perilous attempt to
settle a domestic struggle by the swords of foreigners was not destined
on this occasion to prosper. Hormisdas failed in his endeavor to obtain
the throne; and, as we hear no more of him, we may regard it as probable
that he was defeated and slain. At any rate Narses was, within a year or
two of his accession, so firmly settled in his kingdom that he was
able to turn his thoughts to the external affairs of the empire, and to
engage in a great war. All danger from internal disorder must have been
pretty certainly removed before Narses could venture to affront, as he
did, the strongest of existing military powers. [PLATE XVIII.]

[Illustration: PLATE 18.]

Narses ascended the throne in A.D. 292 or 293. It was at least as early
as A.D. 296 that he challenged Rome to an encounter by attacking in
force the vassal monarch whom her arms had established in Armenia.
Tiridates had, it is evident, done much to provoke the attack by his
constant raids into Persian territory, which were sometimes carried even
to the south of Ctesiphon. He was probably surprised by the sudden march
and vigorous assault of an enemy whom he had learned to despise; and,
feeling himself unable to organize an effectual resistance, he had
recourse to flight, gave up Armenia to the Persians, and for a second
time placed himself under the protection of the Roman emperor. The
monarch who held this proud position was still Diocletian, the greatest
emperor that had occupied the Roman throne since Trajan, and the prince
to whom Tiridates was indebted for his restoration to his kingdom. It
was impossible that Diocletian should submit to the affront put upon him
without an earnest effort to avenge it. His own power rested, in a great
measure, on his military prestige; and the unpunished insolence of
a foreign king would have seriously endangered an authority not very
firmly established. The position of Diocletian compelled him to declare
war against Narses in the year A.D. 296, and to address himself to a
struggle of which he is not likely to have misconceived the importance.
It might have been expected that he would have undertaken the conduct of
the war in person; but the internal condition of the empire was far
from satisfactory, and the chief of the State seems to have felt that
he could not conveniently quit his dominions to engage in war beyond his
borders. He therefore committed the task of reinstating Tiridates and
punishing Narses