Tigranes the Great

Tigranes the Great was king of Armenia from 95 to 55 BC. He was born about 140 BC and died about 55 BC.¹ He belonged to the dynasty founded by Artaxias in the early second century BC.¹

As a young man he was a hostage at the court of the Parthian king Mithradates II and bought his freedom by giving up seventy valleys on the border with Media. He annexed Sophene and allied himself with Mithradates VI Eupator of Pontus, whose daughter Cleopatra he married.¹ When Parthia weakened, he took back the valleys and devastated much of Media. Atropatene, Gordyene, Adiabene and Osroene became his vassals, and he annexed northern Mesopotamia. The kings of Iberia and Albania accepted him as overlord.¹ In 83 BC the Syrians offered him their throne, and in 78 and 77 BC he took Cappadocia again.¹

He took the title King of Kings and founded the city of Tigranakert on the border of Armenia and Mesopotamia, to which he brought the populations of twelve Greek towns from Cappadocia, Cilicia and Syria.¹ Tigranakert became the royal capital in the 80s BC.²

Rome drove Mithradates of Pontus into Armenia in 72 BC, and in 69 BC the general Lucullus invaded. Tigranes lost at Tigranakert on 6 October 69 BC and again near Artashat in September 68 BC.¹ His son Tigranes rebelled with Parthian support, was defeated and fled to Pompey, and in 66 BC the king surrendered to Pompey. Pompey restored his kingdom, on the condition that he give up Syria and his other conquests in the south. Tigranes reigned about ten more years as a Roman client, keeping only Sophene and Gordyene of his conquests, and his son Artavasdes II succeeded him.¹