| 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) was successfully countered by 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 (now
Georgia) 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. ©www.Armenians.com
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