Research Notes:

Artavasdes is the second known king from the Artaxiad dynasty of Armenia [r.c. 161-120 B.C.] He appears to have been the son of Artaxias I and may have been the father of Tigranes I. Towards the end of his reign, he found himself under attack from the Parthian king Mithradates II, lost control of Nisibis (if it had ever been Armenian), and was forced to render his grandson as hostage to the Parthians: Tigranes II the Great, who must have been about twenty years old. It is possible that Artavasdes was able to put a son Artaxias on the throne in the West-Caucasian kingdom of Iberia (modern Georgia). ¹

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In c.?120 BC, the Parthian king Mithridates II (r. 124–91 BC) defeated Artavasdes I and made him acknowledge Parthian suzerainty. Artavasdes was forced to give the Parthians Tigranes as a hostage, who was either his son or nephew.

According to Professor Cyril Toumanoff, Artavasdes I can be identified with the Armenian king who, according to the medieval Georgian annals, interfered in Iberia at the request of local nobility and installed his son, Artaxias, on the throne of Iberia, thereby inaugurating the Iberian Artaxiad dynasty. ²