The Armenian king captured and displayed in Mark Antony’s Alexandrian triumph was Artavasdes II. He ruled Armenia from 55 to 34 BC and was the son and successor of Tigranes the Great.
Artavasdes first cooperated with Rome and supplied troops during Antony’s eastern campaigns. Relations collapsed after Antony attacked the kingdom of Atropatene and suffered setbacks; Artavasdes then withdrew his support. In 34 BC Antony invaded Armenia, seized the king, and brought him and his family to Alexandria.
The captives were displayed in Antony’s lavish Alexandrian celebration, where Cleopatra appeared on a golden throne. Artavasdes reportedly refused to perform homage to her, a detail that reinforced the political theater of the event. This was an eastern victory celebration rather than the conventional Roman triumph Antony later hoped to claim.
Artavasdes’s fate after the ceremony is also part of the wider Cleopatra story. After Antony and Cleopatra’s defeat at Actium, Cleopatra reportedly had him executed in 31 BC and sent his severed head to Artavasdes I of Media Atropatene. Ancient accounts differ on the precise political circumstances, but the captured Armenian king is consistently identified as Artavasdes II.