Dzala ertobashia

Dzala ertobashia (Georgian: ძალა ერთობაშია, pronounced [ˈdzaɫa ˈeɾtʰobaʃia], "Strength is in Unity") is the official motto of Georgia.

Coat of arms of Georgia

It originally comes from a famous fable by Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani of the same name. According to this fable, once upon a time there lived a king with thirty sons. One day, when he was dying, he called his sons and asked them to bring arrows. Then king asked them to break the arrows one by one, and the sons did. The king then asked them to break the arrows all at once, and they could not. The king said: "Teach O my sons from this fact, that there is ‘strength in unity.’ If you are together, an enemy cannot do you wrong, but if you are divided, victory will be on their side."

The problem of national unity has been a perennial problem in the history of the Georgian state and the Georgian people, exemplified by the ongoing Russian occupations of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Usage elsewhere

Versions of this phrase are the national mottos of Belgium, Bulgaria, and Haiti, and also formerly in the historical Traansvaal, Union of South Africa (as Ex Unitate Vires), and Malaya. There is a popular legend in Bulgaria about Kubrat, ruler of Great Bulgaria, who also gave his sons the same advice by the same example.

See also

• The Old Man and his Sons
• Skilurus, a legendary Scythian king who asked his sons to break a bundle of arrows
• Ex Unitate Vires