Tiridates I of Armenia
Tiridates I was the youngest son of Vonones II, who was king of Media Atropatene, and then later the Parthian Empire. He was crowned king of Armenia by the Roman emperor Nero in 66. His reign was marked by a brief interruption towards the end of the year 54 and a much longer one from 58 to 63.
About Tiridates I of Armenia in brief
Tiridates I was the youngest son of Vonones II, who was king of Media Atropatene, and then later the Parthian Empire. He was crowned king of Armenia by the Roman emperor Nero in 66. In the early 20th century, Franz Cumont speculated that Tiridates was instrumental in the development of Mithraism which ultimately became the main religion of the Roman Army. Tiridates I is one of the principal characters in George Frideric Handel’s opera Radamisto and Reinhard Keiser’s opera Octavia. His reign was marked by a brief interruption towards the end of the year 54 and a much longer one from 58 to 63. During his reign, he started reforming the administrative structure of Armenia, a reform which was continued by his successors, and which brought many Iranian customs and offices into it. His name means ‘given by Tir’, which was the Zoroastrian god of literature, science and art based on the Avestan Tishtrya and was equated with the Greek Apollo by way of the process of interpretatio graeca. In 51 the Roman procurator of Cappadocia, Julius Paelignus, invaded Armenia and ravaged the country, then under an Iberian usurper Rhadamistus. In 52 he took the opportunity to invade Armenia, conquering Artaxata and proclaiming Tiridate I as king. A winter epidemic as well as an insurrection initiated by his son Vardanes forced him to withdraw his troops from Armenia, allowing him to come back and punish locals as traitors; they eventually revolted and replaced him with the prince Tiridates II in early 55.
In 58, Corbulo of Armenia attacked from the north, while Antiochus IV of Commagene attacked from southwest. Supported by his brother A Hasmonean named Aristobulus, Tiridates received Armenia Sopheneus of Emesa and Lesser Soha Soha in the spring of 58. He died in 63, and was buried in the Armenian capital of Yerevan. His son Vologases I succeeded him as king, but died in the same year, and he was succeeded by his grandson Pacorus I. In 66, the Roman Emperor Nero sent a large army to the east in order to restore the client kings of Armenia to their influence at their doorstep. The Romans thought that Nero had de facto ceded Armenia to the ParThian Empire, and treated Tiridates as a member of the monarchy. In addition to being a king, Tir candidates I was also a Zoroastrians priest and was accompanied by other magi on his journey to Rome in 66, when he went to Rome to meet with the emperor. He is buried in Rome with his wife Zenobia who was pregnant, and received her kindly and treated her as a family member. He also had two elder brothers named Pacorus and Vologase I, and a younger brother named Vologases I.
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This page is based on the article Tiridates I of Armenia published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 03, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
