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Artavasdes II ( {{transliteration|grc|ArtaouásdÄ“s}}), also known as Artavazd II, was king of Armenia from 55 BC to 34 BC. A member of the Artaxiad dynasty, he was the son and successor of Tigranes the Great ({{reign|95|55|era=BC}}),WEB, The Project Gutenberg eBook of Plutarch’s Lives, Vol III. by Aubrey Stewart & George Long.,www.gutenberg.org/files/14140/14140-h/14140-h.htm#FNanchor_63_63, 2022-12-11, www.gutenberg.org, who ascended the throne of a still powerful and independent state.BOOK, M. Chahin, The kingdom of Armenia, 242, English, His mother was Cleopatra of Pontus, thus making his maternal grandfather the prominent King of Pontus Mithridates VI Eupator. Like his father, Artavasdes continued using the title of King of Kings, as seen from his coins.{{sfn|Shayegan|2011|p=245}}

Name

Artavasdes’ name is the Latin attestation of an Old Iranian name *, identical to the Avestan , presumably meaning “powerful/persevering through truth”.{{sfn|Schmitt|1986|p=653}} It is attested in Armenian as and in Greek as , , , and .{{sfn|Schmitt|1986|p=653}}

Biography

In {{circa|54 BC}}, Marcus Licinius Crassus, one of the Roman triumvirs, who had become proconsul of Syria, had been preparing to invade the Parthian realm.{{harvnb|Bivar|1983|pp=49–50}}; {{harvnb|Katouzian|2009|pp=42–43}} Artavasdes II, who was an ally of Rome, advised Crassus to take a route through Armenia to avoid the desert and offered him reinforcements of a further 10,000 cavalry and 30,000 infantry.Plutarch, vol III. XIX. His reasoning was that the Parthian cavalry would be less potent in the Armenian highlands. Crassus refused the offer and decided to take the direct route through Mesopotamia.File:The portrait of Artavasdes II of Armenia on the obverse of a drachm, Artaxata mint.jpg|thumb|left|220px|Artavasdes II’s drachm, showing him wearing a tiaratiaraAs Crassus’ army marched to Carrhae (modern Harran, southeastern Turkey), the Parthian king Orodes II ({{reign|57|37|era=BC}}) invaded Armenia, cutting off support from Artavasdes II. Orodes II persuaded Artavasdes II to a marriage alliance between the crown prince Pacorus I (d. 38 BC) and Artavasdes II’s sister.{{harvnb|Bivar|1983|pp=55–56}}; {{harvnb|Garthwaite|2005|p=79}}; see also {{harvnb|Brosius|2006|pp=94–95}} and {{harvnb|Curtis|2007|pp=12–13}} Crassus was shortly defeated and killed by the forces led by Orodes II’s general Surena.{{sfn|Kennedy|1996|p=78}} While Orodes II and Artavasdes II were observing a play of The Bacchae of Euripides (c. 480–406 BC) at the Armenian court in honor of the wedding of Pacorus and Artavasdes II’s sister, the Parthian commander Silaces announced the news of the victory at Carrhae, and put the head of Crassus at Orodes II’s feet.{{harvnb|DÄ…browa|2018|p=80}}; {{harvnb|Bivar|1983|p=56}} The head was given to the producer of the play, who decided to use Crassus’ actual severed head in place of the stage-prop head of Pentheus.{{sfn|Bivar|1983|p=56}} The death of Pacorus I in 38 BC and succession of Orodes II’s other son Phraates IV ({{reign|37|2|era=BC}}) damaged the relations between Parthia and Armenia.{{sfn|Russell|1987|p=125}}In 36 BC the Roman general Mark Antony started his Parthian campaign. He allied himself with several kings of the region, including Artavasdes, who again switched sides. According to Plutarch, of the allied kings Artavasdes was “the greatest of them all[...] who furnished six thousand horse and seven thousand foot” to Antony.Plutarch, Antony 37 Artavasdes II also persuaded Antony to attack his enemy Artavasdes of Atropatene.Cassius Dio, Roman History 49.25 Nevertheless, once Antony left Armenia to invade Atropatene, Artavasdes II “despairing of the Roman cause” abandoned Antony.Plutarch, Antony 39; Cassius Dio, Roman History 49.25 Although Artavasdes II gave refuge and supplied the defeated Romans, in 34 BC Antony planned a new invasion of Armenia to take revenge for the betrayal.{{sfn|Garsoïan|1997|p=60}} First he sent his friend Quintus Dellius, who offered a betrothal of Antony’s six-year-old son Alexander Helios to a daughter of Artavasdes II, but the Armenian king hesitated.Cassius Dio, Roman History 49.39.2 Now the triumvir marched into Roman western Armenia. He summoned Artavasdes II to Nicopolis, allegedly to prepare a new war against Parthia. Artavasdes II didn’t come, so the Roman general quickly marched to the Armenian capital Artaxata. He arrested the king, hoping with his hostage’s assistance to obtain great treasures in the Armenian castles. His son Artaxias II was elected as successor. After a lost battle Artaxias II fled to the Parthian king. Finally Antony took Artavasdes II to Alexandria.Cassius Dio, Roman History 49.39.3 - 49.40.1The Armenian king and his family, who were bound with golden chains, had to follow Antony in his triumphal procession.Tacitus, The Annals s:The Annals (Tacitus)/Book 2#3|2.3]] Cleopatra VII of Egypt awaited the triumvir on a golden throne, but Artavasdes II refused to render homage to the Egyptian Queen by proskynesis.Cassius Dio, Roman History 49.40.3-4; Velleius, Roman History 2.82.4; Plutarch, Antony 50.6-7In 31 BC, after Antony’s defeat at the Battle of Actium, Cleopatra had Artavasdes decapitated. He had been an enemy of his namesake, King Artavasdes I of Media Atropatene, an ally of Antony and Cleopatra. She sent his head to Artavasdes I of Media Atropatene to secure his help.Cassius Dio, Roman History 51.5.5; Strabo, Geography, book 11, p. 532Plutarch described Artavasdes II as a well-educated man, who had a great fondness for all things Greek and was an accomplished scholar who composed Greek tragedies and histories.Plutarch, Crassus 33 From a wife whose name is unknown, he had two sons: Artaxias II,Swan, The Augustan Succession: An Historical Commentary on Cassius Dio’s Roman History, Books 55-56 (9 B.C.-A.D. 14), p. 112 Tigranes III,Bunson, Encyclopedia of the Roman Empire, p.47 and a daughterCassius Dio, Roman History 49.39.2 who possibly married King Archelaus of Cappadocia.

