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.