 ), again at a heavy cost.In the next year Constantius II launched a counterattack, having spent the winter making massive preparations in Constantinople; Shapur, who had meanwhile lost the aid of his Asianic allies, avoided battle, but left strong garrisons in all the fortresses which he had captured.Constantius laid siege to Bazabde, but proved incapable of taking it, and retired on the approach of winter to Antioch, where he died soon after.