Career
At the time of the Lazic revolt against Rome, Theodora, while living among the Apsilii, was captured, by chance, by the Persian commander Nabedes and carried off to Persia. Later in Procopius"s work, Opsites appears as ruler of the eastern part of Abasgia, a land north of Lazica (the west was under Sceparnas). He was installed after the Abasgians rejected East Roman rule circa 550.
Opsites led the Abasgians against the Romans under John Guzes and Uligagus, who defeated the rebels and captured their fort of Trachea.
Opsites fled to the Sabir Huns of the Caucasus but his family members were all captured. Scholarly opinion is divided as to whether the Opsites of these two passages are the same person and whether Procopius"s report of him being king of Lazica is true.
If Opsites indeed ruled as king, this might have occurred before 541, when Gubazes II was king. In the view of Toumanoff, this is highly probable given the fact that Lazica and Abasgia revolted together against the Roman hegemony and Abasgia had long been under Lazic suzerainty.
