Vanquished by his father, he had taken refuge with a number of Armenians of rank at the court of the Arsacid, and intrigued against his father there.

It was partly due to his exertions, that Phraates preferred to take the reward which was offered to him by both sides for his accession--the secured possession of Mesopotamia--from the hand of the Romans, renewed with Pompeius the agreement concluded with Lucullus respecting the boundary of the Euphrates,( 4) and even consented to operate in concert with the Romans against Armenia.

But the younger Tigranes occasioned still greater mischief than that which arose out of his promoting the alliance between the Romans and the Parthians, for his insurrection produced a variance between the kings Tigranes and Mithradates themselves.

The great-king cherished in secret the suspicion that Mithradates might have had a hand in the insurrection of his grandson--Cleopatra the mother of the younger Tigranes was the daughter of Mithradates-- and, though no open rupture took place, the good understanding between the two monarchs was disturbed at the very moment when it was most urgently needed.
At the same time Pompeius prosecuted his warlike preparations with energy.

The Asiatic allied and client communities were warned to furnish the stipulated contingents.