Legacy

The memory of Artavasdes’ imprisonment in Egypt was preserved in an Armenian popular legend conveyed by Movses Khorenatsi, in which Artavasdes is cursed by his father and imprisoned by the spirits known as the inside Mount Ararat, while the people of Armenia await his return. In the legend, Artavasdes is partially conflated with his brother Tigranes the Younger.{{Sfn|Garsoïan|1997|p=61}}

References

{{Reflist}}

Bibliography

Ancient works

• Cassius Dio, Roman History
• Plutarch, Parallel Lives
• Tacitus, Annals

Modern works

• {{Cambridge History of Iran|volume=3a|last=Bivar|first=A. D. H.|chapter=The Political History of Iran Under the Arsacids|pages=21–99}}
• {{citation|last=Brosius|first=Maria|title=The Persians: An Introduction|year=2006|publisher=Routledge|location=London & New York|isbn=978-0-415-32089-4}}
• BOOK, Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices, 1984, Psychology Press, Boyce, Mary, Mary Boyce, 1–252, 9780415239028,books.google.com/books?id=a6gbxVfjtUEC&q=false,
• BOOK, Boyce, Mary, Grenet, Frantz, Beck, Roger, A History of Zoroastrianism, Zoroastrianism under Macedonian and Roman Rule, 1991, Brill, Leiden, 978-9004293915,
• JOURNAL, Curtis, Vesta Sarkhosh, Religious iconography on ancient Iranian coins, Journal of Late Antiquity, 2007, 413–434, London,www.academia.edu/6186849, registration,
• JOURNAL, DÄ…browa, Edward, Arsacid Dynastic Marriages, Electrum, 2018, 25, 73–83, 10.4467/20800909EL.18.005.8925, free,ruj.uj.edu.pl/xmlui/bitstream/handle/item/69902/dabrowa_arsacid_dynastic_marriages_2018.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y,
• {{citation|last=Garthwaite|first=Gene Ralph|title=The Persians|year=2005|publisher=Blackwell Publishing, Ltd.|location=Oxford & Carlton|isbn=978-1-55786-860-2}}.
• {{citation|last=Katouzian|first=Homa|title=The Persians: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern Iran|year=2009|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven & London|isbn=978-0-300-12118-6}}.
• {{citation|last=Kennedy|first=David |author-link=David L. Kennedy |editor-given1=David L. |editor-surname1=Kennedy |editor-given2=David |editor-surname2=Braund |chapter=Parthia and Rome: eastern perspectives|pages=67–90|title=The Roman Army in the East|year=1996|location=Ann Arbor|publisher=Cushing Malloy Inc., Journal of Roman Archaeology: Supplementary Series Number Eighteen|isbn=978-1-887829-18-2}}
• BOOK, Marciak, MichaÅ‚, Sophene, Gordyene, and Adiabene: Three Regna Minora of Northern Mesopotamia Between East and West, 2017, Brill Publishers, BRILL, 9789004350724,books.google.com/books?id=hwEtDwAAQBAJ,
• JOURNAL,www.academia.edu/5780617, registration, Lee E., Patterson, 2015, Antony and Armenia, TAPA, 145, 77–105, 10.1353/apa.2015.0006, 162878359, 1533-0699,
• BOOK, Russell, James R., James R. Russell, Zoroastrianism in Armenia, 1987, Harvard University Press, 978-0674968509,
• ENCYCLOPEDIA, Artavasdes, Schmitt, R.,www.iranicaonline.org/articles/artavasdes-old-iranian-male-personal-name-attested-as-greek-artaousdes-artabzes-artbazos-artozos-latin-artava, Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. II, Fasc. 6, 653, 1986,
• BOOK, Arsacids and Sasanians: Political Ideology in Post-Hellenistic and Late Antique Persia, 2011, Cambridge University Press, Shayegan, M. Rahim, 1–539, 9780521766418,books.google.com/books?id=f_gcyC8l80MC&q=false,
• BOOK, The Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times, 1997, St. Martin’s Press, I, New York City, New York, Hovannisian, Richard G., Garsoïan, Nina, Nina Garsoïan, The Emergence of Armenia, 37–60, 978-0-312-10169-5,archive.org/details/armenianpeoplefr00rich_0/page/n7/mode/2up,
• {{Citation |doi=10.1556/AAnt.46.2006.3.3 |last=Strugnell |first=Emma |year=2006 |title=Ventidius’ Parthian War: Rome’s Forgotten Eastern Triumph |journal=Acta Antiqua |volume=46 |issue= 3|pages=239–252 }}
• {{citation|last=Syme |first=Ronald |author-link=Ronald Syme |title=The Roman Revolution |year=1939 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-280320-7 }}

External links

• Tetradrachm of Artavasdes II

{{Armenian kings}}{{Authority control}}