. hi st - p h ] 1 4 Ju l 2 00 4 Halley of 87 BC on the Coins of Armenian King Tigranes ?

Coins of Armenian king Tigranes the Great clearly reveal a star with a tail on the royal tiara which may be associated with the Halley's passage of 87 BC. Tigranes II the Great (95-55 BC) had made Armenia one of powerful kingdoms in Western Asia, extending from the Caucasus to the eastern Mediterranean. The economical needs and the expansion of the empire resulted in diverse silver and copper-bronze coinage. Though the chronological and mint problems of abundant emissions of Tigranes' coins have been discussed by scholars, many questions remain unclear. On the prevailing part of the coins Tigranes wears a tiara decorated with a sun/star symbol between two eagles. This concerns the tetradrachms struck in Antioch in Syria, as well as the silver and bronze coins struck in Artaxata or Tigranocerta. On the tetradrachms and copper-bronze coins struck in Damascus, the king's tiara is adorned with a big sun/star symbol on the left side along with an eagle-like symbol to the right. On a rare series of tetradrachms and drachms and on more numerous copper coins (Figs.1,2) depicting the goddesses Tyche and Nike, cypress tree, palm branch, tripod on their reverse, Tigranes' tiara is decorated with a single star, one of the right side rays of which is longer and curved, which can be interpreted as a comet [1]. The king looks younger on these coins. This latter series is the most mysterious in the entire Tigranes' coinage regarding its dating, mint place, as well as the interpretation of the comet's symbol. All silver coins of Tigranes, except for the Damascus series and a large group of bronze coins, on their reverse have a goddess sat on a rock, wearing a turreted crown, holding a palm branch and having a swimming nude figure of a river-god at her feet. The scholars have no doubts that this represents the bronze statue of the city goddess Tyche, created by Eutychides, the disciple of Lissipe, and erected in Antioch long ago, at the time of Seleucus I (312-280 BC). Tigranes conquered this famous Seleucid city in 83 BC. This fact is commonly agreed, as is based on a passage from Appian, as well as 1