Tigranes the Great

Tigranes II The Great, Tigranes also spelled Tigran, orDikran, (born c. 140—died c. 55 BC), king of Armenia from 95 to 55 BC, under whom the country became for a short time the strongest state in the Roman East.

Tigranes was the son or brother of Artavasdes I and a member of the dynasty founded in the early 2nd century by Artaxias. He was given as a hostage to the Parthian king Mithradates II, but later he purchased his freedom by ceding 70 valleys bordering on Media, in northwestern Iran.

Thereafter, Tigranes began to enlarge his kingdom, first annexing the kingdom of Sophene (east of the upper Euphrates River). He also entered into alliance with Mithradates VI Eupator of Pontus, whose daughter Cleopatra he married. The interference of the two kings in Cappadocia (in eastern Asia Minor) was successfully countered by Roman intervention in 92 BC.