caption father date predecessor successor religion title coronation issue image article_title name reign
statue of the palace of versailles . of tiridates i of armenia in the park vonones ii of parthia -lrb- 51 -rrb- 52 to 88 to 61 63 -lrb- coronated in 66 -rrb- tigranes sanatruk zoroastrianism king of armenia 66 died without legitimate issue tiridates.jpg tiridates i of armenia
 tiridates i 63 & ndash ; unknown
tiridates i of armenia

tiridates i -lrb- , `` trdat a '' ; , `` tīridāt '' ; , `` tiridátes '' -rrb- was king of armenia beginning in 53 ad and the founder of the arsacid dynasty of armenia , the armenian line -lrb- branch -rrb- of the arsacid dynasty of parthia .
the dates of his birth and death are unknown .
his early reign was marked by a brief interruption towards the end of the year 54 and a much longer one from 58 to 63 ad .
in an agreement to resolve the roman-parthian conflict in and over armenia , tiridates i -lrb- one of the brothers of vologases i of parthia -rrb- was crowned king of armenia by the roman emperor nero in 66 ad ; in the future , the king of armenia was to be a parthian prince , but his appointment required approval from the romans .
even though this made armenia a client kingdom , various contemporary roman sources thought that nero had de facto ceded armenia to the parthian empire .
in addition to being a king , tiridates i was also a zoroastrian priest and was accompanied by other magi on his journey to rome in 66 ad .
in the early 20th century , franz cumont speculated that tiridates was instrumental in the development of mithraism which -- in cumont 's view -- was simply romanized zoroastrianism .
this continuity theory has since been questioned .
tiridates i is one of the principal characters in george frideric handel 's opera `` radamisto '' and reinhard keiser 's opera `` octavia . ''
louis xiv of france ordered a statue of tiridates i to be placed in the garden of the palace of versailles .
during his reign , he started reforming the administrative structure of the kingdom , a reform which was continued by his successors , and which brought many iranian customs and offices into it .
