Category:Tigranes the Great (subject)
Tigranes the Great (Tigranes II; 95-55 BCE) was an Armenian King, who threatened to invade Israel at the time of the Hasmonean Queen Salome Alexandra.
Biography
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, Cilicia, Syria and Phoenicia. The Hasmonean Queen Salome Alexandra also had to pay tribute to the king and was facing invasion, when the Roman intervention forced Tigranes to withdraw.
The campaigns of the Roman general Lucullus largely reduced Tigranes' power in the region, until he finally 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 in ancient sources
Josephus, Jewish Antiquities
Ant XIII 419-421 -- About this time news was brought that Tigranes, the king of Armenia, had made an irruption into Syria with five hundred thousand soldiers, and was coming against Judea. This news, as may well be supposed, terrified the queen and the nation. Accordingly, they sent him many and very valuable presents, as also ambassadors, and that as he was besieging Ptolemais; for Selene the queen, the same that was also called Cleopatra, ruled then over Syria, who had persuaded the inhabitants to exclude Tigranes. So the Jewish ambassadors interceded with him, and entreated him that he would determine nothing that was severe about their queen or nation. He commended them for the respects they paid him at so great a distance, and gave them good hopes of his favor. But as soon as Ptolemais was taken, news came to Tigranes, that Lucullus, in his pursuit of Mithridates, could not light upon him, who was fled into Iberia, but was laying waste Armenia, and besieging its cities. Now when Tigranes knew this, he returned home.
Tigranes in Scholarship
Tigranes in Fiction
Tigranes might be the "Nebuchadnezzar" of the Book of Judith, whose invasion threatened the independence of the Judean State and was opposed only by the courage of a devout and strong widow (Judith = Salome Alexandra).
Related categories
External links
Pages in category "Tigranes the Great (subject)"
The following 7 pages are in this category, out of 7 total.
1
- Tigran the Great (1940 Armen), book
- Tigran B. yev Hrome (1940 Manandyan), book
- Тигран второй и Рим (1943 Manandyan), book (Russian ed.)
- Tigrane II & Rome (1963 Manandyan), book (French ed.)
- Hoard of Copper Coins of Tigranes the Great (1991 Bedoukian), book
- Roma - Armenia (1999 Mutafian), edited volume