Mtskhetos and Mtskheta
The ancient city of Mtskheta, near Tbilisi, is believed by Georgian experts to be the former capital of the Mushki state. According to the medieval Georgian Chronicles, the city was built by the legendary patriarch Mtskhetos, one of five sons of Kartlos, the legendary patriarch of the Georgian nation (who was in turn said to be a son of Torgom, the Georgian spelling of Biblical Togar Mah, son of Gomer, son of Japheth, son of Noah). According to the Chronicles, during Mtskhetos' lifetime the descendants of Torgom (including Georgians, Armenians and other South Caucasian nations) were united and successfully resisted the attacks of the "Nimrodians", which Georgian experts interpret as a reference to ancient conflict between the Mushki and Assyria. Excavations in Mtskheta have confirmed the town dates back at least as far as 1000 BC.
The Chronicles, the older Conversion of Kartli, and the older still Armenian chronicles of Moses of Chorene all give conflicting accounts of Mtskheta's history prior to and during the conquests of Alexander the Great. According to the Conversion, Mtskheta remained the chief city of "Kartli", the medieval native name for Georgia, up until Alexander's arrival, who changed the ruling dynasty in Mtskheta by installing Azo, said to be a prince from Arian Kartli. According to the Chronicles, after Mtskhetos' death, Kartli broke up into several smaller, warring regions, until unity was restored by Azo, said to be one of Alexander's Macedonian generals, who was in turn expelled by the (half-Persian) local prince Parnawaz, and it was Parnawaz who founded the new ruling dynasty of Kartli. Moses of Chorene says that Alexander installed a Persian satrap named Mithridates in Mtskheta.
While Georgian experts disagree over the details of their interpretations of these accounts, they generally agree that they reflect a decline of the Mushki state and rise of Persian influence before the arrival of Alexander, who, perhaps more as a side-effect than by any effort on his part, ushered in a new era of unity in much of the Mushki state's former territories under a new dynasty, who preferred the name Kartli over Mushki. Mtskheta remained the capital of the Kartli state, which became known in most languages as Iberia, until the 5th century AD.
Read more about this topic: Mushki