Tbilisi in the context of Anno Domini

Georgia is a country in the Caucasus region on the coast of the Black Sea. It is located at the intersection of Eastern Europe and West Asia, and is today generally regarded as part of Europe. It is bordered to the north and northeast by Russia, to the south by Turkey and Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. Georgia covers an area of 69,700 square kilometres (26,900 sq mi). It has a population of 3.9 million, of which over a third live in the capital and largest city, Tbilisi. Ethnic Georgians, who are native to the region, constitute a majority of the country's population and are its titular nation.

Georgia has been inhabited since prehistory, hosting the world's earliest known sites of winemaking, gold mining, and textiles. The classical era saw the emergence of several kingdoms, such as Colchis and Iberia, that formed the nucleus of the modern Georgian state. In the early fourth century, Georgians officially adopted Christianity, which contributed to their unification under the Kingdom of Georgia. Georgia reached its Golden Age during the High Middle Ages under the reigns of King David IV and Queen Tamar. Beginning in the 15th century, the kingdom declined and disintegrated due to internal discord and pressure from various regional powers, including the Mongols, the Ottoman Empire, and Persia, before being gradually annexed into the Russian Empire starting in 1801.

A public service or service of general (economic) interest is any service intended to address the needs of aggregate members of a community, whether provided directly by a public sector agency, via public financing available to private businesses or voluntary organisations, or by private businesses subject to government regulation. Some public services are provided on behalf of a government's residents or in the interest of its citizens. The term is associated with a social consensus (usually expressed through democratic elections) that certain services should be available to all, regardless of income, physical ability or mental acuity. Examples of such services include the fire services, police, air force, paramedics and public service broadcasting.

Even where public services are neither publicly provided nor publicly financed, they are usually subject to regulation beyond that applying to most economic sectors for social and political reasons. Public policy, when made in the public's interest and with its motivations, is a type of public service.

Dmanisi (Georgian: დმანისი, romanized: dmanisi, pronounced [dmanisi], Azerbaijani: Başkeçid) is a town and archaeological site in the Kvemo Kartli region of Georgia approximately 93 km southwest of the nation’s capital Tbilisi in the river valley of Mashavera.

Abandoned in the 1700s, Bashkichet (Башкичети) was resettled in 1844 to 2000 by Russian sectarian Dukhobortsy exiled from Taurida Governorate. It was renamed Dmansi (Дманиси) from the ancient Mongol duman, menaing "military or administrative unit".

The Kura, also known in Georgian as Mtkvari (Georgian: მტკვარი, romanized: mt'k'vari [ˈmt'k'ʷäɾi]), is an east-flowing transboundary river south of the Greater Caucasus Mountains which drains the southern slopes of the Greater Caucasus east into the Caspian Sea. It also drains the north side of the Lesser Caucasus, while its main tributary, the Aras, drains the south side of those mountains. Starting in northeastern Turkey, the Kura flows through to Georgia, then into Azerbaijan, where it receives the Aras as a right tributary, and finally enters the Caspian Sea. The total length of the river is 1,515 kilometres (941 mi).

People have inhabited the Caucasus region for thousands of years and first established agriculture in the Kura Valley over 4,500 years ago. Large, complex civilizations eventually grew on the river, but by 1200 CE most were reduced to ruin by natural disasters and foreign invaders. The increasing human use, and eventual damage, of the watershed's forests and grasslands, contributed to a rising intensity of floods through the 20th century. In the 1950s, the Soviet Union started building many dams and canals on the river. Previously navigable up to Tbilisi in Georgia, the Kura is now much slower and shallower, having been harnessed by irrigation projects and hydroelectric power stations. The river is now moderately polluted by major industrial centers like Tbilisi and Rustavi in Georgia.

Romanization of Georgian is the process of transliterating the Georgian language from the Georgian script into the Latin script.

Tbilisi Theological Academy and Seminary (Georgian: თბილისის სასულიერო სემინარია, romanized: tbilisis sasuliero seminaria; Russian: Тбили́сская духо́вная семина́рия, romanized: Tbilisskaya dukhovnaya seminariya) is a seminary in Tbilisi, Georgia. It operated from 1817 to 1919 under the name Tiflis Theological Seminary in the Georgian exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church. The facility closed during the wake of the Russian Revolution and the subsequent 1921 invasion of Georgia. The building housing the seminary closed in 1917, and one of the major buildings the seminary used was eventually repurposed in 1950 to become the Art Museum of Georgia.

