Category:Tigranes the Great (subject)

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Tigranes the Great (Tigranes II; d.55 BCE) was an Armenian King, who briefly subdued and threatened to invade Israel at the time of the Hasmonean Queen Salome Alexandra.

Overview

Under Tigranes' leadership, Armenia became for a short time the strongest empire in the Middle East and a menace to Roman power in the region.

At its height, the Armenian Empire included the regions of Media, Assyria, Cappadocia, Cilicia, Syria, Phoenicia, and Palestine. Tigranes took the title "King of Kings" for himself and ruled as a new Nebuchadnezzar, surrounded by the deposed kings who had to serve him.

The beginnings of Tigranes' rule, however, were very hard. In his youth he lived hostage at the court of the Parthian King Mithridates the Great. Only around 95 BCE he bought back his freedom by handing over “seventy valleys” to the Parthians. He rapidly built up an alliance with another ambitious and powerful neighbor, the King Mithridates of Pontus and married his daughter Cleopatra.

In 88 BCE, at the death of King Mithridates II of Parthia, Tigranes took advantage of the weakness of the Parthian empire to expand his influence in the East. He went so far as to attack the Parthian capital Ecbatana and looted it around.

After concluding successfully his military campaign in the East, Tigranes, who now could legitimately bear the Parthian title of “King of Kings,” around 83 BCE moved westwards, conquering the Seleucid empire, Syria and Cilicia. He moved the capital of his empire from Artashat in Armenia to the newly founded city of Tigranocerta, that he populated by deporting inhabitants from the conquered lands.

He then pushed south conquering Phoenicia. In 69 BCE he reached and besieged the seacoast city of Ptolomais (Acca), the last Seluecid stronghold at the border with the Hasmonean kingdom. The other populations of the region, including the Hasmonean kingdom, quickly submitted to the invader. But when the victory over Ptolomais opened the path to the conquest of Judea and Egypt, the Romans intervened. Tigranes entered in conflict with the Romans. It happened that Mithridates of Pontus, his father-in-law and alley, had been defeated by the Romans and had sought asylum in Armenia. Tigranes refused to deliver him. Rome declared war and Tigranes was forced to withdraw his garrisons from Syria as the general Lucullus attacked the capital Tigranocerta.

The campaigns of the Roman general Lucullus largely reduced Tigranes' power in the region. The empire Tigranes had created collapsed, the new capital had to be abandoned. Tigranes took refuge to the mountains of Armenia, yet still undefeated, in spite of the attempts by Lucullus to chase him. Tigranes ultimately surrendered to Pompey in 66 BCE, receiving in exchange permission to rule Armenia as an ally of Rome, until his death in 55/54 BCE.

Tigranes and the Jews

When in 69 BCE Tigranes' army moved south to Phoenicia, the Hasmonean Queen Salome Alexandra submitted and paid tribute, receiving only vague promises in return. After the taking of Ptolemais, Israel was next in line, facing imminent invasion, defenseless against Tigranes' army. Only the intervention of the Roman general Lucullus in Syria saved the Hasmonean State from total capitulation and forced Tigranes to withdraw.

In Depth

Related categories

External links

Pictures from the web


Tigranes in Scholarship

Tigranes the Great is quite a neglected figure in Biblical and Judaic Studies. Only Armenian scholarship has preserved vivid memory of his military campaigns, in which Judea also was subdued. As an example of the way in which the relationship between Tigranes and Queen Alexandra is retold in modern Armenian culture, we may read the passage in Armen’s biography (1940):

“As the king’s forces poured into southern Phoenicia, Jews were alarmed at the proximity of such vast hosts to Judea. Queen Alexandra of Jerusalem, and the Jewish leaders already visioned Armenian cuirassiers riding into the sacred city, and once more the recollection of Babylonian captivity intensified their present panic. The undimmed prestige of Tigranes as a conqueror, who moved peoples, among them Jews from Syria, to populate his native territories, made him appear as a new Nebuchadnezzar, while the prospect of singing the songs of Zion on the banks of Euphrates and Tigris to satisfy the disdainful curiosity of their enslavers terrified them. For “how shall we sing the Lord’s songs in a strange land!” Trembling Jewish ambassadors met Tigranes in Phoenicia, they “ interceded with him, and entreated him he would determine nothing that was severe about their queen and nation.” Tigranes alleviated their fears and assured then of his peaceful intentions toward Judea” (p.150).

Samuel Rocca and Gabriele Boccaccini have recently argued that Tigranes might be the "Nebuchadnezzar" of the Book of Judith, whose invasion threatened the independence of the Hasmonean State and was opposed only by the courage of a devout and strong widow (Judith = Salome Alexandra).

Selected Bibliography (articles)

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