Arsaces I of Armenia

Arsaces I of Armenia, also known as Arsaces I, Arshak I and Arsak (Armenian: Արշակ, flourished 1st century) (assassinated in 35 AD[1]) was a Parthian Prince of Iranian and Greek ancestry who served as a Roman Client King of Armenia in 35.

Arsaces I was the first-born son of the Parthian King Artabanus III by an unnamed wife.[2] He was born and raised in the Parthian Empire. Arsaces I was named in honor of his Parthian and Pontian relations who ruled with this name as King.

After the death of Roman Client King of Armenia Artaxias III in 35, Artabanus III wanted to put his son on the Armenian throne. Artabanus III made Arsaces I King of Armenia and was accompanied to Armenia with a strong army.[3] The Roman emperor Tiberius, refused to accept the Armenian Kingship of Arsaces I, so Tiberius appointed the Iberian Prince Mithridates as the new Roman Client Armenian King with the support of his brother, King Pharasmanes I of Iberia.[4]

Although Arsaces I was a pro-Roman monarch, his Kingship was brief in Armenia. Within less than a year into his first year of his reign, Arsaces I was poisoned from his bribed servants.[5] After Arsaces I died, Artabanus III put another son Orodes, on the Armenian throne. Orodes succeeded his brother in the Kingship of Armenia and faced Mithridates in a military campaign.[6]

References

  1. ↑ 35 Arsaces is assassinated. iranicaonline.org
  2. ↑ Tacitus, Annals, 6.31
  3. ↑ Dedeyan, History of the Armenian people, p.138
  4. ↑ Grousset, History of Armenia from its origins to 1071, p.105
  5. ↑ Tacitus, Annals, 6.33
  6. ↑ Chaumont, Armenia between Rome and Iran I: the advent of Augustus to the accession of Diocletian, p.88

Sources

Regnal titles
Preceded by
Artaxias III		 Roman Client King of Armenia
35 		Succeeded by
Mithridates I
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