Battle of Artaxata

Overview

The Battle of Artaxata was fought near the Arsanias River in 68 BC between an army of the Roman Republic and the army of the Kingdom of Armenia. The Romans were led by proconsul Lucius Licinius Lucullus, while the Armenians were led by Tigranes II of Armenia, who was sheltering Mithridates VI of Pontus, his father-in-law and refugee King of Pontus. The battle was part of the Third Mithridatic War and ended in a Roman victory.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

The Battle of Artaxata, fought near the Arsanias River between Roman forces under proconsul Lucius Licinius Lucullus and the Armenian army of Tigranes II, resulted in a Roman victory during the Third Mithridatic War. The battle carried strategic weight beyond the immediate engagement: Tigranes II had been sheltering Mithridates VI of Pontus, the principal Roman adversary in the war, as a refugee at the Armenian court. By driving into Armenia and engaging Tigranes directly, Lucullus sought to deny Mithridates his base of refuge and close off the Armenian kingdom as a sanctuary. The confrontation reflected the widening geographic scope of the Third Mithridatic War, which had extended well beyond Pontus proper to draw in Armenia as a secondary theater. Lucullus's force of 15,000 achieved the victory, though the longer-term strategic consequences of the engagement are not recorded in surviving sources.

Forces & casualties

Commanders (3)