Tigranes (, ) is the
Greek rendering of the
Old Iranian name ''*Tigrāna''. This was the name of a number of historical figures, primarily kings of
Armenia
Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...
.
The name of Tigranes, which was
theophoric in nature, was uncommon during the
Achaemenid era (550–330 BC). Only two historical figures are known to bear the name during that period.
By far the best known Tigranes is
Tigranes the Great, king of Armenia from 95 to 55 BC, who founded a short-lived Armenian empire. His father, who ruled from 115 to 95 BC, was also named Tigranes, as were several later kings of Armenia. There is some lack of consistency in assigning dynastic numbers to these kings. The earliest Tigranes and his son are usually not included, making Tigranes I the father of Tigranes the Great.
Another Tigranes was a member of the
Achaemenid family who, according to
Herodotus
Herodotus (; BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the '' Histori ...
, was a son of
Artabanus who commanded the
Medes
The Medes were an Iron Age Iranian peoples, Iranian people who spoke the Median language and who inhabited an area known as Media (region), Media between western Iran, western and northern Iran. Around the 11th century BC, they occupied the m ...
in the army of
Xerxes during the invasion of
Greece
Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...
.
The satirist
Lucian
Lucian of Samosata (Λουκιανὸς ὁ Σαμοσατεύς, 125 – after 180) was a Hellenized Syrian satirist, rhetorician and pamphleteer who is best known for his characteristic tongue-in-cheek style, with which he frequently ridi ...
, in his True History, describes
Homer
Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...
(probably 8th century BC) as a Babylonian called Tigranes, who assumed the name Homer when taken "hostage" (homeros) by the Greeks.
[Lucian, Vera Historia, 2.20.2–8.]
Persons
*
Tigranes (legendary), legendary Armenian figure
*
Tigranes I ruled 115–95 BC
*
Tigranes the Great, sometimes known as Tigranes II, ruled 95–55 BC
*
Tigranes the Younger, son of Tigranes the Great, briefly ruled the
Kingdom of Sophene, 65 BC
*
Tigranes III ruled 20–8 BC
*
Tigranes IV ruled 8–5 BC and 2 BC – 1 AD
*
Tigranes V ruled 6–12 AD
*
Tigranes VI ruled 58–61 AD
*
Tigranes VII (Tiran) ruled 339 – c.350 AD
References
Sources
*
* {{cite journal, last=Shahbazi, first=A. Shapur, editor1-last=Badian, editor1-first=Ernst, year=2017, title=Irano-Hellenic Notes: 1. The Three Faces of Tigranes, journal=American Journal of Ancient History, publisher=De Gruyter, volume=2, issue=2, pages=124–136, doi=10.31826/9781463237547-002
Iranian masculine given names
Armenian masculine given names
Masculine given names