Valentinianus
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Ualentinianus Proper-name noun: masculine nominative singular of Valentinianus
Roman emperor A. D. 364-375, was the son of Gratianus, and was born A. D. 321, at Cibalis in Pannonia. [Gratianus.] He bore also the name of Flavius, which was common to all the emperors after Constantine. His first wife was Valeria Severa, by whom he became the father of the emperor Gratianus. Valentinian entered the army when young, and showed military talents; but the emperor Constantinus for some reason or other deprived him of his rank A. D. 357. Under Julian he held the office of tribune of the guard, or of the Scutarii, as Orosius terms the body (7.32), and in this capacity he was with Julian at Antioch, A. D. 362, and accompanied him to a heathen temple. Julian, it is said, commanded him to sacrifice to the idol, or resign his office; but Valentinian, who had been baptized in the Christian faith, refused. According to most of the historians, Valentinian was exiled for his adherence to his religion.
Jovian succeeded Julian A. D. 363, and Lucilianus, the father-in-law of Valentinian, took him with him to Gaul. Lucilianus lost his life in a disturbance at Rheims, and Valentinan only saved himself by flight. Returning to the East he was rewarded by Jovian with the office of captain of the second company of Scutarii. When Jovian died suddenly at Dadastana, on the borders of Galatia and Bithynia, on the 16th of February, A. D. 364, Valentinian was at Ancyra. For ten days the empire was without an emperor, but it was at last agreed by the officers of the army of Jovian, who were at Nicaea, that Valentinian should be the successor of Jovian. Valentinian came to Nicaea, and on the 26th of February he assumed the imperial insignia in the presence of the army in the plain of Nicaea.
Valentinian maintained the pure Catholic faith, though his brother Valens was an Arian. He forbade, under pain of death, all pagan ceremonials, magical arts and sacrifices by night; but this was a prudent measure of police, and nothing more. He restored the figure of the cross and the name of Jesus Christ on the Labarum or chief standard of the armies, for Julian had removed these Christian symbols. He also renewed and perhaps extended a law of Constantine, which forbade any judicial proceedings, or the execution of any judicial sentence on Sunday. However, Valentinian did not meddle with religious disputes, and either from in-difference or good sense, he said it was not for him, a layman, to deal with difficulties of that description. Though a Catholic, he did not persecute either Arians or heathens : he let every man follow his own religion, for which Ammianus Marcellinus (30.9) has commended him; and certainly his moderation in this respect must be considered a remarkable feature in his character. Though there were some enactments made by him against Manichaeans, Donatists and the other heretics, the general religious freedom which he allowed is undisputed (Cod. Theod. 9. tit. 16. s. 9), and the emperor set an example which even now is not completely followed in modern Europe. This is the most unequivocal evidence of the good sense and the courage of Valentinian. Ecclesiastical writers, like Baronius, as a matter of course blame that toleration which they suppose to be condemned by the religion which they profess.
Ammianus and other writers have spoken particularly of the personal merits and defects of Valentinian. He was robust and handsome; he had a natural eloquence, though he had no literary acquirements; he was neat in his apparel, but not expensive; and his chastity is specially recorded. He possessed good abilities, prudence, and vigor of character. He had a capacity for military matters, and was a vigilant, impartial, and laborious administrator. Ammianus sums up by saying that he had so many good qualities that, if every thing had been equal in him, he would have been as great a man as Trajan or Marcus Aurelius. Among his faults was that of having a very good opinion of himself, and he punished sometimes with excessive severity. Yet he is accused of behaving with too much lenity to the officers when they misconducted themselves ; and of enriching himself by arbitrary means, though the same authorities say that he endeavoured to alleviate the sufferings of the people. The truth is that the character of a man, who possesses supreme power, may be made to appear almost anything, according to a writer's temper and judgment. Many instances of the severity, and even of the cruelty of Valentinian are recorded; and Gibbon, following chiefly the authority of Ammianus, has made him a monster of cruelty. Yet Valentinian had feelings of compassion, when he was not in an angry mood, and he promulgated a constitution against the exposure of children (Cod. Just. 8. tit. 51. (52.) s. 2. A. D. 374); and he encouraged learning, though he was illiterate, by the foundation of schools. (Cod. Theod. 14. tit. 9.)
Valentinian, after being declared emperor on the 26th of February, moved to Nicomedia on the 1st of March, where he conferred on his brother Valens the dignity of Constable, that is, he made him chief of the stable; and on the 28th of March, being then at Constantinople, he declared him Augustus in the Hebdomon, or field of Mars, in the neighbourhood of that city. The two brothers confirmed to the town of Nicaea, when Valentinian was declared emperor, the title of Metropolis, and raised it to equal rank with Nicomedia. In the early part of this year the two emperors left Constantinople, and passed through Hadrianople, Philippopolis, and Sardica, to Naesus in Dacia, in the neighbourhood of which they remained some days to arrange the affairs of the empire. Valentinian kept Jovinus general of the troops in Gaul (magister armorum), to which rank he had been promoted by Julian, and Dagalaephus (militiae rector), who owed his promotion to Jovian. Victor and Arinthaeus were attached to the service of Valens. Zosimus, indeed, states (4.2) that the two emperors were hostile to all the friends of Julian, and that all those who had been promoted by Julian were deprived of their offices, except Arinthaeus and Victor; but Zosimus may be mistaken here, as in other cases. The provinces of the empire were also distributed between the two brothers. Valens had the East, comprising Asia, Egypt, and Thrace; Valentinian had the West, comprising Illyricum, Italy, the Gauls, Britain, Spain, and Africa. After this partition Valens set out for Constantinople to govern the East, of which he knew not even the language, and Valentinian for Italy.
