Vonones I 16-17 AD No known coins

Vonones I, eldest son of the Parthian king Phraates IV, had lived as a Roman hostage since c. 10 BC. Restored by Rome as King of Kings in Parthia (AD 8 – 12), he was deposed by the nobles in favour of Artabanus II and fled west. When the Armenian throne fell vacant after Queen Erato’s abdication (AD 15), the governor of Syria, acting on Emperor Tiberius’s instructions, installed Vonones as king at Artaxata in AD 16. The choice served Roman strategy: a claimant of Arsacid blood but dependent on Roman protection.

Vonones never secured firm control. He was foreign to Armenian tradition, and—unlike earlier monarchs—he struck no coins in the kingdom. Artabanus II denounced the move and massed troops on the Araxes. Faced with Parthian pressure and wary Armenian nobles, Vonones abandoned the capital in AD 17, retreating under Roman escort first to Syria and then to Pompeiopolis in Cilicia. There he was kept under nominal guard; attempting escape soon after, he was killed by his custodians.