Tigranes VI of Armenia

Tigranes VI of Armenia, born in the year fifty, was a notable Herodian prince who served as a Roman client king during the first century. He was the son of Alexander and an unnamed noblewoman, whose lineage flourished under the reigns of the first two Roman emperors, Augustus and Tiberius. Tigranes was named after his paternal uncle, Tigranes V, a previous king of Armenia, and he was the only grandchild of his paternal grandparents, Alexander and Glaphyra.

His grandfather, Alexander, was a Judean prince of mixed Jewish, Nabataean, and Edomite descent, while his grandmother, Glaphyra, was a Cappadocian princess with Greek, Armenian, and Persian roots. Tigranes' name reflects his rich Armenian and Hellenic heritage, as it was a common royal name in the Artaxiad dynasty. Despite his noble lineage, Tigranes, like his father and uncle, was an apostate to Judaism and did not seek to influence Judean politics.

Little is documented about Tigranes' early life, but he was raised in Rome. He married Opgalli, a noblewoman from central Anatolia, possibly of Hellenic Jewish descent. Their union produced at least two children: a son, Gaius Julius Alexander, and a daughter, Julia, marking them as the last royal descendants of the Cappadocian kings.

In the spring of fifty-eight, Tigranes was crowned King of Armenia by Emperor Nero in Rome, amidst military conflicts involving Roman general Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo and various regional powers. Tigranes' reign was marked by his invasion of Adiabene, which led to tensions with Parthia. Ultimately, he was forced to renounce his crown in sixty-three, although plans for his restoration were disrupted by the outbreak of the First Jewish–Roman War in sixty-six. The fate of Tigranes after this period remains uncertain, but surviving coinage from his reign reflects his Hellenic and Armenian descent.