While the royal court in Armenia was preoccupied with the internal affairs of its vast kingdom, a storm was brewing in the west: the threat of a Roman invasion of Armenia was becoming increasingly real.
By 70 BC, when Tigranes II first entered into diplomatic relations with Rome, the neighboring Pontus had already fought three wars against Rome, starting from 89 BC.
Initially, the king of Pontus, Mithridates VI Eupator, achieved great success—he conquered almost all of Asia Minor and transferred the theater of war to Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula.
However, defeated by the Romans in two battles, Mithridates agreed to abandon all conquered territories and pay a large indemnity in the agreement of 84 BC. The second war of Pontus with Rome (83 – 81 BC) was local and had no significant consequences.
Armenia did not participate in these wars. It also did not engage in the new, third war, which broke out in 74 BC. Only on the eve of this war did Armenian troops invade Cappadocia again and, according to the historian Appian, took away 300,000 people from there. Mithridates, however, thoroughly prepared for the war.
Initially, fortune smiled upon Pontus, but then misfortunes began. Lucius Lucullus, one of Rome’s brilliant generals, managed to gradually push Mithridates back into Pontus and dealt him a crushing defeat there. Mithridates fled to Armenia, thereby initiating a conflict that later escalated into the Roman-Armenian war, fraught with severe consequences for Armenia.
An outstanding general and experienced politician, Tigranes II, however, underestimated the Roman threat. Observing the desperate struggle of Pontus against Rome from the sidelines, he overlooked the fact that his internal enterprises, seemingly unrelated to Rome, sharply affected Roman interests.
Sooner or later, Rome was bound to clash with the new power that had arisen in the East, and this moment was approaching. In 70 BC, Lucullus sent his representative Appius Claudius to Tigranes with a demand to hand over Mithridates: the Pontian was to adorn Lucullus’s triumph in Rome. Receiving Lucullus’s envoy in Antioch, Tigranes refused to extradite Mithridates, which gave Lucullus a pretext for war with Armenia.
On his way to Antioch, Appius Claudius conducted a reconnaissance tour of Armenia, sowing discord among the dynasties and kings subordinate to Tigranes with various promises. He managed to sway many of them to rebellion, particularly the king of Corduene, Zarbienus.
The Romans, thus, were already preparing for war regardless of the results of negotiations with Tigranes or anticipating his refusal. Tigranes, however, continued to stay in the south of the kingdom, besieging the city of Ptolemais near the borders of Egypt, the last stronghold of the Seleucid queen Selene.
Returning from Antioch, he completed the siege, capturing Queen Selene. Envoys from the neighboring queen of Palestine appeared at the walls of the captured Ptolemais to prevent the expected campaign of Tigranes into Palestine with gifts and persuasion.
Such was the situation in the spring of 69 BC when Tigranes, as reported by the historian Josephus Flavius, suddenly received news of Lucullus’s invasion of Armenia. With his six thousand-strong guard, Tigranes hurried north, instructing the satrap of Syria, Bagrat, to lead the troops behind him.
To halt Lucullus’s rapid advance through Armenia, the Armenian general Merujan was sent to intercept him, but his detachment was insufficient; Merujan was defeated and fell on the battlefield.
When Tigranes arrived in Armenia, he found the capital, Tigranocerta, already besieged. Under the cover of darkness, his guard broke through the ring of Roman troops into the city, removing the king’s treasury and harem from there.
Gathering an army of 70,000 – 80,000 soldiers, Tigranes approached the Romans besieging Tigranocerta. The armies met near Tigranocerta, on the banks of the river Nicephorium (now Farqin-su) on October 6, 69 BC. Leaving a detachment under the city walls to protect his rear from the garrison’s sortie, Lucullus with the main forces took a position on the riverbank.
On the opposite bank, Tigranes’ army was positioned. The Romans struck simultaneously from both flanks against the numerous but diverse Armenian army, causing panic and disorder within its ranks and scattering it.
Now, they could focus all their attention on the siege of Tigranocerta, which had already lasted several months. The Romans’ task was greatly facilitated by the betrayal of Greek mercenaries serving under the commandant of Tigranocerta, the Armenian general Mancaeus.
Seeing from the city towers how the battle with Tigranes ended, they considered his defeat final and opened the city gates to the Roman troops. On Lucullus’s orders, the Romans looted Tigranocerta and destroyed it to its foundations.
Meanwhile, Tigranes and Mithridates, who had arrived from the fortress assigned to him, were already recruiting and training a new army, as well as seeking allies. They approached the Parthian king Phraates with a proposal for an alliance against the Romans, promising to return the lands captured by Tigranes and warning against the inevitable future Roman attack on Parthia. Phraates hesitated; his response was also awaited by an embassy from Lucullus. In the end, he gave vague promises to both sides.
Lucullus headed north with the intention of capturing Armenia’s second capital, Artashat, and thus ending the war. The Armenian army now adhered to a new tactic—wearing down the enemy with small skirmishes, disrupting food supplies, and eliminating separated enemy groups. Starting his northern campaign in early summer, Lucullus reached the crossing of the Aratzani only in autumn. He motivated his exhausted legions with the prospect of rich spoils in the capture of “Armenian Carthage”—Artashat.