Valentinian went to Milan, where he arrived some time in November, and he stayed there till the beginning of A. D. 365.
Volusianus, prefect of Rome, was succeeded in this year by Symmachus, the father of the orator, to whom some constitutions of Valentinian are addressed, by which the emperor endeavoured to secure the provisioning of Rome, and provided for the repair of the buildings. A constitution of this year enacted that the governors of provinces must not sit in judgment in matters civil or criminal, in private, but that judicial proceedings must be held with open doors.
The nations on the Roman frontiers were disturbing the provinces, and the vigilance of Valentinian was required to protect his empire. Romanus, who had been made comes of Africa under Jovian (A. D. 363), instead of protecting the country, which he was sent to govern, plundered the people worse than the border tribes. On the accession of Valentinian, the people of Leptis sent their presents to the new emperor, and at the same time represented to him the wretched condition of their country. In the mean time, a barbarous tribe, called Austuriani, were threatening Leptis and plundering the country, and Valentinian sent Palladius to inquire into the state of affairs in the province of Africa. But Palladius, who was corrupted by Romanus, reported that the people of Leptis and the rest of the province had nothing to complain of. The result was, that those who had complained of Romanus were punished (Amm. Marc. 28.6).
It appears from various constitutions, that Valentinian visited several places in North Italy during the year A. D. 365. A constitution of this year appears to be the earliest in which the Defensores are spoken of, and it is addressed to " Seneca Defensor" (Cod. Just. i. tit. 55). In the month of October Valentinian left Italy for Gaul, and he was at Paris about the end of the month. His presence was required by an irruption of the Allemaimi, who had ravaged the country west of the Rhine. Valentinian sent Dagalaephus against them, and he went himself as far as Rheims; but the Allemanni had retired, and Valentinian returned to Paris, where he appears to have remained the following year A. D. 366. In the beginning of A. D. 366 the Allemanni again entered Gaul during a severe winter, defeated the Roman troops and killed Charietto, who was comes of the Two Germanies. Dagalaephus, who was sent against the Allemanni by the emperor, was tardy in his movements, and he was replaced by Jovinus the master of the horse (magister equitum), who defeated the Allemanni in several engagements. One battle was fought at Scarponna between Metz and Toul, and another in the neighbourhood of Chálons-sur-Marne with a body of Allemanni which had penetrated as far as this place. Jovinus announced his victory to the emperor at Paris, who at the same time received the head of the usurper Procopius, which had been sent to him by his brother Valens. Valentinian appears to have passed the close of the year and the winter at Rheims. At this time he built forts on the Rhine to stop the incursions of the Germans, and he recruited his armies for the defence of this frontier. His measures secured tranquillity on that side of the empire during the rest of his reign.
The residence of Valentinian at Rheims to the month of June A. D. 367, is proved by the constitutions which he promulgated. One of the 18th of August is dated from Amiens, and addressed to Praetextatus, prefect of Rome. During this time he was suffering so much from illness that there was talk about his successor; but Valentinian recovered, and, on the 24th of August, his son Gratianus, then little more than eight years of age, was declared Augustus at Amiens in presence of the army. About this time Valentinian divorced his wife Severa or Valeria Severa, and married Justina, a Sicilian woman, by whom he became the father of Valentinian II. and of three daughters, one of whom, Galla, was afterwards the wife of Theodosius I. Justitna was an Arian, but she concealed her heresy as long as her husband lived.
At the close of A. D. 367 the Allemanni, under Randon, surprised and pillaged Moguntiacum (Mainz) during a festival which the Christians were celebrating. The Romans retaliated by gaming over an Allemann to assassinate his king Vithicabus, a man who in a feeble body possessed a great spirit, and had caused the Romans no small trouble. While the emperor was on his road from Amiens to Trèves on the Mosel, he heard of the ravages which the Picts and other barbarians were committing in Britain. The conduct of this war was finally entrusted to Theodosius, the father of the first emperor Theodosius. [Theodosius.]
To the year A. D. 368 probably belongs a constitution of Valentinian addressed to Olybrius, then praefect of Rome (Cod. Theod. 2. tit. 10. s. 2 ; Cod. Just. 2. tit. 6. s. 6), for the regulation of the conduct of advocates, who were forbidden to use abusive language, or to say anything which might injure the reputation of the party to whom they were opposed, unless it was necessary to maintain the case of their client. The constitution contains other regulations. By another constitution he ordered that there should be a physician appointed for each of the fourteen regions of Rome, to look after the health of the poor. In the autumn of this year Valentinian left Trèves for an expedition against the Allemanni, whom he drove with great loss from a mountain where they had fortified themselves. This place called Solicinium has been conjectured to be Sulz, near the source of the Necker. The emperor returned with his son to Trèves, which he entered in a kind of triumph.
In A. D. 369 Valentinian was occupied with building forts on the left bank of the Rhine, from its mouth to the country of the Rhaeti; and he also constructed some forts on the other side of the river. Mannheim, at the junction of the Necker and the Rhine, is supposed to be one of these positions. His residence was chiefly at Trèves during this year, but he made excursions to various places on the Rhine. A story recorded in the Alexandrine Chronicle, and also in Zonaras, of the emperor's severity seems hardly credible. An eunuch named Rhodanus, an attendant on Valentinian, had been convicted before Sallustius of defrauding a widow, and he was ordered to make restitution. Instead of doing this he appealed from the judgment, and the widow was advised to present her petition to Valentinian when he was seated in the Circus. The eunuch was near his master, when the widow presented her petition, and the emperor immediately ordered the eunuch to be seized, to be carried round the Circus while proclamation of his crime was made, land then to be burnt alive in the presence of the spectators.
In A. D. 370 Valentinian was still at Trèves, or near it, as appears from the constitutions promulgated in this year. The Saxons now broke loose on the Roman territory, where they plundered all before them; but they were alarmed by the appearance of Severus, commander of the infantry (peditum magister), who made place With them on condition of their retiring. But the Romans treacherously laid an ambuscade, and destroyed the Saxons on their march back, at a place called Deuso, according to Hieronymus, which may be Dentz, opposite to Cologne. Ammianus (28.5) considered this treachery justifiable under the circumstances. A constitution of this year addressed to Damasus, bishop of Rome (Cod. Theod. 16. tit 2. s. 20), was intended to check the greediness of the clergy. It is commented on by Gibbon with his usual relish for scandal against the clergy, against whom, however, we have the evidence of the imperial constitution, and that of Hieronymus. Damasus, the bishop of Rome, was himself a man of dubious character, and the virtuous Praetextatus, a pagan, told him that he would turn Christian himself if he could secure the see of Rome, " a reproach," observes Gibbon, " in the form of a jest."
Ammianus (28.1) gives an account of the cruelties exercised at Rome by Maximinus, who held the office of the Vicaria Praefectura, against persons who were accused of magical arts. Maximinus put many persons to the torture, and even to death, upon the charge of using magic. Maximinus was punished by Gratian, the successor of Valentinian, for all his misdeeds. Magic, or whatever is meant by the term, was a great abomination in the eyes of Valentinian : he permitted all the arts of the Roman aruspices to be practised, and every other ceremonial of the ancient religion, provided no magic was practised. He even maintained the Pontifices in the provinces in all their privileges, and allowed them the same rank as Comites. This-was going even beyond toleration, and further than a wise policy can justify. He relieved from all civil duties such ecclesiastics as devoted all their time to the service of the church, and had entered the clerical body before the commencement of his reign; but as to others, they were liable to discharge all civil duties like any layman. These and other constitutions of the first half of A. D. 371 were promulgated at Trèves, the favourite residence of Valentinian, which he left for a short time to conduct operations against the Germans in the neighbourhood of Mainz. He was again at Trèves in December, and he appears to have passed the year A. D. 372 there or in the neighbourhood. The emperor did nothing this year that is recorded, except to promulgate a constitution against the Manichaeans, who were always treated with great severity.
The year A. D. 373 was the fourth joint consulship of the two Augusti, Valentinian and Valens, and Valentinian spent a great part of this year in Italy. Maximinus was made Praefectus (of Gaul, as Tillemont shows), and this brought about the ruin of Remigius, once Magister Officiorum, who had been a partner of Comes Romanus in his maladministration. Remigius had resigned his office and retired to the pleasant neighbourhood of his native Mainz to cultivate the land. Maximinus, who was somewhere near, which is confirmatory of Tillemont's conjecture that he was in this year prefect of Gaul, put to the torture one Caesarius, who had served tinder Remigius, in order that he might discover what Remigius had received from Romanus. Remigius, being informed of these proceedings against him, hanged himself (Amm. Marc. xxx, 2). Palladius, who had deceived his master in the affair of Comes Romanus, was also arrested by order of Valentinian; and he too pronounced his own sentence, and executed it by hanging himself. Romanus, the chief criminal, was put in prison by Theodosius, when he was sent against Firmus [Theodosius], and proof was found of his knavery in the affair of Leptis. The historian, however, has not the gratification of finding any evidence of the punishment of Romanus, either under the reign of Valentinian or that of his successor.
Valentinian passed the winter of A. D. 373 at Milan, but he was again at Trèves in May and June of the following year A. D. 374. He was upon the Rhine, probably in the neighbourhood of Bâle, when he received intelligence of the Quadi invading Illyricum : the cause was this. As the emperor was anxious to protect the frontiers, he ordered some forts to be built north of the Danube, in the country of the Quadi. The Quadi complained of this encroachment to Equitius, master-general of Illyricum, who consented to suspend the works till the emperor had signified his pleasure. But Marcellinus, the son of Maximinus, was made dux of Valeria, a province of Illyricum, by his father's interest, and he continued the fortifications without troubling himself about the Quadi. The king of the Quadi, Gabinius, came to remonstrate with Marcellinus, who received him civilly and asked him to eat; but as the king was retiring after the entertainment, the Roman treacherously caused him to be assassinated. The Quadi, joined by the Sarmatians, crossed the river into the Roman province, which was destitute of troops, and destroyed the grain which was ready for the harvest. Probus, Praefectus Praetorio, though much alarmed, prepared to defend Sirmium; but the barbarians did not disturb him, and preferred running after Equitius to whom they attributed the death of their king. The barbarians destroyed two legions, and the province would have been lost, but for the vigour and courage of a young man, who was afterwards the emperor Theodosius.
