Grandson of
Herod &
Mariamne
Son of Alexander
& Glaphyra
Herod himself
arranged the marriage of his oldest Hasmonean son
(Alexander) to the daughter of Archelaus of Cappadocia but
returned her to her father soon after her husband's execution (7
BCE),
while retaining custody of her children. So Tigranes, though
named for his mother's
illustrious
Armenian ancestor, was reared as a Jew. Yet, after Herod
died (4 BCE),
Tigranes & his brother rejoined their mother in their maternal
grandfather's court & renounced their paternal Jewish heritage.
Ten years later, when
Rome's client king of Armenia was murdered by
his own subjects,
Augustus ordered
Tiberius to
install Tigranes as his successor. The Armenian nobles, however,
forced Tigranes to accept their former queen Erato (a descendant of
Antiochus III)
as his co-ruler. While no record of their joint reign has
survived apart from coins, this arrangement must not have worked
out for long, since both Tigranes & Erato were deposed in 12
CE.
Still Tigranes did not renounce his claim to the throne of
Armenia. For when his successor died (18
CE),
Tigranes' maternal grandfather (Archelaus) tried unsuccessfully
to reinstate him. Some time after this he must have gone to
Rome. For unspecified charges were made against him during
Tiberius' reign of terror in 36
CE,
which he apparently did not survive.
References: Josephus,
Antiquities
18.140.
_____, War
1.552-554.
Augustus,
Res Gestae 26.
Tacitus,
Annals 6.40.
Other online
resources: