It is also known that Tigranes the Great, king of Armenia, was named as the king of kings when he made his empire after defeating the Parthians.

Much of the eastern part of the empire was conquered by the Parthians under Mithridates I of Parthia in the mid-2nd century BC, yet the Seleucid kings continued to rule a rump state from Syria until the invasion by Armenian king Tigranes the Great and their ultimate overthrow by the Roman general Pompey.

Following the Roman general Lucullus ' defeat of both Mithridates and Tigranes in 69 BC, a rump Seleucid kingdom was restored under Antiochus XIII.

* Tigranes of Armenia was defeated and captured by Pompey, thus ending all hostilities on the northeastern frontier of Rome.

The date of his downfall is uncertain ; Josephus reckons he was killed around 90 BC fighting the Parthians-and his possession of Antioch was certainly lost to Philip I Philadelphus around then-whereas for instance Appian speaks of him being defeated when the Armenian king Tigranes invaded Syria by 83 BC, but in that case his actions in the meantime remain unrevealed.

A son of Antiochus X, by the name of Antiochus XIII Asiaticus, was made client king in Syria after the Roman general Pompey had defeated Tigranes.

His rule was ended in 83 BC when Tigranes conquered Syria, or earlier.

Selene was eventually captured and killed by Tigranes, but after the latter's defeat by Pompey, the residents of Antioch hailed Antiochus XIII as king, and Lucius Lucullus approved his appointment as client ruler of Syria ( 69 BC ).

Tigranes II (), more commonly known as Tigranes the Great ( Tigran Mets ; Tigránes o Mégas ) ( 140 – 55 BC ) was emperor of Armenia under whom the country became, for a short time, the strongest state east of the Roman Republic.

When he came to power, the foundation upon which Tigranes was to build his Empire was already in place, a legacy of the founder of the Artaxiad Dynasty, Artaxias I, and subsequent kings.

During the First Mithridatic War ( 90 – 85 BCE ), Tigranes supported Mithridates VI of Pontus but was careful not to become directly involved in the war.

Tigranes had agreed that he was to extend his influence in the East, while Mithridates was to conquer Roman land in Asia Minor and in Europe.

He was called " Tigranes the Great " by many Western historians and writers, such as Plutarch.

Mithridates had found refuge in Armenian land after confronting Rome, considering the fact that Tigranes was his ally and relative.

Lucullus ' reaction was an attack that was so precipitate that he took Tigranes by surprise.

Tigranes was, according to Keaveney, so impressed by Mithrobazanes ' courage that he appointed Mithrobazanes to command an army against Lucullus – Mithrobazanes was however defeated and killed.

On October 6, 69 BCE, Tigranes ' much larger force was decisively defeated by the Roman army under Lucullus in the Battle of Tigranocerta.

Once again, both Mithridates and Tigranes evaded capture by the victorious Romans. However, the Armenian historians claim, that Romans lost the battle of Artaxata and Lucullus ' following withdrawal from the Kingdom of Armenia in reality was an escape due to above-mentioned defeat.

In 67 BCE Pompey was given the task of defeating Mithradates and Tigranes.

Phraates III, the Parthian king was soon persuaded to take things a little further than an anexation of Gordyeyne when a son of Tigranes ( also named Tigranes ) went to join the Parthians and persuaded Phraates to invade Armenia in an attempt to replace the elder Tigranes with the younger.

Once Phraates left Tigranes came back down from the hills and drove his son from Armenia.

Tigranes from his marriage had a son called Gaius Julius Alexander.

After Tigranes was crowned King in Rome, his son Alexander had married Iotapa in Rome.

The earliest Tigranes and his son are usually not included, making Tigranes I the father of Tigranes the Great.

As a prisoner of war, Perseus of Macedon was placed in a foul, overcrowded dungeon at Alba Fucens ; the son of Tigranes was kept at a praetor's house in Rome, where he could be trotted out as a dinner-party guest.

The peak of the kingdom's power and its integration in Hellenistic culture under Tigranes and his son Artavasdes is also referred to as Armenian Empire.

But the desperate Pompey soon overrode the pompous treaty ; he acknowledged the elder Tigranes, took his son prisoner, occupied the vassal states Gordyene and Osroene for the Romans, and denied the title of " king of kings ," which Phraates had adopted again, to the Parthian king.

Meanwhile the Roman general Marcus Licinius Crassus had begun his attempt to conquer the east, but he was defeated and killed in 53 BC at the Battle of Carrhae by Surena, while Orodes himself invaded Armenia and forced King Artavasdes, the son of Tigranes the Great, to abandon the Romans.

He was the son of At ' anagenes and his mother was the Arsacid Princess Bambish, a sister of King Tigranes VII ( Tiran ) and a daughter of King Khosrov III.

He installed Tigranes VI, a Cappadocian prince, as ruler of Armenia.

He defeated King Artavasdes I of Armenia and conquered seventy valleys, making the heir to the Armenian throne, prince Tigranes, a political hostage.

Nero crowned as the new Armenian King in Rome a Herodian prince called Gaius Julius Tigranes.

Tigranes was the grandchild of Cappadocian Princess Glaphyra and prince Alexander of Judea.

The satirist Lucian, in his True History, describes him as a Babylonian called Tigranes, who assumed the name Homer when taken " hostage " ( homeros ) by the Greeks.

* 69 BC – Battle of Tigranocerta: Forces of the Roman Republic defeat the army of the Kingdom of Armenia led by King Tigranes the Great.

* 68 BC – Battle of Artaxata: Lucullus averts the bad omen of this day by defeating Tigranes the Great of Armenia.

In 83 BC Syria fell under the rule of Tigranes the Great ; the King of Armenia.

Mithridates ' ambitious son-in-law, Tigranes the Great, king of Armenia, however, saw opportunity for expansion in the constant civil strife to the south.

* Tigranes V, Artaxiad Dynasty King of Armenia, r. 2 – 6

* Tigranes IV, King of Armenia, r. 12 – 1 BC

This appearance may be recalled in the representation of Tigranes the Great, an Armenian king who is depicted on coins with a crown that features, according to V. G. Gurzadyan and R. Vardanyan, " a star with a curved tail may represent the passage of Halley's Comet in 87 BCE.

" Gurzadyan and Vardanyan argue that " Tigranes could have seen Halley's Comet when it passed closest to the Sun on August 6 in 87 BCE " as the comet would have been a " most recordable event "; for ancient Armenians it could have heralded the New Era of the brilliant King of Kings.

* Tigranes the Great, Armenian Emperor ( b. c. 140 BC )

* Tigranes the Great, king of Armenia ( b. c. 140 BC )

* The alliance between Mithridates VI of Pontus and Tigranes II of Armenia is broken.

* Tigranes II is forced to surrender, by a payment of 6, 000 talents, and is reinstated by Pompey as a " friend of the Roman people " to hold Armenia as a buffer zone.

* October 6 – Lucius Lucullus defeats Tigranes II of Armenia in the Battle of Artaxata.

* Roman troops under Lucius Lucullus defeat the army of Tigranes II of Armenia in the Battle of Tigranocerta, and capture Tigranocerta, capital of Armenia.