Tiridates I of Armenia - Ascension

Ascension

Tiridates I was a Prince of Iranian and Greek ancestry. He was one of the sons born to Vonones II of Parthia from a Greek concubine. Virtually nothing is known about his minority and youth, which he spent in Media Atropatene, where his father served as King. Tiridates I's name meant given by Tir, Tir was an Armeno-Parthian god of literature, science and art based on the Avestan Tishtrya and fused with the Greek Apollo. In 51 the Roman procurator of Cappadocia, Julius Paelignus, invaded Armenia and ravaged the country, then under an Iberian usurper Rhadamistus. Rhadamistus had killed his uncle Mithridates who was the legitimate king of Armenia by luring the Roman garrison that was protecting him outside of the fortress of Gornea.

Acting without instruction, Paelignus recognized Rhadamistus as the new king of Armenia. Syrian governor Ummidius Quadratus sent Helvidius Priscus with a legion to repair these outrages; he was recalled so as not to provoke a war with Parthia. In 52, King Vologases I of Parthia took the opportunity and invaded Armenia, conquering Artaxata (Artashat in Armenia) and proclaiming his younger brother Tiridates I as king. This action violated the treaty that had been signed by the Roman emperor Augustus and Parthian king Phraates IV which gave the Romans the explicit right to appoint and crown the kings of Armenia. Vologases I considered the throne of Armenia to have been once the property of his ancestors, now usurped by a foreign monarch in virtue of a crime. A winter epidemic as well as an insurrection initiated by his son Vardanes forced him to withdraw his troops from Armenia, allowing Rhadamistus to come back and punish locals as traitors; they eventually revolted and replaced him with the Parthian prince Tiridates I in early 55. Rhadamistus escaped along with his wife Zenobia who was pregnant. Unable to continue fleeing, she asked her husband to end her life rather than be captured. Rhadamistus stabbed her with a Median dagger and flung her body into the river Araxes. Zenobia was not fatally injured and was recovered by shepherds who sent her to Tiridates. Tiridates I received her kindly and treated her as a member of the monarchy. Rhadamistus himself returned to Iberia and was soon put to death by his father Parasmanes I of Iberia for having plotted against the royal power.