After Georgian independence in 1991 and the concurrent fall of communism and its discouragement of religion, there was interest in creating a successor. The institution reopened on new premises in 1993 as a higher educational institution of the Georgian Orthodox Church.

Tskhinvali or Tskhinval, occasionally called Stalinir during specific contexts, is the capital of the disputed de facto independent Republic of South Ossetia, internationally considered part of Shida Kartli, Georgia (except by Russia and four other UN member states). Tskhinvali Region was also known historically as Samachablo by Georgians. It is located on the Great Liakhvi River approximately 100 kilometres (62 mi) northwest of the Georgian capital Tbilisi.

The Kingdom of Kartli (Georgian: ქართლის სამეფო, romanized: kartlis samepo) was a late medieval and early modern monarchy in eastern Georgia, centred on the province of Kartli, with its capital at Tbilisi. It emerged in the process of a tripartite division of the Kingdom of Georgia in 1478 and existed, with several brief intervals, until 1762 when Kartli and the neighbouring Georgian kingdom of Kakheti were merged through dynastic succession under the Kakhetian branch of the Bagrationi dynasty. Through much of this period, the kingdom was a vassal of the successive dynasties of Iran, and to a much shorter period Ottoman Empire, but enjoyed intermittent periods of greater independence, especially after 1747.

Vakhtang I Gorgasali (Georgian: ვახტანგ I გორგასალი, romanized: vakht'ang I gorgasali; c. 439 or 443 – 502 or 522), of the Chosroid dynasty, was a king (mepe) of Iberia, natively known as Kartli (eastern Georgia) in the second half of the 5th and first quarter of the 6th century.

He led his people, through an ill-fated alliance with the Byzantine Empire, into a lengthy struggle against Sasanian Iranian hegemony, which ended in Vakhtang's defeat and weakened the kingdom of Iberia. Tradition also ascribes to him the reorganization of the Georgian Orthodox Church and the foundation of Tbilisi, Georgia's modern capital.

Islam in Georgia (Georgian: ისლამი საქართველოში, romanized: islami sakartveloshi) was introduced in 654 when an army sent by the Third Caliph of Islam, Uthman, conquered Eastern Georgia and established Muslim rule in Tbilisi. Currently, Muslims constitute approximately 9.9% of the Georgian population. According to other sources, Muslims constitute 10-11% of Georgia's population.

In July 2011, the Parliament of Georgia passed new law allowing religious minority groups with "historic ties to Georgia" to register. The draft of the law specifically mentions Islam and four other religious communities.

George V the Brilliant (Georgian: გიორგი V ბრწყინვალე, romanized: giorgi V brts'q'invale; also translated as the Illustrious, or Magnificent; 1286–1346) of the Bagrationi dynasty, was the king (mepe) of the Kingdom of Georgia from 1299 to 1302 and again from 1314 until his death in 1346.

He was raised in Samtskhe, at the court of his maternal grandfather, Beka I Jaqeli, who held the position of Mandaturtukhutsesi. In 1299, Ghazan appointed the young George to rule in opposition to his brother, King David VIII. Although proclaimed king, his authority extended only over Tbilisi, which earned him the title “King of Tbilisi.” In a similar manner, Ghazan later used another brother of David VIII, Vakhtang III, who reigned from 1302 to 1308.

The earliest known traces of wine were found near Tbilisi, Georgia (c. 6000 BCE). The earliest known winery, from c. 4100 BCE, is the Areni-1 winery in Armenia. The subsequent spread of wine culture around the Mediterranean was probably due to the influence of the Phoenicians (from c. 1000 BCE) and Greeks (from c. 600 BCE). The Phoenicians exported the wines of Byblos, which were known for their quality into Roman times. Industrialized production of wine in ancient Greece spread across the Italian peninsula and to southern Gaul. The ancient Romans further increased the scale of wine production and trade networks, especially in Gaul around the time of the Gallic Wars. The Romans discovered that burning sulfur candles inside empty wine vessels kept them fresh and free from a vinegar smell, due to the antioxidant effects of sulfur dioxide, which is still used as a wine preservative.

The altered consciousness produced by wine has been considered religious since its origin. The ancient Greeks worshiped Dionysus or Bacchus and the Ancient Romans carried on his cult. Consumption of ritual wine, probably a certain type of sweet wine originally, was part of Jewish practice since Biblical times and, as part of the eucharist commemorating Jesus's Last Supper, became even more essential to the Christian Church. Although Islam nominally forbade the production or consumption of wine, during its Golden Age, alchemists such as Geber pioneered wine's distillation for medicinal and industrial purposes such as the production of perfume.

