ith the treasure of Arsaces, and finally induced Para to
come to terms, and to send him the heads of the two arch-traitors. The
resistance of Armenia would probably now have ceased, had Rome
been content to see her old enemy so aggrandized, or felt her hands
absolutely tied by the terms of the treaty of Dura.

But the success of Sapor thus far only brought him into greater
difficulties. The Armenians and Iberians, who desired above all things
liberty and independence, were always especially hostile to the power
from which they felt that they had for the time being most to fear. As
Christian nations, they had also at this period an additional ground of
sympathy with Rome, and of aversion from the Persians, who were at once
heathens and intolerant. The patriotic party in both countries was thus
violently opposed to the establishment of Sapor's authority over them,
and cared little for the artifices by which he sought to make it appear
that they still enjoyed freedom and autonomy. Above all, Rome, being
ruled by monarchs who had had no hand in making the disgraceful peace of
A.D. 363, and who had no strong feeling of honor or religious obligation
in the matter of treaties with barbarians, was preparing herself to fly
in the face of her engagements, and, regarding her own interest as her
highest law, to interfere effectually in order to check the progress of
Persia in North-Western Asia.

Rome's first open interference was in Ibera. Iberia had perhaps not been
expressly named in the treaty, and support might consequently be
given to the expelled Sauromaces without any clear infraction of its
conditions. The duke Terentius was ordered, therefore, towards the close
of A.D. 370, to enter Iberia with twelve legions and replace upon his
throne the old Roman feudatory. Accordingly he invaded the country from
Lazica, which bordered it upon the north, and found no difficulty in
conquering it as far as the river Cyrus. On the Cyrus, however, he was
met by Aspacures, the king of Sapor's choice, who made proposals for an
accommodation. Representing himself as really well-inclined to Rome, and
only prevented from declaring himself by the fact that Sapor held his
son as a hostage, he asked Terentius' consent to a division of Iberia
between himself and his rival, the tract north of the Cyrus being
assigned to the Roman claimant, and that south of the river remaining
under his own government. Terentius, to escape further trouble,
consent