenth century, Vazha-Pshavela used these traditions to create one of his finest poems, Bakhtrioni (1892), while his fellow writer Akaki Tsereteli produced another classic of Georgian literature, Bashi-Achuki (1896). Bashi-Achuki (1956) is also a Soviet Georgian historical drama film directed by Leo Esakia. In 1664, Archil II (1664–1675), the eldest son of the Kartlian King Vakhtang V, was confirmed as a new King of Kakheti, nominally converting to Islam. Eleven years of the Archil's reign proved to be the most successful period of the calamitous seventeenth century. Archil II managed to start a long process of