Colchis was an ancient Georgian kingdom on the coast of the Black Sea, existing from the 14th century BC to 164 BC; Phasis served as its capital. Colchis was the earliest Georgian state, with the Kartvelian Colchians forming a tribal union led by a king. In 1300 BC, Jason and his Greek Argonauts invaded Colchis in search of the Golden Fleece, which was bestowed unto King Aeetes by Phraxis. Jason escaped with both the Golden Fleece and Aeetes' daughter Medea, and he brought her back to Corinth, where they married and had two children. After she murdered King Creon of Corinth, Jason's new wife Glauce, and her sons Tisander and Alcimenes, Medea fled to Athens, and then back to Colchis, where she helped her father regain the throne from her usurping uncle, Perses of Tauris. In 750 BC, Colchis conquered Diauehi, and it expanded to cover much of the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus. From the 730s to 720s BC, Colchis was overrun by the Cimmerians and Scythians and was invaded by Assyria, and it ultimately disintegrated before becoming a Persian satrapy in the mid-500s BC. Also in the 6th century BC, Greek traders from Miletus arrived to construct a thriving mercantile economy from the satrapy, and it became a powerful Greek trading state with strong Scythian influences and a nobility of both Greek and Scythian origins. By 272 BC, Colchis set out to absorb further Scythian tribes and to conquer many formerly-Persian lands. In 164 BC, Pontus conquered Colchis.
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