The two early Georgian Kingdoms of late antiquity, known to ancient Greeks and Romans as Iberia (Georgian: იბერია) (in the east of the country) and Colchis (Georgian: კოლხეთი) (in the west), were among the first nations in the region to adopt Christianity (in A.D. 337). In Greek Mythology, Colchis was the location of the Golden Fleece sought by Jason and the Argonauts in Apollonius Rhodius' epic tale Argonautica. The incorporation of the Golden Fleece into the myth may have derived from the local practice of using fleeces to sift gold dust from rivers. (Jason and the Argonauts)

The myth of Jason and the Argonauts took place in 340-330 B.C. and as a part of this quest, Jason arrived in Colchis (modern Black Sea coast of Georgia) to claim the fleece as his own. King Aeetes of Colchis promised to give the fleece to him only if he could perform three tasks. Presented with the tasks, Jason became discouraged and fell into depression because the tasks could not be accomplished. However, Hera had persuaded Aphrodite to convince her son Eros to make Aeetes's daughter, Medea, fall in love with Jason. As a result, Medea helped Jason in his tasks. First, Jason had to plow a field with fire-breathing oxen, the Khalkotauroi that he had to yoke himself. Medea provided an ointment that protected him from the oxen's flames. Then, Jason sowed the teeth of a dragon into a field. The teeth sprouted into an army of warriors. Medea had previously warned Jason of this and told him how to defeat these foes. Before they attacked him, he threw a rock to the crowd. Unable to discover where the rock had come from, the soldiers attacked and defeated one another. His last task was to overcome the Sleepless Dragon that guarded the Golden Fleece. Jason sprayed the dragon with a potion, given by Medea, diluted from herbs. The dragon fell asleep, and Jason was able to seize the Golden Fleece. He then sailed away with Medea. Medea had to distract her father, who chased them, as they fled by killing her brother Apsyrtus and throwing pieces of his body into the sea, which Aeetes had to stop for and gather. In another version, Medea lured Apsyrtus into a trap. Jason killed him, chopped off his fingers and toes, and buried the corpse. In any case, Jason and Medea escaped.

In the last centuries of the pre-Christian era, the area, in the form of the Kingdom of Kartli-Iberia, was strongly influenced by Greece to the west and Persia to the east. After the Roman Empire completed its conquest of the Caucasus region in 66 B.C., the Kingdom was a Roman client state and ally for nearly 400 years. In A.D. 330, King Marian III's acceptance of Christianity ultimately tied the Kingdom to the neighboring Byzantine Empire, which exerted a strong cultural influence for several centuries. Known to its natives as Egrisi or Lazica, Colchis was often the battlefield and buffer zone between the rival powers of Persia and Byzantine Empire, with the control of the region shifting hands back and forth several times. The early Kingdoms disintegrated into various feudal regions by the early Middle Ages. This made it easy for Arabs to conquer Georgia in the 7th century

In the 4^th-6^th centuries, the Georgian people fought against Persian and Byzantine conquerors to preserve independence. Egrisi was repelling the Byzantines and Kartli (Iberia) the Persians. In mid 5^th century Vakhtang I Gorgasali became the King of Kartli (Iberia), heading the struggle against the Persians. He paved the way for transferring the capital of Georgia from Mtskheta to Tbilisi. The territory of Tbilisi had been inhabited from Neolithic times, i.e. 4 to 5 thousand years ago. By the middle of the 5^th century the population of Tbilisi had grown considerably. The transfer of the capital from Mtskheta to Tbilisi was accomplished by King Dachi, Vakhtang I's son and successor. The struggle against the Persians was waged by the population of the entire Transcaucasia. Vakhtang Gorgasali practically created an anti-Iranian coalition comprising of the Georgians, the Armenians and Albanians. However, this struggle was unsuccessful: the King of Kartli (Iberia) fell in battle early in the 6th century. After his death, the Iranians began to act with added fierceness and zeal. In 523, having subdued Kartli (Iberia), they moved into Western Georgia. Their intention to seize Egrisi that had become the casus belli between Persia and Byzantium. This war lasted 20 years, mostly on the territory of Egrisi, laying it waste.

King David Kuropalates initiated the political unification of Georgia. Supported by Joané Marushisdze, his contemporary Kartli (Iberia)an eristavi and active political figure, David Kuropalates raised his adopted son Bagrat Bagrationi to the throne of Kartli (Iberia) (in 975) and Abkhazia (in 978), thereby actually uniting Eastern and Western Georgia into a single feudal state. The 10^th-11^th centuries was the time of the shaping and consolidation of united Georgia. The unification of Georgia was the result of the socio-political and economic development of the country. It found support in the progressive forces of society and served as a reliable guarantee of further success.

Georgian writing was first seen in the 5^th century. The first examples include inscriptions in the Georgian monastery of the Holy Cross in Palestine, in the Bethlehem desert (Bir-ell-Katt), as well as those in the Sioni Church of Bolnisi, south of Tbilisi. The source of the Georgian script is a controversial problem. Some scholars believe that it appeared long before the Christian epoch, while others relate its appearance to the establishment of the Christian religion. They do not deny the possible existence of a certain original writing in the pre-Christian era. The oldest books translated then were the Gospels and the Old Testament. The Passion of St. Shushanik was written in the 5^th century. Another such work by an anonymous author, The Martyrdom of Evstate Mtskheteli is from the 6th century. An enhanced diffusion of the Georgian language and literature in Western Georgia began in the 8^th century. Georgian became the official language of the state and the Church in all Georgian Kingdoms and principalities, the foreign political ties between them strengthening.

In the 1060s-1070s the situation in Georgia became desperate owing to the appearance of the Seljuk Turks, who captured most of Persia, and drove westward in the 1060s. They captured Armenia, raided the Georgian province of Javakheti, destroying the town of Akhalkalaki, and devastated Kartli in 1068. The so-called "Great Turkish Conquests" of Georgia started in 1080. Being nomads, the Seljuks turned the lands they captured into pastures, thus depriving the feudal economy of its basis and jeopardizing the very existence of Georgia. Only a small part of West Georgia escaped the constant invasions and devastions. King Giorgi II (1072- 1089) had to pay annual tribute to the Sultan. The Georgian people suffered severe losses but managed to preserve their state organization.