l hostilities disturbed the repose of
Volagases was in A.D. 133, when, by the intrigues of Pharasmanes,
king of the Iberians, a great horde of Alani from the tract beyond the
Caucasus was induced to pour itself through the passes of that mountain
chain upon the territories of both the Parthians and the Romans
Pharasmanes had previously shown contempt for the power of Rome by
refusing to pay court to Hadrian, when, in A.D. 130, he invited the
monarchs of Western Asia generally to a conference. He had also, it
would seem, been insulted by Hadrian, who, when Pharasmanes sent him a
number of cloaks made of cloth-of-gold, employed them in the adornment
of three hundred convicts condemned to furnish sport to the Romans in
the amphitheatre. What quarrel he had with the Parthians we are not
told; but it is related that at his instigation the savage Alani,
introduced within the mountain barrier, poured at one and the same time
into Media Atropatene, which was a dependency of Parthia; into
Armenia, which was under Parthamaspates; and into the Roman province of
Cappadocia. Volagases sent an embassy to Rome complaining of the conduct
of Pharasmanes, who appears to have been regarded as ruling under Roman
protection; and that prince was summoned to Rome in order to answer for
his conduct. But the Alanian inroad had to be dealt with at once.
The Roman governor of Cappadocia, who was Arrian, the historian of
Alexander, by a mere display of force drove the barbarians from his
province. Volagases showed a tamer spirit; he was content to follow an
example, often set in the East, and already in one instance imitated by
Rome, but never adopted by any nation as a settled policy without fatal
consequences, and to buy at a high price the retreat of the invaders.

It was to have been expected that Rome would have punished severely the
guilt of Pharasmanes in exposing the Empire and its allies to horrors
such as always accompany the inroads of a barbarous people. But though
the Iberian monarch was compelled to travel to Rome and make his
appearance before the Emperor's tribunal, yet Hadrian, so far from
punishing him, was induced to load him with benefits and honors. He
permitted him to sacrifice in the Capitol, placed his equestrian statue
in the temple of Bellona, and granted him an augmentation of territory.
Volagases can scarcely have been pleased at these results of his
complaints; he bore them, however, without murmuring, and, when (in A.D