In
Greco-Roman geography,
Iberia (
Greek , ) was the name for a kingdom of the
Southern Caucasus, centered on present-day Eastern
Georgia. Around the first centuries BC and AD the land south of the
Greater Caucasus and north of the
Lesser Caucasus was divided between
Colchis in the west, Caucasian Iberia in the center and
Caucasian Albania in the east. To the southwest was
Armenia and to the southeast
Atropatene. Iberia, also known in
Georgian as
Kartli , after its
core province, was during
Classical Antiquity and the
Early Middle Ages a significant state in the Caucasus, either as an independent state or as a dependent of larger empires, notably the
Sassanid and
Roman empires. Its population, known as the
Caucasian Iberians, formed the nucleus of the
Georgians (Kartvelians), and the state, together with
Colchis to its west, would form the nucleus of the medieval
Kingdom of Georgia.