Artavasdes II of Armenia
Encyclopedia : A : AR : ART : Artavasdes II of Armenia
King Artavasdes II (Armenian: Արտավազդ Երկրորդ) ruled Armenia from 53 to 34 BC. He succeeded his father, Tigranes the Great. Artavasdes was an ally of Rome, but when Orodes II of Parthia invaded Armenia following his victory over the Roman general Marcus Licinius Crassus at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BC, he was forced to join the Parthians. He gave his sister in marriage to Orodes' son and heir Pacorus.
In 36 BC the Roman general Mark Antony invaded Armenia and Artavasdes again switched sides, but abandoned the Romans once they had left Armenia. Antony reinvaded Armenia in 34 BC, captured Artavasdes, and took him to Alexandria, in 31 BC he was beheaded by Cleopatra VII of Egypt without revealing the whereabouts of the royal treasury. He was succeeded by his son Artaxias.
According to Plutarch, Artavasdes was an accomplished scholar who composed Greek tragedies and histories.
References
- Plutarch, Life of Crassus.
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.