The figures thus named represented Mithradates, the chief satrap Gotarzes,[1] and three others, probably also satraps.
About 94 b.c., probably on the death of his father Artavasdes, the Armenian prince Tigranes,[2] for some years past a hostage among the Parthians, was returned to his country and placed on the throne with the aid of Parthian troops. In payment for their services the Parthians received "seventy valleys."[3] Tigranes proved an able monarch. Soon after his establishment as king of Armenia he formed an alliance with Mithradates of Pontus, who between 112 and 93 b.c. had built a great and powerful state to the northwest. To further cement the union he married Cleopatra, daughter of his ally. The two kings then proceeded to drive Ariobarzanes of Cappadocia from his throne.
In the meantime Mithradates of Parthia, safe from interference by the growing power of Armenia, pushed rapidly westward. Antiochus X Eusebes Philopator was contending for the doubtful honor of the Seleucid throne with Demetrius III Eucaerus and Ptolemy
- ↑ This might be the Gotarzes of a.d. 38–51 (see pp. 166–74), but there are several arguments against such attribution. Tacitus Ann. xi. 10 gives the name of the ruler contemporary with Gotarzes II as Meherdates, a form definitely later than that of the inscription. The forms of the letters agree with the earlier rather than the later date. Finally, the name Gotarzes ceases to appear in the same year as the commonly accepted date for the death of Mithradates II, 87 b.c. On this point see p. 44 and Herzfeld, Am Tor von Asien, pp. 39 f.
- ↑ PW, art. "Tigranes," No. 1.
- ↑ Strabo xi. 14. 15.
