Rome was in the agonies of a struggle with the ever-increasing power of the Goths; and though, in the course of the years A.D.

379-382, the Great Theodosius had established peace in the tract under his rule, and delivered the central provinces of Macedonia and Thrace from the intolerable ravages of the barbaric invaders, yet the deliverance had been effected at the cost of introducing large bodies of Goths into the heart of the empire, while still along the northern frontier lay a threatening cloud, from which devastation and ruin might at any time burst forth and overspread the provinces upon the Lower Danube.

Thus both the Roman emperor and the Persian king were well disposed towards peace.

An arrangement was consequently made, and in A.D.384, five years after he had ascended the throne, Theodosius gave audience in Constantinople to envoys from the court of Persepolis, and concluded with them a treaty whereby matters in Armenia were placed on a footing which fairly satisfied both sides, and the tranquillity of the East was assured.

The high contracting powers agreed that Armenia should be partitioned between them.