[5] His father Alexander was a Judean prince and was a son of King of Judea Herod the Great and his wife Mariamne.

She was the daughter of the King Archelaus of Cappadocia[6] and her mother was from Armenia,[7] possibly related to the Artaxiad dynasty.

[11] After the death of Herod, Tigranes and his brother decided to leave Jerusalem and to live with their mother and her family in the Cappadocian royal court.

After the death of Artavasdes IV, Augustus revised his foreign policy and appointed Tigranes as King of Armenia.

[18] His royal title is in Greek ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΤΙΓΡΑΝΟΥ ΜΕΓΑΛΟΥ which means of great King Tigranes.

[19] After his time as king of Armenia, Tigranes remained in contention to reclaim his throne through to the first years of Roman Emperor Tiberius' reign.

[24] There are three princes by the name Phasael in the Herodian dynasty, all three mentioned by Josephus in "War" (BJ) and "Antiquities" (AJ):[25]