Tigranes (sometimes Tigran or Dikran) was the name of a number of historical figures, primarily kings of Armenia.
The earliest Tigranes is mentioned in the Cyropaedia and in Armenian historical sources. He was a king of Armenia (or at least of a proto-Armenian state) and an ally of Cyrus the Great. One of his sons was also named Tigranes. This son is usually assumed to have succeeded his father, but nothing is known about him.
By far the best-known Tigranes is Tigranes the Great, king of Armenia from 95 to 55 B.C., who founded a short-lived Armenian empire. His father, who ruled from 115 to 95 B.C., was also named Tigranes, as were several later kings of Armenia.
There is some lack of consistency in assigning dynastic numbers to these kings. The earliest Tigranes and his son are usually not included, making Tigranes I the father of Tigranes the Great. However, Tigranes the Great is also sometimes known as Tigranes I, in his capacity as a successor to the Seleucid dynasty.
Another Tigranes was a member of the Achaemenid family who, according to Herodotus, commanded the Medes in the army of Xerxes during the invasion of Greece.
Tigranes is the Hellenized form of the name, found in classical sources. Tigran and Dikran are closer to local Armenian usage.
Tigranes now had become "king of kings" and the mightiest monarch of Asia.
Tigranes was beaten at Tigranocerta on the 6th of October 69, and again near Artaxata in September 68.
The younger Tigranes was led in triumph into Rome, where he found his death when he tried to escape from his confinement by the intrigues of P. Clodius in 58 (Dio Cass.
The coins of Tigranes, which were probably struck in Syria and bear Greek inscriptions, represent him with a tiara in the Oriental fashion, instead of the simple diadem of the Seleucidae.
COIN OP tigranes II., king of Armenia, was a son of artavasdes I., and grandson of the preceding.
tigranes III., king of Armenia, appears to have been a son of the preceding, and to have succeeded him on the throne for a short time: but the accounts transmitted to us of the revolutions of the Armenian monarchy at this period are very confused and unsatisfactory.
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