Kingdom of Abkhazia  The Kingdom of Abkhazia (), also known as Abasgia or Egrisi-Abkhazia, was a medieval feudal state in the Caucasus which lasted from the 780s until being united, through dynastic succession, with Kingdom of the Iberians, which resulted in formation of unified the Kingdom of Georgia in 1008. In the early years of the 10th century, Kingdom of Abkhazia stretched, according to Byzantine sources, along the Black Sea coast three hundred Greek miles, from the frontiers of the "thema" of Chaldia to the mouth of the river Nicopsis, with the Caucasus behind it. Abkhazia, or Abasgia of classic sources, was a princedom under Byzantine authority. It lay chiefly along the Black Sea coast in what is now the northwestern part of the modern-day Georgia (disputed Republic of Abkhazia) and extended northward into the territory of today's Krasnodar Krai of Russia. It had Anacopia as the capital. Abkhazia was ruled by a hereditary "archon" who effectively functioned as a Byzantine viceroy. The country was chiefly Christian and the city of Pityus was a seat of an archbishop directly subordinated to the Patriarch of Constantinople. Another Abasgian episcopal see was that of Soteropolis. In 735, a large expedition led by Arab general Marwan was launched against the Georgian kingdoms. The Arabs, pursuing the retreating Georgian princes – brothers Mirian and Archil – surged into Abkhazia in 736. Dysentery and floods, combined with a stubborn resistance offered by the archon Leon I and his Iberian and Lazic allies, made the invaders retreat. Leon I then married Mirian's daughter, and a successor, Leon II exploited this dynastic union to acquire Lazica in the 770s. Presumably considered as a successor state of Lazica ("Egrisi," in Georgian sources), this new polity continued to be referred to as Egrisi (Lazica) in some contemporary Georgian (e.g., "The Vitae of the Georgian Kings" by Leonti Mroveli) and Armenian (e.g., "The History of Armenia" by Hovannes Draskhanakertsi) chronicles. The successful defense against the Arabs, and new territorial gains, gave the Abkhazian princes enough power to claim more autonomy from the Byzantine Empire.