Valentinian heard of this incursion of the Quadi at his royal residence of Trèves, but he deferred his campaign against the Quadi to the following year, and in the mean time he employed himself in securing the friendship of Macrianus, king of the Allemanni, with whom he had an interview near Mainz. Macrianus accepted the terms which the Roman emperor came to offer, and became the ally, or at least not the enemy of Valentinian. The emperor spent this, his last winter at Trèves, which he did not quit till the month of April, A. D. 375, to march towards Illyricum. He took with him his wife Justina and his second son Valentinian. Gratian was left at Trèves.
The emperor fixed his head-quarters at Carnuntum, which was probably on the Danube, and below the site of Vienna. His first care was to inquire into the conduct of Probus, the praefect, who was charged with oppressing the people; but Valentinian did not live long enough to come to any decision about Probus. After preparing for the campaign the emperor crossed the Danube, but his operations were not very decisive, and at the approach of winter he re-crossed the river, and fixed himself at Bregetio, probably near Presburg. While giving an audience to the deputies of the Quadi, and speaking with great heat, he fell down in a fit and expired suddenly on the 17th of November, after a reign of twelve years, all but a hundred days. His body was embalmed and carried to Constantinople to be interred.
Gibbon's sketch of the reign of Valentinian and Valens (100.25) has great merit : it is rapid, exact and instructive Tillemont (Histoire des Empereurs, v.) is painfully minute as usual; but his authorities are always valuable, and his judgment, when not biassed by his peculiar way of thinking, is generally sound. The reign of Valentinian is worth a careful study in his extant legislative enactments. His many great qualities entitle him to a place among the most distinguished of the illustrious Romans.
[G.L]
Roman emperor A. D. 375-392, a son of Valentinianus I., was with his mother Justina, about one hundred miles from the camp of Bregetio, when his father died there, A. D. 375. His brother Gratianus was at Trèves. Valentinian and his mother were summoned to Bregetio, when the army proclaimed Valentinian, Augustus, six days after his father's death. He was then only four or five years of age ; and Gratian was only about seventeen. Gratian assented to the choice of the army, and a division of the West was made between the two brothers Valentinian had Italy, Illyricum and Africa. Gratian had the Gauls, Spain and Britain. This division, however, if it actually took place, was merely nominal. and Gratian as long as he lived was actually emperor of the West. One reason for supposing that Gratian really retained all the imperial power is the fact, that after the death of Valens, and in A. D. 379 Gratian ceded a part of Illyricum to Theodosius I., whom he declared emperor of the East. This seems to show at least that the division of the empire of the West between Gratian and Valentinian was not completed at the time when Theodosius received a part of Illyricum.
In A. D. 383, Gratian was murdered at Lyon. [Gratianus; Theodosius I.] Milan was the chief residence of Valentinian II. from the time of his father's death, and he was in this city during A. D. 384. He made Symmachus prefect of Rome, probably about the close of A. D. 383. Valentinian was still at Milan in the first half of A. D. 386, and afterwards at Aquileia. His mother Justina, who acted in his name, and was an Arian, employed herself in persecuting the Catholics during this and the following year. In A. D. 386, Valentinian addressed a letter to Sallustius, the prefect of Rome, in which he ordered him to rebuild the church of St. Paul, near Rome, on the road to Ostia. The church was rebuilt, but apparently somewhat later than the time of this order.
Maximius, who had usurped the throne of Gratian, left Valentinian a precarious authority out of fear for Theodosius I. : but in August, A. D. 387, he suddenly crossed the Alps, and advanced towards Milan, the usual residence of Valentinian. The emperor and his mother fled to the Hadriatic, where they took shipping and arrived at Thessalonica. In A. D. 388, Theodosius defeated Maximus, and restored Valentinian to his authority as emperor of the West. [Theodosius I.] In A. D. 389, Valentinian went into Gaul to conduct operations against the Franks on the Rhine. Arbogast was at that time commander of the Roman forces in Gaul. Nothing further is recorded of this campaign, except that Valentinian had a conference with Marcomir and Sunnon, the chiefs of the Franks, who gave him hostages. Valentinian spent the winter at Trèves, as appears from a constitution dated the 8th of November.
Tillemont remarks, " that Theodosius, who spent about three years in Italy, after the defeat of Maximus, had by his wise advice effaced from the mind of the youthful emperor all the bad impressions which his mother Justina had fixed in him against the faith and St. Ambrose, and forming himself after the example of Theodosius, he had a fervent devotion towards God, and loved St. Ambrose with such affection, that he cherished him as much as he had formerly persecuted him." In A. D. 391, Q. Aurelius Symmachus, who was consul with Tatianus, was the head of a deputation from the Roman senate to Valentinian, the object of which was to ask of the emperor the restoration of the privileges which Gratian had taken from the temples of the idols. The emperor however positively refused to grant the petition.
