with special privileges, including freedom from taxation.
About the end of the century events occurred in Armenia which led again to Roman intervention. As we have seen (p. 141), the expedition led by Tiberius in 20 b.c. arrived too late to be of great service, for the death of Artaxes permitted the installation of his brother Tigranes II without difficulty. When not long before 6 b.c. Tigranes died, the nationalist party placed on the throne Tigranes (III) and Erato, his sister-wife, the children of the dead king.[1] To insure the investiture of a candidate satisfactory to Rome, Tiberius was commissioned to leave for Armenia.[2] But Tiberius lingered at Rhodes. Eventually Augustus ordered that a certain Artavasdes II, perhaps a brother of Tigranes II,[3] be installed as ruler of Armenia.[4] Tigranes and Erato must have been deposed, and Artavasdes reigned a short time.
- ↑ Cf. Dio Cass. lv. 10a. On the coins of Tigranes and Erato see Barclay V. Head, Historia numorum (Oxford, 1887), p. 636 (the Armenian material was omitted from the 2d ed., 1911). For further numismatic bibliography see PW, art. "Erato," No. 9. This period in general is dealt with in PW, art. "Iulius (Augustus)," No. 132, cols. 350 ff.; CAH, X, 254–64 and 273–79; F. B. Marsh, The Reign of Tiberius (Oxford, 1931), pp. 81 ff. and 211 ff. See also PW, art. "Tigranes," No. 4.
- ↑ Dio Cass. lv. 9; Zonaras x. 35; (Ovid) Consol. ad Liviam 389 ff. may refer to the commission of Tiberius.
- ↑ Cf. Tac. Ann. ii. 3.
- ↑ Artavasdes struck coins with portraits of Augustus and himself; see Percy Gardner, "On an Unpublished Coin of Artavasdes II., King of Armenia," Num. Chron., N.S., XII (1872), 9–15. Besides the fact that the portrait of Augustus is reasonably youthful, the Artavasdes from Media would probably not have followed such a model.
