Tigranes V c. 6-12 AD

Tigranes V was Rome’s Herodian experiment in Armenia. A grandson of Herod the Great, he was the son of Alexander I and Glaphyra, daughter of Archelaus of Cappadocia—a maternal line that gave him just enough Cappadocian-Armenian blood to satisfy tradition. Acting on Augustus’ orders, the Syrian governor Publius Sulpicius Quirinius escorted the young prince to Artaxata in AD 6 and proclaimed him king; Roman troops remained on hand to guarantee compliance.

Tigranes ruled strictly as a Roman client. He kept peace with Parthia and ensured Armenia posed no threat to the adjacent Roman province of Syria. Opposition soon mounted. The native nobility resented a foreign sovereign lacking Artaxiad or Arsacid ancestry, and by AD 12 Tigranes’ authority had eroded. Augustus recalled him; Queen Erato was restored the following year to placate nationalist sentiment. Tigranes lived thereafter in the Roman sphere and was ultimately executed in AD 36 under Tiberius on a charge of treason.