At this time, the barbarians were in motion, on the side of the Illyrian Alps, and it was apprehended that they might disturb Italy. Valentinian set out for Italy, with the intention of going to Milan. He was at Vienna (Vienne), when he sent for Ambrosius to baptize him before he entered Italy, for he was yet only a catechumen. There were many bishops in France, but Valentinian wished to receive this Christian rite at the hands of Ambrose. "After having written to Ambrose, he passed the two following days in such inquietude and such impatience to see the saint, that having despatched a courier in the evening, he asked on the morning of the third day, which was the last of his life, if the courier had not returned, and if the saint was not coming." (Tillemont.)
Arbogast, a Frank by origin, a man probably of violent temper, though on this point there is a difference in the testimony, but a rude soldier and a man of courage and address, was aiming at governing Valentinian, who was still a youth. Gratian employed Arbogast and sent him in A. D. 381 under Bauton to assist Theodosius who was pressed by the Goths. After the death of Bauton, Arbogast assumed the command of the troops without, it is said, waiting for the orders of Valentinian. During the usurpation of Maximus, Arbogast was faithful to his master, and contributed greatly to the overthrow of Maximus. Presuming however on his abilities, his influence with the army, and the youth of Valentinian, Arbogast kept the emperor in a kind of tutelage, of which Valentinian complained to Theodosius. At last the emperor mustered courage to give into the hands of Arbogast a written order by which he was deprived of his military rank; but the proud soldier told his to his face, that he had not given him his office and that it was not in his power to take it away. With these words he tore the writing, threw it on the ground, and quitted the emperor's presence.
There are different accounts of the death of Valentinian. The most probable is, that he was strangled by order of Arbogast. His body was taken to Milan for interment by the side of his father, and Ambrose pronounced the funeral oration. Valentinian II. died on the 15th of May, being only a few months above twenty years of age. Justa and Grata, the two sisters of Valentinian, deplored with sincere affection the untimely end of their brother. " Ambrose, who was so well instructed in the doctrine of the church, does not hesitate in his funeral oration to assure us of the salvation of a prince, who had not received the sacrament of salvation, but had asked for it, and was disposed to receive it." (Tillemont.) On this point, see Gibbon, 100.27. note 108.
Justina, the mother of Valentinian, was dead ; she had not long survived the restoration of her son to his throne, and her influence expired before she died. Justa and Grata, the sisters of the emperor, remained unmarried; and Galla, the wife of Theodosius, who deeply lamented her brother's death, died in A. D. 394, in childbed, when Theodosius was leaving Constantinople to avenge the death of Valentinian.
The reign of Valentinian is of little importance ; and what concerns the Roman legislation of this period belongs to the history of Theodosius I.
(Gibbon, Decline and Fall, &c.; Tillemont, Histoire des Empereurs, v., where the authorities are collected.)
[G.L]
Roman emperor A. D. 425-455.
Honorius, emperor of the West, died in August, A. D. 423, and Joannes, the Primicerius, or first of the secretaries, assumed the imperial dignity at Rome. Joannes sent to the emperor Theodosius II. to ask for his consent to his usurpation; but the emperor's answer was not favourable, and Joannes sent the general Aetius to the Huns, to seek their help. Joannes, wishing to secure the support of this able commander, gave him the rank of Curopalates, as the mayor of the palace was afterwards called. Theodosius (A. D. 424) sent Ardaburius, and his son Aspar with a powerful army against the usurper. They were accompanied by Placidia, and her young son Valentinian, who, pursuant to the orders of Theodosius, was invested with the title of Caesar at Thessalonica by Helion, the Magister Officiorum, and the emperor also betrothed to him his daughter Eudocia, who was born A. D. 422. Valentinian was now between five and six years of age. Valentinian was the son of Constantius III. by Placidia, the sister of Honorius, and the daughter of Theodosius I.
In A. D. 425, Theodosius II. was consul for the eleventh time, with Valentinianus Caesar for his colleague. Aspar, accompanied by Valentinian and Placidia, arrived in Italy before the usurper expected them, and took possession of Aquileia. Ardaburius came with a fleet, but a storm having arisen in the Hadriatic, he was separated from his fleet, and with two galleys fell into the hands of the soldiers of Joannes, who took him to the usurper at Ravenna. Joannes treated the general kindly, in the hope of securing him as a friend, but Ardaburius made use of his opportunity to gain over the officers of Joannes, and sent his son Aspar instructions to approach Ravenna. Aspar arrived with his cavalry, and being conducted across the marshes by a shepherd, or, as Socrates says, by an angel, found the gates of Ravenna open, and took possession of the place without any difficulty. Joannes was seized and sent to Aquileia, where he was ignominiously put to death. Little is known of this usurper, but it is certain that the ecclesiastics were his enemies, for he attempted to destroy the privileges of the church; and as an instance, he compelled all ecclesiastics to submit to the jurisdiction of the civil judge.
