Tigranakert (Silvan)
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| Location |
Arzanene Province, Kingdom of Armenia (near Diyarbakır, Turkey) |
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| History | |
| Builder | Tigranes the Great |
| Founded | 83-78 BC |
| Periods | Hellenistic period |
Tigranocerta (Greek: Τιγρανόκερτα, Tigranόkerta); Tigranakert (Armenian: Տիգրանակերտ) was the capital of the Armenian Kingdom. It bore the name of Tigranes the Great, who founded the city in the first century BC. The name of the city means "made by Tigran", and was possibly located near present-day Silvan or nearby Arzan (Arzn, in the Armenian province of Arzanene or Aghdznik), east of Diyarbakır, Turkey. It was one of four cities in historic Armenia named . The others were located in Nakhichevan, Artsakh and Utik.
To create this city, Tigranes forced many people out of their homes to make up the population. Armenia at this time had expanded east to the Caspian Sea, west to central Cappadocia, and south towards Judea, advancing as far as the regions surrounding what is now the Krak des Chevaliers.
The city's markets were filled with traders and merchants doing business from all over the ancient world. Tigranocerta quickly became a very important commercial, as well as cultural center of the Near East. The magnificent theater that was established by the Emperor, of which he was an avid devotee, conducted dramas and comedies mostly played by Greek as well as Armenian actors. Plutarch wrote that Tigranocerta was "a rich and beautiful city where every common man and every man of rank studied to adorn it." The Hellenistic culture during the Artaxiad Dynasty had a strong influence and the Greek language was in fact the official language of the court. Tigranes had divided Greater Armenia – the nucleus of the Empire – into four major strategic regions or viceroyalties.
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Wikipedia