the Arsacidse.

The issue of the struggle was no doubt disappointing to Artaxerxes; but
if, on the one hand, it dispelled some illusions and proved to him
that the Roman State, though verging to its decline, nevertheless still
possessed a vigor and a life which he had been far from anticipating,
on the other hand it left him free to concentrate his efforts on the
reduction of Armenia, which was really of more importance to him,
from Armenia being the great stronghold of the Arsacid power, than the
nominal attachment to the empire of half-a-dozen Roman provinces. So
long as Arsacidae maintained themselves in a position of independence
and substantial power so near the Persian borders, and in a country of
such extent and such vast natural strength as Armenia, there could not
but be a danger of reaction, of the nations again reverting to the yoke
whereto they had by long use become accustomed, and of the star of
the Sasanidae paling before that of the former masters of Asia. It was
essential to the consolidation of the new Persian Empire that Armenia
should be subjugated, or at any rate that Arsacidae should cease to
govern it; and the fact that the peace which appears to have been made
between Rome and Persia, A.D. 232, set Artaxerxes at liberty to direct
all his endeavors to the establishment of such relations between his own
state and Armenia as he deemed required by public policy and necessary
for the security of his own power, must be regarded as one of paramount
importance, and as probably one of the causes mainly actuating him in
the negotiations and inclining him to consent to peace on any fair
and equitable terms. Consequently, the immediate result of hostilities
ceasing between Persia and Rome was their renewal between Persia and
Armenia. The war had indeed, in one sense, never ceased; for Chosroes
had been an ally of the Romans during the campaign of Severus, and had
no doubt played a part in the invasion and devastation of Media which
have been described above. But, the Romans having withdrawn, he was left
wholly dependent on his own resources; and the entire strength of Persia
was now doubtless brought into the field against him. Still he defended
himself with such success, and caused Artaxerxes so much alarm, that
after a time that monarch began to despair of ever conquering his
adversary by fair means, and cast about for some other mode of
accomplishing his purpose. Summoning an assembly of all the vassal
ki