In the meantime Aetius entered Italy with the Huns, and there was a bloody battle between him and Aspar, which was followed by a peace. The barbarians retired at the instance of Aetius and by the stronger persuasion of money; and Aetius was pardoned and raised to the dignity of Comes. The first measure of Valentinian, or rather of Placidia, who acted in his name, was to restore to the ecclesiastics all their privileges of which the usurper had deprived them. The same edict excluded Jews and Heathens from the practice of the law, and from all military rank. Manichaeans and other heretics and schismatics and astrologers were driven out of the towns. Placidia was zealous for the church.
On the 23rd of October, A. D. 425, Valentinian, who was then probably at Rome, received from his cousin Theodosius the imperial purple and the title of Augustus. Placidia also received the title of Augusta, and probably at the same time when her son was made Augustus. In this year Theodoric, king of the Goths, took several places within the limits of the empire, and laid siege to Arelate (Arles) in Gaul, but on the approach of Aetius the Goths retired with some loss. In January A. D. 426, Valentinian was at Rome, as appears front the date of the imperial constitutions, which contained various provisions against informers (delatores), for the maintenance of the privileges of senators and magistrates, and other matters. Some constitutions of this year, dated from Ravenna, were intended to maintain the Christian faith : Jews and Samaritans were prohibited from disinheriting their children because they had turned Christians.
Bonifacius, comes of Africa, had assisted the cause of Placidia and her son by refusing to acknowledge the usurper Joannes, while Aetius had supported him; and Bonifacius had received from Placidia during a visit to Italy testimonials of her gratitude. But on his return to Africa, Aetius, who was jealous of Bonifacius, accused him to Placidia of having a design to make himself independent in his province, and advised her to test his fidelity by summoning him to appear before her. With double treachery, he at the same time warned Bonifacius not to come, because Placidia designed him no good, and Bonifacius, believing what he heard, disobeyed the summons of Placidia. Troops were sent against Bonifacius, and he called in to his aid (A. D. 428) the Vandals from Spain and their king Genseric. The subsequent history of Bonifacius is told elsewhere. [Bonifacius.]
Aetius, who had stirred up an enemy in Bonifacius, was employed at the same time in fighting against the Franks, whom he defeated A. D. 428, and recovered from them those parts on the Rhine, where they had settled. In the following year Aetius was made commander of the Roman armies, in place of Felix, and he defeated the Goths near Arles, and took prisoner their chief Ataulphus. he also defeated the Juthongi, a German tribe near Rhaetia, and reduced the tribes of Noricum, which had revolted. Aetius had with him in these campaigns Avitus, who was afterwards emperor. In A. D. 431 he also reduced the Vindelici, having the same enemies to contend against whom Tiberius and Drusus had subdued in the time of Augustus. In A. D. 432 Aetius was consul with Valerius; and in the same year apparently while Aetius was in Gaul, Bonifacius was recalled to Italy by Placidia, who had discovered the knavery of Aetius, and gave him the rank of master general of the forces. As early as A. D. 430 Placidia and Bonifacius knew the treachery of Aetius and were reconciled; and Bonifaicius then attempted to check the formidable enemy whom he had invited. After maintaining himself against the Vandals for some time in Hippo Regius and losing a battle, he retired from Africa and was welcomed at the court of Ravenna. On hearing of the promotion of his rival, Aetius returned to Italy, and the two generals settled their quarrel by a battle, in which Aetius was defeated, and Bonifacius received a mortal wound from the spear of Aetius, who fled to the Huns in Pannonia ; but he was soon pardoned and restored : he was too dangerous a man to make an enemy of.
In February A. D. 435 Valentinian made peace with Genseric; but at the same time disturbances broke out in Gaul, caused by the Bagaudae. The name first occurs in the time of Diocletian, and appears to have been adopted by the peasants themselves, who rose in arms, as it appears, against the oppression of their governors. (Eutropius, 9.20, and the note in Verheyk's edition.) The Bagaudae were put down again, but they were not destroyed, for to destroy them it would have been necessary to remove the causes that called forth these bands of armed peasants, and the cause was the evils tinder which they groaned, heavy taxation, and all kinds of oppression. The picture of their sufferings, drawn by Salvianus, bears no small resemblance to the condition of the French peasantry before the revolution of 1789. In this year is also recorded a defeat of the Burgundians on the Rhine by the Romans, under Aetius.
The Western empire had enemies on all sides. The Goths who had been settled in Aquitania and the bordering countries since A. D. 419, broke out in hostilities in A. D. 436, and besieged the ancient Roman colony of Narbonne thunder their king Theodoric, the son of Alaric. The siege lasted some time, but the Goths finally abandoned the undertaking, when the town had received a supply of provisions through the vigor of some hunnish auxiliaries, headed by Comes Litorius. At this time the western part of the Mediterranean and the shores of the ocean were infested by pirates, some of whom were Saxons.
On the 21st of October A. D. 437, Valentinian, being then eighteen years of age, came to Constantiople to celebrate his marriage with Eudocia, the daughter of Theodosius, who had been betrothed to, him in A. D. 424. Valentinian surrendered to his father-in-law the western Illyricium, which had been already promised to the Eastern emperor by Placidia. He passed the winter with his wife at Thessalonica, and returned to Ravenna in the following year. By this marriage Valentinian had two daughters, Eudoxia and Placidia.
