page_title: Gubazes II of Lazica
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Gubazes II of Lazica / Biography
caption_attribution_description: English: The stemma of the kings of Lazica according to Toumanoff, Cyril. "How Many Kings Named Opsites?", p. 82. A Tribute to John Insley Coddington on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of the American Society of Genealogists. Association for the Promotion of Scholarship in Genealogy, 1980
context_page_description: Gubazes II was king of Lazica from circa 541 until his assassination in 555. He was one of the central personalities of the Lazic War. He originally ascended the throne as a vassal of the Byzantine Empire, but the heavy-handed actions of the Byzantine authorities led him to seek the assistance of Byzantium's main rival, Sassanid Persia. The Byzantines were evicted from Lazica with the aid of a Persian army in 541, but the Persian occupation of the country turned out to be worse, and by 548, Gubazes was requesting assistance from Byzantium. Gubazes remained a Byzantine ally during the next few years, as the two empires fought for control of Lazica, with the fortress of Petra as the focal point of the struggle. Gubazes eventually quarrelled with the Byzantine generals over the fruitless continuation of the war, and was assassinated by them.
caption: Toumanoff's tentative reconstruction of the family tree of the kings of Lazica.
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