The Mingrelians (Mingrelian: მარგალეფი, romanized: margalepi; Georgian: მეგრელები, romanized: megrelebi) are an indigenous Kartvelian-speaking ethnic subgroup of Georgians that mostly live in the Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti (Mingrelian: სამარგალო, romanized: samargalo; Georgian: სამეგრელო, romanized: samegrelo) region of Georgia. They also live in considerable numbers in Abkhazia and Tbilisi. In the pre-1930 Soviet census, the Mingrelians were afforded their own ethnic group category, alongside many other ethnic subgroups of Georgians.

The Mingrelians speak the Mingrelian language, and are typically bilingual also in Georgian. Both these languages belong to the Kartvelian language family.

Kartli (Georgian: ქართლი, pronounced [ˈkʰaɾtʰli] ) is a historical region in central-to-eastern Georgia traversed by the river Mtkvari (Kura), on which Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, is situated. Known to the Classical authors as Hiberia, Kartli played a crucial role in the ethnic and political consolidation of the Georgians in the Middle Ages. Kartli had no strictly defined boundaries and they significantly fluctuated in the course of history. After the partition of the kingdom of Georgia in the 15th century, Kartli became a separate kingdom with its capital at Tbilisi. The historical lands of Kartli are currently divided among several administrative regions of Georgia.

The Georgians living in the historical lands of Kartli are known as Kartlelebi (ქართლელები) and comprise one of the largest geographic subgroups of the Georgian people. Most of them are Eastern Orthodox Christians adhering to the national Georgian Orthodox Church and speak a dialect which is the basis of the modern Georgian literary language.

The Battle of Didgori (Georgian: დიდგორის ბრძოლა, romanized: didgoris brdzola) was fought between the armies of the Kingdom of Georgia and the Seljuk Empire at the narrow place of Didgori, 40 km west of Tbilisi, on August 12, 1121. The large Muslim army, under the command of Ilghazi, was unable to maneuver and suffered a devastating defeat due to King David IV's effective military tactics.

The battle at Didgori was the culmination of the entire Georgian–Seljuk wars and led to the Georgians' reconquest of Tbilisi in 1122. Soon after that David moved the capital from Kutaisi to Tbilisi. The victory at Didgori inaugurated the medieval Georgian Golden Age and is celebrated in The Georgian Chronicles as a (Georgian: ძლევაჲ საკვირველი dzlevay sak'virveli lit. 'miraculous victory'). Modern Georgians continue to remember the event as an annual August 12 festival known as Didgoroba ('[the day] of Didgori').

The Georgian Governorate (Russian: Грузинская губерния; Georgian: საქართველოს გუბერნია) was one of the guberniyas of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire. Its capital was Tiflis (Tbilisi). It was divided into uyezds of Gori, Dusheti (Its center was Tbilisi), Lori, Signagi and Telavi.

The Georgia governorate was established in 1801 following the Russian annexation of the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti. In 1840 it was expanded to form the Georgia-Imeretia Governorate, incorporating the territory of the Imeretia Oblast (Its center was Kutaisi and was constituted from uyezds of Kutaisi, Vakha, Rakvta (Raczyn during Russian rule), Sachkhere, Cheri and Bagdati) and Armenian Oblast (Its center was Erivan).

The Battle of Krtsanisi (Georgian: კრწანისის ბრძოლა, romanized: k'rts'anisis brdzola, Persian: نبرد کرتسانیسی) was fought between the army of Qajar Iran (Persia) and the Georgian armies of the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti and Kingdom of Imereti at the place of Krtsanisi near Tbilisi, Georgia, from September 8 to September 11, 1795, as part of Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar's war in response to King Heraclius II of Georgia’s alliance with the Russian Empire. The battle resulted in the decisive defeat of the Georgians, capture, and complete destruction of their capital Tbilisi, as well as the temporary absorption of eastern Georgia into the Iranian empire.

Although the Russian Empire had officially declared in the Treaty of Georgievsk of 1783 that it would protect Heraclius's kingdom against any Iranian attempts to re-subjugate Georgia, Russia did not intervene to protect its ally. Subsequently, in order to restore Russian prestige, Catherine the Great launched a punitive campaign against Iran in 1796, but it was soon recalled after Catherine's death the same year. The reestablishment of Iranian rule over Georgia did not last long, for the shah was assassinated in 1797 in Shusha, and the Georgian king died the year after. With Georgia laying in ruins and the central authorities in Iran occupied with the question of succession, the way was opened for Georgia's annexation by Russia several years later by Tsar Paul.