Sometime after the Battle of Actium in September 31 BC and Octavian (future Roman emperor Augustus) invaded Egypt in 30 BC in which he annexed the country to the rule of the Roman Republic, Tigranes III was taken from Alexandria to live in Rome.
As the Armenians lost faith in their ruling monarch, they sent messengers to Augustus requesting him to remove Artaxias II from his throne and to install Tigranes III as his successor.