General Notes

[2280151.ged]
Ruled 95 - 55 BC, King of Armenia 1 2
Note:
Tigranes II THE GREAT, Tigranes also spelled TIGRAN, or DIKRAN (b. c.
140--d. c. 55 BC), king of Armenia from 95 to 55 BC, under whom the
country became for a short time the strongest state in the Roman East.
Tigranes was the son or brother of Artavasdes I and a member of the
dynasty founded in the early 2nd century by Artaxias. He was given as a
hostage to the Parthian king Mithradates II, but later he purchased his
freedom by ceding 70 valleys bordering on Media, in northwestern Iran.
Thereafter, Tigranes began to enlarge his kingdom, first annexing the
kingdom of Sophene (east of the Upper Euphrates River). He also entered
into alliance with Mithradates VI Eupator of Pontus, whose daughter
Cleopatra he married. The interference of the two kings in Cappadocia (in
eastern Asia Minor) resulted in successful Roman intervention in 92 BC.
Tigranes then began war with the Parthians, whose empire (southeast of
the Caspian Sea) was temporarily weakened after the death of Mithradates
II (about 87) by internal dissensions and invasions of the Scythians.
Tigranes reconquered the valleys he had ceded and laid waste a great part
of Media; the kings of Atropatene (Azerbaijan), Gordyene and Adiabene
(both on the Upper Tigris River), and Osroene became his vassals. He also
annexed northern Mesopotamia, and in the Caucasus the kings of Iberia and
Albania accepted his suzerainty. In 83 the Syrians, tired of Seleucid
dynastic struggles, offered him their crown, and in 78-77 he reoccupied
Cappadocia. Tigranes took the title "king of kings" and built a new royal
city, Tigranocerta, on the borders of Armenia and Mesopotamia (the actual
site is disputed), where he accumulated all his wealth and to which he
transplanted the inhabitants of 12 Greek towns of Cappadocia, Cilicia,
and Syria.
In 72 the Romans forced Mithradates of Pontus to flee to Armenia, and, in
69, Roman armies under Lucullus invaded Armenia. Tigranes was defeated at
Tigranocerta on Oct. 6, 69, and again near the former capital of Artaxata
in September 68. The recall of Lucullus gave some respite to Mithradates
and Tigranes, but in the meantime a son of Tigranes, also called
Tigranes, rebelled against him. Although the younger Tigranes was given
an army by the Parthian king Phraates III, he was defeated by his father
and was forced to flee to the Roman general Pompey. When Pompey advanced
into Armenia, Tigranes surrendered (66 BC). Pompey received him
graciously and gave him back his kingdom (in exchange for Syria and other
southern conquests). Tigranes ruled about 10 years longer over Armenia,
as a Roman client-king, though he lost all his conquests except Sophene
and Gordyene. He was succeeded by his son Artavasdes II.
After the defeat of the Seleucid king Antiochus the Great by Rome at the
Battle of Magnesia (winter 190-189 BC), his two Armenian satraps,
Artashes (Artaxias) and Zareh (Zariadres), established themselves, with
Roman consent, as kings of Greater Armenia and Sophene, respectively,
thus becoming the creators of an independent Armenia. Artashes built his
capital Artashat (Artaxata) on the Aras River near modern Yerevan. The
Greek geographer Strabo names the capital of Sophene as Carcathiocerta.
An attempt to end the division of Armenia into an eastern and a western
part was made about 165 BC when the Artaxiad ruler sought to suppress his
rival, but it was left to his descendant Tigranes II the Great (95-55 BC)
to establish, by his conquest of Sophene, a unity that was to last almost
500 years.
Under Tigranes, Armenia ascended to a pinnacle of power unique in its
history and became, albeit briefly, the strongest state in the Roman
east. Extensive territories were taken from the kingdom of Parthia in
Iran, which was compelled to sign a treaty of alliance. Iberia (Georgia),
Albania, and Atropatene had already