ASPALATHUS

Emperor Diocletian, according to Constantine Porphyrogenitus, built the fortress of Aspalathus in Dalmatia. The poor translation of Porphyrogenitus's book does not give a chance to even assume that the name could be Georgian. Therefore, one should read the work of the Byzantine emperor in Greek.

And there the word "Aspalathus", of course, is written with theta - Ασπαλαθου (the Russians render it as "Аспалаф", mangling everything, as always). And this is already a well-recognizable Megrelian toponym "Aspalath(i)", corresponding to the Georgian "Aspaleti". The initial "A-" is easily discarded as a definite article (this is thoroughly proven by the project "Between Two Iberias") and we are left with "Spalath(i)" or "Spaleti" (by the way, remember the popular Italian surname Spaletti). That is, with the "country of the spals".

And who the "spali" are we know for a long time from Pliny and Jordan in particular. In their books they are associated with the Slavs. The Kartvelian nature of Dalmatia has been repeatedly described. By the way, the word "spali" is perfectly interpreted from the Georgian point of view as an adjective from the root "spa" (სპა), which is translated as "troops". Then "spali" will be "troops". It is this root that is very likely present in the name "Spain".