Tigranes VI.

Tigranes VI. , Tigran VI. or Latinized Gaius Iulius Tigranes ( Greek  Γαίος Ιούλιος Τιγράνης , Armenian : Տիգրան; * before 25; † after 68) was a prince of the Herodian dynasty and Roman client king of Armenia during the 1st century AD. The name Tigranes symbolizes the connection with Armenians Hellenistic lines of tradition and ancestry.

Tigranes was of Jewish , Nabatean , Edomite , Greek , Armenian, and Persian descent . He was the son of the Herodian Alexander from marriage to a noblewoman whose name was unknown. He was named after his paternal uncle Tigranes V. Tigranes V had been King of Armenia during the reign of Augustus . His paternal grandparents were Alexander and Glaphyra . His grandfather Alexander was a son of the Judean King Herod the Great and his wife Mariamne . His grandmother Glaphyra was the daughter of King Archelaus of Cappadocia . Her mother was an unknown Armenian princess who might have family ties to the Artaxid dynasty .

Almost nothing is known about the Tigranes childhood and youth. Tigranes was raised in Rome. His long stay in Rome brought him the charge of having assumed a characterically slavish subservience. Tigranes married a Phrygian noblewoman from Central Anatolia named Opgalli . It is believed that Opgalli was a Hellenized Jewish woman. Opgalli is only known from numismatic sources (Greek ΒΑΣ [-ΊΛΙΣΣΑ or -ΙΛΕΙΑ] ΟΠΓΑΛΛΥ "Queen Opgalli"). The marriage produced two children, son Gaius Iulius Alexander and daughter Julia. These were the last descendants of the Cappadocian royal family.

In 58 Armenia was captured by the Romans and allied troops ( Roman-Parthian War (58-63) ). Emperor Nero installed Tigranes as King of Armenia and gave him command of 1000 legionary soldiers , three auxiliary cohorts and two Alen cavalry to defend Armenia. At the same time, his son Alexander married the Commagenic princess Iulia Iotapa, the daughter of King Antiochus IV, in Rome. Nero established the couple as the client monarchy of Ketis , a region of Cilicia . Coins call the king title of the Tigranes as ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΤΙΓΡΑΝΟΥ ΜΕΓΑΛΟΥ, "The Great King Tigranes". The Tigran emission shows the reference to and the merging of his Hellenistic and Armenian lineages and is taken as an indication of the conscious renunciation of the Jewish lineage.

Tigranes later fell into Adiabene , a vassal kingdom of the Parthian Empire , and deposed the local king Monobazes. The Parthian ruler Vologaeses I perceived the incursion as aggression on the part of Rome and, in return, invaded Armenia, where he besieged Tigranakert . In the peace treaty, it was agreed to set up Trdat I as King of Armenia and then to have him crowned in Rome. This peace clause forced Tigranes to resign in 63.

Written and numismatic sources indicate that Nero planned to restore Tigranes to the throne. However, the outbreak of the first Jewish-Roman war in 66 prevented implementation.

literature

• Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin: Tigranes 6th In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 5, Stuttgart 1975, Col. 828.

Remarks

1. ↑ Flavius ​​Josephus , Jüdische Antiquities 18, 139f.

predecessor	Office	successor
Trdat I.	King of Armenia 60/61	Trdat I.