In A. D. 439 the Gothic war still continued, and Litorius was besieging Theodoric in Toulouse, who asked for peace, which Litorius refused. A battle ensued in which Litorius was defeated, and the Goths carried him a prisoner into the city which he had hoped to take. Notwithstanding this success, Theodoric concluded a peace with Aetius, who threatened with a formidable army to dispute the further conquests of the Gothic king.
The Western empire was gradually losing its extreme possessions. Merida in Spain was taken by Richila, king of the Suevi; and Genseric seized Carthage by surprise on the 9th of October A. D. 439. This was the more unexpected as a treaty had heen made with him in A. D. 435. The capture of Carthage, which had been in the hands of the Romans for near six hundred years, destroyed the Roman power in a large part of western Africa; but Valentinian still retailed the two, provinces of Mauritania, and some other parts.
Valentinian was at Rome in January and in March A. D. 440. as appears from the date of several Novellae. In the month of June Genseric left Carthage with a great fleet. He landed il Sicily, ravaged the country and laid siege to Palermo. Aetius was still in Gaul, where he restored tranquillity and set out for Italy. It was about this time that Salvianus wrote his work on the Judgment of God, in which he shows that the Romans had brought upon themselves, by their sins, the calamities under which they were then suffering. The grievous burden of taxation and the oppression of the powerful made the Romans prefer the form of servitude under the Franks, Huns, and Vandals, under which they enjoyed real liberty and paid no taxes, to the semblance of liberty under the Roman government whose exactions were intolerable. The barbarians were in possession of a large part of Gaul and a still larger part of Spain; Italy had been ravaged several times, Rome had been besieged, Sicily and Sardinia devastated, and Africa was in the hands of the Vandals. Trèves had been several times sacked, and yet, says Salvianus, while the place was reeking with the blood of the slain, the citizens still eagerly called for the games, which were exhibited in their amphitheatre, the ruins of which still exist on the site of the ancient city of the Treviri.
By a constitution of the 20th of February A. D. 441, the emperor made some regulations for making the property of the great dignitaries of the church and of the city of Rome liable to equal taxation with other property, and also liable for the repair of the roads and the walls of the towns and all other imposts. In A. D. 442 Valentinian made peace with the Vandals, who were left in undisturbed possession of part of Africa.
In A. D. 446, the Romans abandoned Britain. The Picts and Scots were ravaging the country, and the Britons in vain applied for help to Aetius who was then consul. A revolt took place in Armorica in A. D. 448 which was however soon settled.
Ravenna was the ordinary residence of the emperor ; but he went to Rome early in A. D. 450 with his wife and mother, when by a constitution, dated the 5th of March, he remitted all the taxes that had become due up to the 1st of September A. D. 448; from which we may conclude that the people were unable to pay them. Sardinia and Africa were excepted from this indulgence. The emperor spoke of the exactions of the commissioners who were sent into the provinces to prevent the exactions of others; they enriched themselves at the expence both of the tax-payers and of the Fiscus. Oppressive taxation is the symptom of vicious government and of the approaching ruin of a state.
Theodosius II. died on the 28th of July A. D. 450, and Marcianus succeeded hint without waiting for the approbation of Valentinian, who, however, confirmed his election. On the 27th of November in the same year, Placidia, the emperor's mother, died at Rome just when hostilities were going to break out between Valentinian and Attila, king of the Hunts. The result of this war was the defeat of Attila by Aetius, near Châlons sur Marne in the former French province of Champagne, in A. D. 451. [Aetius; Attila.] The history of Valentinian's unfortunate sister Honoria is connected with that of Attila. [Grata, No. 2.]
The Western empire was in a deplorable state, overrun by barbarians who brought with then " the detestable heresy of the Arians with which they were infected." Italy however seems to have been free from barbarians, though it contained many Goths under the name of confederates; and they were Arians too. The Visigoths, whose capital was Toulouse, had a new king in consequence of the death of Theodoric who fell in the great battle at Châlons, fighting on the side of the Romans. He was succeeded by his son Thorismond.
In A. D. 452 Attila made a descent into Italy and spread consternation. Aetius had returned to Italy, and he and Valentinian sent Pope Leo to Attila to sue for peace, and the barbarian retired after he had devastated the north of Italy. [Attila.] A constitution of Valentinian of this year, which a zealous Roman Catholic writer calls " a scandalous law and altogether unworthy of a Christian prince," declares that the law does not allow bishops and priests to have jurisdiction in civil affairs, and that they can only take cognizance of matters pertaining to religion; and it requires even bishops to appear before the ordinary judges in all suits to which they were parties, unless the other party consented to submit to the judgment of the church. It also forbids ecclesiastics to traffic, or if they do, they are allowed no particular privilege.
Valentinian was relieved in A. D. 453 from a formidable enemy by the death of Attila, and in the same year Thorismond, king of the Visigoths, who was of a restless and warlike character, was murdered by his brothers, one of whom, Theodoric II., succeeded him.
