Tigranes the Great never appeared in public without four kings attending him
At his peak Tigranes II of Armenia styled himself King of Kings and went nowhere without four vassal kings in attendance. His realm ran from the Caspian to the Mediterranean, and Cicero said he made Rome tremble. It all began with years spent as a hostage at the Parthian court.
Around 120 BC the Parthian king Mithridates II forced Armenia's ruler Artavasdes I, either Tigranes' father or uncle, to hand the young prince over as a hostage. Tigranes grew up at Ctesiphon learning Parthian language and culture until about 96 or 95 BC, when Mithridates released him and set him on the Armenian throne in exchange for a region called the seventy valleys. His daughter married a Parthian prince, and he stayed a Parthian vassal until the late 80s BC.
Mountains divided Armenia among powerful local lords, the nakharars, so he first centralised power at home. He deposed Artanes, last king of Sophene, and took Cleopatra, a daughter of the Pontic king Mithridates VI, as his wife, backing his new father-in-law in the First Mithridatic War without fighting directly. While Rome and Parthia were distracted, he pushed into Cappadocia, was driven out by Sulla, then took Adiabene, Gordyene and Media Atropatene between 88 and 85 BC.
In 83 BC Syrians exhausted by Seleucid succession fights offered him their crown, and he went on to take Phoenicia and Cilicia, reaching Ptolemais, modern Akko. Coins after 85 BC carry the title King of Kings. People from conquered cities were moved to his new capital, Tigranocerta, whose Hellenistic buildings reflected his love of Greek culture and the philosophers he hosted.
Sheltering his fugitive father-in-law brought war with Rome. Lucullus crushed him at Tigranocerta in 69 BC and again at Artaxata a year later, and in 66 BC Pompey invaded, helped by Tigranes' own son. Tigranes surrendered, lost every conquest, but kept his heartland as a Roman client king until he died around 55 BC, aged 85.
Source: Tigranes the Great
