Tigranes The Great - Pompey and The Reconciliation With Rome

Pompey and The Reconciliation With Rome

In 67 BCE Pompey was given the task of defeating Mithradates and Tigranes. Pompey first concentrated on attacking Mithradates while distracting Tigranes by engineering a Parthian attack on Gordyeyne. 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. Tigranes decided not to meet the invasion in the field but instead ensured that his capital, Artaxata, was well defended and withdrew to the hill country. Phraates soon realized that Artaxata would not fall without a protracted siege, the time for which he could not spare due his fear of plots at home. Once Phraates left Tigranes came back down from the hills and drove his son from Armenia. The son then fled to Pompey.

In 66 BCE, Pompey advanced into Armenia with the younger Tigranes, and Tigranes the Great, now almost 75 years old, surrendered. Pompey treated him generously and allowed him to retain his kingdom shorn of his conquests in return for 6,000 talents / 180 tonnes of silver. His unfaithful son was sent back to Rome as a prisoner.

Tigranes continued to rule Armenia as an ally of Rome until his death in 55/54.