The possessions of David III of Tao after his murder by his nobles in 1000, had passed to Emperor Basil II according to the previous agreement.
Gurgen, now reigning as King of Kings of the Georgians in parts of the southwestern Kartlian lands, had met with Basil but, unable to prevent the annexation of David’s realm, had been forced to recognize the new borders.
On this occasion, Gurgen’s son Bagrat had been bestowed with the imperial title of kouropalates, and Gurgen with that of magistros, actually competing titles since the dignity conferred upon the son is more esteemed than that granted to the father.
This was done by the emperor, as the Georgian chronicles relate, to turn Gurgen against Bagrat, but he seriously miscalculated.
Later the same year, Gurgen had attempted to take David Kuropalates’ succession by force, but he had to retreat in the face of the Byzantine commander Nikephoros Ouranos, dux of Antioch.
Gurgen dies in 1008, and Bagrat succeeds him as King of Kings of the Georgians, becoming thus the first king of a unified realm of Abkhazia and Kartli (in their broadest sense these two include Abkhazia proper/Abasgia, Egrisi/Samegrelo, Imereti, Svaneti, Racha-Lechkhumi, Guria, Ajaria, Kartli proper, Hither Tao, Klarjeti, Shavsheti, Meskheti, and Javakheti) what is to be henceforth known as Sakartvelo—"all-Georgia".