The threat of losing Artashat forced Tigranes to decide on a battle. The battle took place at the crossing of the Aratzani. This time, the Romans faced an army not as numerous as at Tigranocerta, but better trained and more experienced in fighting the Romans. In the battle, the Romans suffered enormous losses and could not continue their advance north.
A few days later, under pressure from his army, Lucullus began a retreat. To regain the army’s favor, Lucullus led them to Nisibis, a wealthy city in northern Mesopotamia, promising rich spoils. The capture of Nisibis after several months of siege was Lucullus’s last success in this Armenian campaign.
Tigranes, meanwhile, resumed active military operations, clearing the southern regions of Armenia from the Romans. Mithridates, with the Armenian army assigned to him, invaded Pontus and was regaining his kingdom. Defeating one of Lucullus’s commanders left there, Fabius, he moved on to another of them, Triarius.
Lucullus rushed to help but was late—the army of Triarius was defeated and almost completely annihilated. In these conditions, Lucullus’s soldiers refused to fight Mithridates. They also did not go against Tigranes. Soon, it became known that the Roman Senate, dissatisfied with Lucullus’s actions, had dismissed him and transferred command in the East to Gnaeus Pompey.
It seemed that the circumstances were favorable for the restoration of Armenia’s pre-war situation. However, this was hindered by internal strife. In the previous year, 67 BC, Tigranes II’s son, Tigranes the Younger, relying on elements dissatisfied with the king’s policies, particularly representatives of the nobility, rebelled against his father and, after being defeated, found refuge with the Parthians.
The Parthian king Phraates received him warmly, gave him his daughter in marriage, and waited for an opportune moment to place him on the Armenian throne instead of the hated Tigranes II. There were also rumors that Tigranes the Younger was being incited by his maternal grandfather, Mithridates Eupator.
Soon, Phraates and Tigranes the Younger invaded Armenia. At first, they were successful, even besieging Artashat, while Tigranes II retreated to the mountains. However, the siege dragged on, and Phraates had to leave, leaving Tigranes the Younger with only part of the army. Returning, Tigranes II defeated these forces, and his son, losing faith in the Parthians, fled this time to Pompey, who had already arrived at the theater of war and was actively engaged. The dispute between father and son was an extremely favorable circumstance for him.
Pompey managed to defeat Mithridates and force him to flee. Mithridates headed north to Crimea, to his Bosporan kingdom. On the way, he tried again to enlist the support of Tigranes II.
However, the latter had no time for him: accompanied by Tigranes the Younger, Pompey invaded Armenia, advancing along the Araxes to Artashat. Armenia again faced severe trials and the threat of losing its independence.
Deeming armed struggle in the current conditions as valiant but fatal, Tigranes II chose another path. The 75-year-old king, alone, unarmed, and without escorts, appeared in Pompey’s camp.
This move, regardless of how ancient authors judged it, was a calculated, diplomatically and psychologically impeccable step; it also took into account the character of the simple and vain Pompey. The sentimental Roman embraced the old man and seated him beside him.
Pompey preferred the father—an enemy of the Parthians—to the son—their friend. Tigranes II remained the king of Great Armenia, while the son received the throne of Sophene, which was practically nothing, as this throne had already been granted to him by his father. Dissatisfied, Tigranes the Younger was taken into custody by Pompey’s order.
In 66 BC, a peace agreement was signed, which, given the circumstances, can be considered a diplomatic success for Tigranes despite the harsh conditions of the treaty. Armenia lost all its external territorial conquests and paid a huge indemnity; however, the state of Great Armenia remained intact. It was declared a “friend and ally of the Roman people.”
Pompey’s army stayed for the winter in the Kura Valley. There, it was attacked by the Iberians and Albanians but repelled them. In 65 BC, Pompey himself advanced on the Iberians, defeated them, and intended to pursue Mithridates. However, upon receiving news of the Albanian uprising, Pompey moved to Albania and brought it to submission.
In 64 BC, Pompey was occupied with matters in Asia Minor and Syria. He overthrew Antiochus Asiaticus, the Seleucid, from the Syrian throne, whom Lucullus had installed. Syria was declared a Roman province.
Meanwhile, the Parthians invaded Corduene and seized it. The army sent by Pompey drove them out and returned the region to Armenia. In 64 BC, the Parthians invaded Armenia again. Tigranes II turned to Pompey, as did the Parthians. The arbiters sent by Pompey resolved the dispute in favor of Armenia, resulting in not only Corduene remaining within its borders but also some lands of northern Mesopotamia.
Rome clearly revised its position regarding Armenia, courting it in anticipation of future Parthian dangers. Pompey even restored Tigranes’ title of “king of kings,” which had passed back to the Parthians after Tigranes’ defeat. Phraates III, who finally began to understand the essence of Roman politics, yielded and decided to endure, hoping, in turn, for an alliance with Armenia in the future struggle against Rome.
In 63 BC, the news of Mithridates Eupator’s death spread, which the Romans received with joy. The unyielding old man had not abandoned the thought of settling scores with Rome until his last breath. In the Bosporan kingdom, he raised and trained a strong army with which he intended to invade Italy via the northern Black Sea and Thrace.
After resolving territorial disputes with Parthia, when Corduene passed to Armenia, Armenia experienced about ten years of peace until Tigranes II’s death in 55 BC. The country had a respite from the military and political storms that had previously swept over it.
Nersisyan M.G. History of the Armenian People, Yerevan, 1980.
