[11] Tigranes' daughter Ariazate had also married a son of Mithridates II, which has been suggested by the modern historian Edward Dąbrowa to have taken place shortly before he ascended the Armenian throne as a guarantee of his loyalty. The interference of the two kings in Cappadocia (in eastern Asia Minor) was successfully countered by Roman intervention in 92 bc. J.-C.-73 apr. [20] He was called "Tigranes the Great" by many Western historians and writers, such as Plutarch. He rapidly built up his power and established an alliance with Mithridates VI, marrying his daughter Cleopatra.

[49] On his crown, a star of divinity and two birds of prey are displayed, both Iranian aspects. Diademed and draped of Tigranes I to right, wearing tiara decorated with a star. [51], Tigranes is mentioned in Macrobii, a Roman essay detailing the famous long livers of the day, which is attributed to Lucian.

Augustus kept Armenia as a client kingdom and appointed Vonones I of Parthia as King of Armenia.[19].
[43] Following the example of the Parthians, Tigranes adopted the title of Philhellene ("friend of the Greeks"). Tigranes was named in honour of his mother's Armenian and Hellenic lineage. 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. [27] Despite his continuous success in battle, Lucullus could still not capture either one of the monarchs. After Tigranes and his brother arrived in Cappadocia, they disowned their Jewish descent and religion and embraced their Greek descent and religion. He also annexed northern Mesopotamia, and in the Caucasus the kings of Iberia (now Georgia) and Albania accepted his suzerainty. She was the daughter of the King Archelaus of Cappadocia [6] and her mother was from Armenia,[7] possibly related to the Artaxiad Dynasty. [9][10] Tigranes ceded an area called "seventy valleys" in the Caspiane to Mithridates II, either as a pledge or because Mithridates II demanded it. [11] After the death of Herod, Tigranes and his brother decided to leave Jerusalem and to live with their mother and her family in the Cappadocian Royal Court. Mithrobarzanes charged the Romans while they were setting up their camp, but was met by a 3,500-strong sentry force and his horsemen were routed. 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. However, the Armenian historians claim that the Romans lost the battle of Artaxata and Lucullus' following withdrawal from the Kingdom of Armenia in reality was an escape due to the above-mentioned defeat. A meeting with Rome, which had already formed a “Province of Asia” in Asia Minor, became inevitable…. Tigranes concluded (wrongly) that Nisibis would hold out and sought to regain those parts of Armenia that the Romans had captured. [45] Another argument supporting this claim would be the situation with Ariazate. He is also alleged to have led a military campaign in 82 BCE. Tigranes and his brother remained under Herod's guardianship so he could be able to control their fates. [58], The phrase "sea to sea Armenia" (Armenian: ծովից ծով Հայաստան, tsovits tsov Hayastan) is a popular expression used by Armenians to refer to the kingdom of Tigranes which extended from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean Sea.

After the death of Mithridates II of Parthia in 88 BC, Tigranes took advantage of the fact that the Parthian Empire had been weakened by Scythian invasions and internal squabbling: When he acquired power, he recovered these (seventy) valleys, and devastated the country of the Parthians, the territory about Ninus (Nineveh), and that about Arbela. (Тигран II и войска с берегов Аракса) International relations in the Near East.
[47] Sargsyan also proposed a possible candidate as Tigranes's first wife and the children's mother: Artaxiad princess Zaruhi, a daughter of Tigranes's paternal uncle Zariadres and granddaughter of Artaxias I. [19] He then conquered Phoenicia and Cilicia, effectively putting an end to the last remnants of the Seleucid Empire, though a few holdout cities appear to have recognized the shadowy boy-king Seleucus VII Philometor as the legitimate king during his reign. н.э. [43][50] The bird of prey was associated with the khvarenah, i.e. He also entered into alliance with Mithradates VI Eupator of Pontus, whose daughter Cleopatra he married. In 6 AD he was murdered by his subjects. 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. In approximately 120 BC, the Parthian king Mithridates II (r. 124–91 BC) invaded Armenia and made its king Artavasdes I acknowledge Parthian suzerainty.

The slaughter of 80,000 people in the province of Asia Minor was known as the Asiatic Vespers.

[59][60], Illustration of Tigranes the Great in 1898 book Illustrated Armenia and the Armenians, 19th-century painting of Tigranes the Great.