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The Battle of Tigranakert (October 6, 69 B.C.)

Meanwhile, Tigran marched his army from Moush through the Taurus Mountains, towards Tigranakert and was able to withn ten days to cover the distance between the two cities which lay 200 kilometres apart, within ten days.

There are different accounts about the size of the two armies, but all of them should be considered as exaggerated.. Plutarchos mentioned a figure of 225 000 for Tigran's army, while Appianos claimed that he had 300 000 men. Memnon's figure of 80 000 men seems much more realistic, since it would be almost impossible to gather an army of 250 000- 300 000 men in Moush and then move such an enormous army through the Taurus Mountains. In the year AD 1916 the Ottoman 2nd army passed through the same mountain passage with 60 000 men, under the command of Izzet Pasha, and he lost around 30,000 of his men to the freezing climate and starvation.

Eckhardt has estimated the size of Tigran's army to be around 40,000 men. This army was with out any doubts larger than Lucullus' army, which at that time was between 15,000 to 20,000 men. There are strong reasons to doubt these numbers since the propaganda of Lucullus would attempt to magnify his victory.

When the Armenians emerged from the Taurus Mountains, some of Lucullus's commanders gathered around him and advised him to pull back. But Lucullus refused to listen to them. He left 6 000 of his men behind to continue the siege of Tigranakert, while he together with the rest of his army, around 10 000 legionaries and 3 000 cavalry, began to march towards the Armenian army.

The day was October 6th, the anniversary of the crushing of the army of the Roman consul Servilius Caepios at Arausio by the Cimberian and the Teutonian tribes. 65 Lucullus' men were deeply uneasy because of superstitious belief and did all in their power to get him to avoid a battle on that day. Lucullus supposedly said: "It does not matter. If today is an unfortunate day, then we shall turn it into to a fortunate day."

The Armenian army camped on the other side of the Batman-su River and Mithradates had sent one of his greatest commanders, Taxilés, to Tigran's aid. Taxilés was a great strategist with many victories behind him. He suggested that Tigran should refrain from a direct confrontation and let his light cavalry irritate Lucullus' army with sporadic attacks, thereby cutting off contact between the main forces and their supply and ammunition. This way he would starve Lucullus' army – a move that came to be the classical and successful strategy of the Persians. 67

But Tigran, who had noticed the inferiority of the Roman army answered: "If these are supposed to be an army and are here to fight then they are too few; if they are messengers for discussing peace, then they are too many."

Since the ground on the other side of the river, where Tigran had his camp, was too steep, Lucullus had chosen to move his army downstream and had taken position in a flat area by the side of the river. When Tigran saw this move he thought that Lucullus, due to the small number of his men, was retreating and turned therefore to Taxilés and said: "Look, these are supposed to be your Romans!" Taxilés answered: "I truly hope that they are retreating, but they are wearing helmets, spears and shields and that means that they are going to fight."