This is another fine example of pre-Christian Armenian coin.
Tigranes the Great Β (140β55 BC; also called Tigranes II and sometimes Tigranes I) was emperor of Armenia under whom the country became, at the time, the strongest state east of the Roman Republic. He was a member of the Artaxiad Royal House. Under his reign, the Armenian kingdom reached its historic zenith, allowing Tigranes to claim the title King of Kings.Β Tigranes conquered Β and laid waste a great part of Media; conquered Judea and Jerusalem, making them a part of Armenian domain, the kings of Atropatene (Azerbaijan), Gordyene and Adiabene (both on the Upper Tigris river), and Osroene became his vassals. He also annexed northern Mesopotamia, and in the Caucasus the kings of Iberia and Albania accepted his suzerainty. In 83 the Syrians, tired of Seleucid dynastic struggles, offered him their crown, and in 78β77 he reoccupied Cappadocia. Tigranes took the title βking of kingsβ and built a new royal city, Tigranocerta, on the borders of Armenia and Mesopotamia. The city was believed to hold great amounts ofΒ treasure. Tigranes togather with his ally Β Mithradates VI EupatorΒ of Pontus, whose daughter Cleopatra he married, were among the last to defy Rome at its zenith.
