Pharnavaz, whose story is saturated with legendary imagery and symbols, is not attested directly in non-Georgian sources and there is not definite contemporary indication that he was the first of the Georgian kings.

It seems more feasible that as the memory of the historical facts faded, the real Pharnavaz "accumulated a legendary façade" and emerged as the model pre-Christian monarch in the Georgian annals.

[2] Although Alexander's expedition into the Georgian lands is entirely fictional, Georgian and Classical evidence suggests that the kings of Iberia cultivated close relations with the Seleucid Empire, a Hellenistic successor to Alexander's short-lived empire centered on Syria, and at times recognized its suzerainty, probably aiding, as Professor Cyril Toumanoff has implied, their overlords in holding in check the Orontid dynasty of neighboring Armenia.

[5] Pharasmanes's successor, Mihrdat I (58–106) forged an alliance with Rome to defend the Iberian frontiers from Alans, nomads from the north.

Armazi stele of Vespasian discovered at Mtskheta, capital of Iberia, speaks of Mihrdat as "the friend of the Caesars" and the king "of the Roman-loving Iberians."