ed to the arrangement; and the double kingdom was established.
The northern and western portions of Iberia were made over to
Sauromaces; the southern and eastern continued to be ruled by Aspacures.

When the Persian king received intelligence of these transactions he was
greatly excited. To him it appeared clear that by the spirit, if not by
the letter, of the treaty of Dura, Rome had relinquished Iberia equally
with Armenia; and he complained bitterly of the division which had been
made of the Iberian territory, not only without his consent, but without
his knowledge. He was no doubt aware that Rome had not really confined
her interference to the region with which she had some excuse for
intermeddling, but had already secretly intervened in Armenia, and was
intending further intervention. The count Arinthseus had been sent with
an army to the Armenian frontier about the same time that Terentius
had invaded Iberia, and had received positive instructions to help
the Armenians if Sapor molested them. It was in vain that the Persian
monarch appealed to the terms of the treaty of Dura--Rome dismissed his
ambassadors with contempt, and made no change in her line of procedure.
Upon this Sapor saw that war was unavoidable; and accordingly he wasted
no more time in embassies, but employed himself during the winter, which
had now begun, in collecting as large a force as he could, in part from
his allies, in part from his own subjects, resolving to take the field
in the spring, and to do his best to punish Rome for her faithlessness.

Rome on her part made ready to resist the invasion which she knew to
be impending. A powerful army was sent to guard the East under count
Trajan, and Vadomair, ex-king of the Alemanni; but so much regard for
the terms of the recent treaty was still felt, or pretended, that the
generals received orders to be careful not to commence hostilities,
but to wait till an attack was made on them. They were not kept long
in expectation. As soon as winter was over, Sapor crossed the frontier
(A.D. 371) with a large force of native cavalry and archers, supported
by numerous auxiliaries, and attacked the Romans near a place called
Vagabanta. The Roman commander gave his troops the order to retire;
and accordingly they fell back under a shower of Persian arrows, until,
several having been wounded, they felt that they could with a good face
declare that the rupture of the peace was the act of the Persians. The
ret