Tigranes the Great (140-55 BC) was the King of Artaxiad Armenia from 95 to 55 BC, succeeding Tigranes I and preceding Artavasdes II.
Biography[]
Tigranes was born in 140 BC, the son of King Tigranes I of Artaxiad Armenia. He was raised at the Parthian court at Ctesiphon as a hostage, and he was released by King Mithridates II in 95 BC; Mithridates then named him King of Armenia. Tigranes allied himself with Mithridates VI Eupator of Pontus during the First Mithridatic War of 89-85 BC, although he was careful not to become directly involved in the war. On the death of Mithridates II of Parthia in 88 BC, Tigranes took advantage of Parthia's decline to conquer Mesopotamia, Syria, and Phoenicia from the Parthians. He nearly destroyed the Seleucid Empire with his conquest of Phoenicia and Cilicia, leaving only a few holdout cities. He established a new metropolis at Tigranocerta, populated by conquered subjects from across his empire. His empire came to stretch from Anatolia to Mesopotamia and from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean, and, after 85 BC, he assumed the Persian title "King of Kings", always having four kings attend to him. In 69 BC, during the Third Mithridatic War, Mithridates VI fled to Armenia as the Romans overwhelmed Asia Minor, and Tigranes' refusal to hand over Mithridates to the Roman Republic led to war. He was decisively defeated by Lucullus at the Battle of Tigranocerta, and he was defeated in his attempt to rescue the old capital of Artaxata from the Romans in 68 BC. Tigranes and Mithridates were given time to recover after Lucullus' legions mutinied against him, but, in 66 BC, the Roman general Pompey invaded Armenia, forcing the 75-year-old Tigranes to surrender. He was allowed to retain his shrunken kingdom as a buffer state against Parthia, and he continued to reign as an ally of the Roman Republic until his death in 55 BC.