Watch List notes:

Armenia. Tigranes II the Great. 95-56 BC. Tetradrachm, 15.69g. (12h). Obv: Draped bust of Tigranes right, wearing Armenian tiara and Greek diadem. The tiara is adorned with an eight-pointed star flanked by two eagles back to back, the heads turned to each other. Fillet border. Rx: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΤΙΓΡΑΝΟΥ Tyche of Antioch, draped and wearing a turreted crown, seated right on a rock, holding palm branch in right hand. At her feet, river god Orontes swimming right. All within laurel wreath. Below throne, letters Μ and A. Cf. Bedoukian, Artaxiads, pp. 47 ff. See NFA XXVII (1991), lot 76 (same dies). On the coinage of Tigranes II, see F. de Callatay, L'histoire des guerres mithridatiques, pp. 224 ff., and now Y.T. Nercessian, Armenian Numismatic Journal 26, 3-4 (2000), pp. 43-108 [non vidimus]. Extremely well struck. EF.

Ex Al Zaloom Collection.

The king of kings, Tigranes II the Great, was one of the most powerful rulers in the period of the Mithridatic Wars. Ally and son-of-law of Mithridates VI of Pontus, he conquered the Cappadocian kingdom and some provinces of the Parthian Empire, and also Seleucid Syria, Commagene, and the eastern part of Cilicia. However, when Mithridates VI sought refuge in Armenia after being defeated by the Roman general Lucullus in 71 BC, Tigranes got into serious trouble with the Romans. Between 69 and 66 BC Tigranes lost most of his conquests to the Roman general Pompeius and had to be happy to be allowed to keep his inherited Armenian kingdom. In the end, he got the title "friend of the Roman people".