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Mighty Tigranes Magnus, Armenia is faced once again with great foes. It is upon your example that future Armenian kings would look in both awe and envy. From Rome to Parthia, neighbouring empires trembled in fear. So great was Armenia's strength that no army could overcome it. It was under your rule that Armenia's ancient dynasties would finally be put to heel and, at your command, would give rise to a powerful kingdom like no other. "Great Tigranes, King of Kings, you tower over the lands of Greater Armenia.

Tigranes would only be checked once his kingdom became enmeshed in the ambitions of the two regional superpowers, Parthia and Rome, when his alliance with Mithridates VI, king of Pontus, proved his undoing. Not before or since would Armenians control such a huge swathe of Asia. Expanding in all directions, at its peak, Tigranes’ Armenian Empire stretched from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean.

Tigranes II or Tigranes the Great ruled as the king of Armenia from c. Maneuvering between larger neighbours, the Armenians gained a reputation for deviousness the Roman historian Tacitus called them an ambigua gens (“ambiguous people”). Armenia became a buffer state, and often a battlefield, between Rome and Parthia. He failed to reach Artashat, but in 66 bce the legions of Pompey, aided by one of Tigranes’ sons, succeeded, compelling the king to renounce Syria and other conquests in the south and to become an ally of Rome. The Roman general Lucius Licinius Lucullus captured Tigranocerta, Tigranes’ new capital, in 69 bce. The Armenian empire lasted until Tigranes became involved in the struggle between his father-in-law, Mithradates VI Eupator of Pontus, and Rome. Although Armenian culture at the time of Tigranes was Iranian, as it had been and as it was fundamentally to remain for many centuries, Hellenic scholars and actors found a welcome at the Armenian court. Tigranes penetrated as far south as Ptolemais (modern ʿAkko, Israel). Iberia (Georgia), Albania, and Atropatene had already accepted Tigranes’ suzerainty when the Syrians, tired of anarchy, offered him their crown (83 bce). Extensive territories were taken from the kingdom of Parthia in Iran, which was compelled to sign a treaty of alliance. Under Tigranes, Armenia ascended to a pinnacle of power unique in its history and became, albeit briefly, the strongest state in the Roman east. An attempt to end the division of Armenia into an eastern and a western part was made about 165 bce when the Artaxiad ruler sought to suppress his rival, but it was left to his descendant Tigranes II (the Great 95–55 bce) to establish, by his conquest of Sophene, a unity that was to last almost 500 years. The Greek geographer Strabo refers to the capital of Sophene as Carcathiocerta. Artaxias built his capital, Artashat (Artaxata), on the Aras River near modern Yerevan. This project provides Gold and Great General points in exchange for Production.After the defeat of the Seleucid king Antiochus III (the Great) by Rome at the Battle of Magnesia (winter 190–189 bce), his two Armenian satraps, Artaxias (Artashes) and Zariadres (Zareh), established themselves, with Roman consent, as kings of Greater Armenia and Sophene, respectively, thus becoming the creators of an independent Armenia. Once this district is completed, the parent city may begin the Encampment Training city project.