The power and influence of Aetius had long excited the jealousy and fears of Valentinian, and the suspicious temper of the unwarlike and feeble emperor was encouraged by the calumnies of the eunuch Heraclius. Aetius was too powerful to be the subject of a contemptible master; and the betrothal of his son Gaudentius to Eudoxia, the daughter of Valentinian, may have excited his ambitious designs and awakened his treacherous disposition. His pride and insolence were shown in a hostile declaration against his prince, which was followed by a reconciliation and an alliance, the terms of which were dictated by Aetius. After this insult he had the imprudence to venture into the emperor's palace at Rome, in company with Boethius, Praefectus Praetorio, and to urge the marriage of the emperor's daughter with his son. In a fit of irritation the emperor drew his sword and plunged it into the general's body. Theslaughter was completed by the attendants of Valentinian, and Boethius, the friend of Aetius, also shared his fate. (A. D. 454.) The principal friends of Aetius were singly summoned to the palace, and murdered. Thus the bravest man, the ablest commander of the age, the last great Roman soldier, perished by the treacherous hand of the most unwarlike of the Roman Caesars.
A grievous insult to Petronius Maximus is said to have been the immediate cause of Valentinian's death. Maximus had a handsome wife, who resisted the emperor's solicitations, but he got her within the palace by an artifice, and compelled her to yield to force what she had refused to persuasion. The injured husband resolved on the emperor's destruction, and he gained over some of the domestics of Valentinian who had been in the service of Aetius. While he was amusing himself in the field of Mars with some spectacle, two of these men fell upon him; and, after killing the guilty Heraclius, despatched the emperor without any resistance from those who were about him, A. D. 455. This was the end of Valentinian III., a feeble and contemptible prince, the last of the family of Theodosius. He was ill brought up, and had all the vices that in a princely station disgrace a man's character. Even his zeal for the Catholic faith and the church is not allowed to have been sincere. Further Information
Gibbon, Decline and Fall, 100.33, &c.; Tillemont, Histoire des Empereurs, vol. vi.
[G.L]
(1) A Roman emperor (A.D. 364- 375), was the son of Gratianus, and was born A.D. 321, at Cibalis in Pannonia. His first wife was Valeria Severa, by whom he became the father of the emperor Gratianus. He held important military commands under Julian and Jovian; and on the death of the latter, in February, 364, Valentinian was elected emperor by the troops at Nicaea. A few weeks after his elevation Valentinian, by the desire of the soldiers, associated in the empire his brother Valens, and assigned to him the East, while he himself undertook the government of the West. Valentinian was a Catholic, though his brother Valens was an Arian; but he did not persecute either Arians or heathens. He possessed good abilities, prudence, and vigour of character. He had a capacity for military matters, and was a vigilant, impartial, and laborious administrator. The greater part of Valentinian's reign was occupied by the wars against the Alemanni and the other barbarians on the Roman frontier, in which his operations were attended with success. He not only drove the Alemanni out of Gaul, but on more than one occasion crossed the Rhine, and carried the war into the enemy's country. His usual residence was Treviri (Trèves). In 375 he went to Carnuntum on the Danube, in order to repel the Quadi and Sarmatians, who had invaded Pannonia. After an indecisive campaign he took up his winter-quarters at Bregetio. In this place, while giving an audience to the deputies of the Quadi, and speaking with great heat, he fell down in a fit and expired suddenly, on the 17th of November (Amm. Marc. xxviii.-xxx.; Zosim. iv. 17).
(2) A Roman emperor (A.D. 375-392), younger son of the preceding, proclaimed Augustus by the army after his father's death, though he was then only four or five years of age. His elder brother Gratianus, who had been proclaimed Augustus during the lifetime of their father, assented to the choice of the army, and a division of the West was made between the two brothers. Valentinian had Italy, Illyricum, and Africa; Gratian had the Gauls, Spain, and Britain. In 383 Gratian was defeated and slain by Maximus, who left Valentinian a precarious authority out of fear for Theodosius, the emperor of the East; but in 387 Valentinian was expelled from Italy by Maximus, and fled for refuge to Theodosius. In 388 Theodosius defeated Maximus, and restored Valentinian to his authority as emperor of the West. Theodosius returned to Constantinople in 391; and in the following year (392) Valentinian was murdered by the general Arbogastes, who raised Eugenius to the throne. Valentinian perished on the 15th of May, being only a few months above twenty years of age. His funeral oration was pronounced by St. Ambrose.
(3) Roman emperor A.D. 426-455, was born 419, and was the son of Constantius III. by Placidia, the sister of Honorius and the daughter of Theodosius I. He was declared Augustus in 425 by Theodosius II., and was placed over the West, but as he was only six years of age the government was intrusted to his mother Placidia. During his long reign the Empire was repeatedly exposed to the invasions of the barbarians; and it was only the military abilities of Aëtius which saved the Empire from ruin. In 429 the Vandals under Genseric crossed over into Africa, which they conquered, and of which they continued in possession till the reign of Justinian. The weakness of the Empire during this reign was shown also by the fact that the Britons (from whose country the Roman troops had been withdrawn forty years before), finding it vain to apply to Rome for aid against the incursions of the Picts, invited the Jutes under Hengest and Horsa to help them, in 449. The Goths likewise established themselves in Gaul; but Aëtius finally made peace with them (439), and with their assistance gained a great victory over Attila and the vast army of the Huns at Châlons in 451. (See Attila.) The power and influence of Aëtius excited the jealousy and fears of Valentinian, who murdered his faithful general in 454. (See Aëtius.) In the following year the emperor himself was slain by Petronius Maximus, whose wife he had violated.