KINGS OF ARMENIA. Tigranes the Younger, 77/6-66 BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 28 mm, 16.81 g, 12 h), Tigranokerta (?), circa 71. Draped bust of Tigranes the Younger to right, wearing five-pointed tiara decorated with a comet star. Rev. [BA]ΣIΛEΩΣ - TIΓPANOY Eutychides' Tyche of Antiochia, turreted and veiled, seated right on rock, holding long palm frond in her right hand; below, river-god Orontes swimming right; in exergue, ΣΩ. Kovacs 132. Extremely rare. Light marks, otherwise, about very fine.


While earlier authors denied Tigranes the Younger, the son of Tigranes II, any independent coinage, Kovacs has convincingly argued that the extremely rare issues featuring a comet with a tail but no eagles on the tiara should be attributed to the rebellious prince. The young Tigranes, maternally a grandson of the great Pontic king Mithradates VI Eupator, served as a general under his father since the early 70s BC and was acknowledged by him as co-ruler. Dated coins bearing his portrait from the years 71/0-69/8 BC suggest a stay in Damaskos, from where the Tigranids expelled the Ituraean ruler Ptolemy, but the city was lost again due to the onset of conflict with the Romans in 69 BC. In 66 BC, Tigranes the Younger rose against his father with the help of the Parthians but was defeated by him, after which he betrayed the old king to Pompey, who advanced into Armenia the same year. However, the monarch preempted his deposition by a humiliating submission to the Roman general.

Pompey, apparently mistrustful of the young Tigranes due to his connections with the Parthians, chose to leave Armenia under the rule of the father and entrusted the son with the insignificant rule over Sophene and Gordiene. Disappointed, Tigranes the Younger allegedly refused an invitation to a banquet by Pompey, prompting the general to depose him shortly thereafter and present him as a captive in his triumph in Rome. The exact circumstances of the episode remain unclear, but an experienced politician like Pompey is unlikely to have acted solely out of wounded pride. Perhaps he saw in the constellation of the old Tigranes II in Armenia and his rebellious son, allied with the Parthians, in neighboring Sophene, too great a risk of further unrest, which threatened to undermine his efforts to stabilize the East.