Valens - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

Birth and accession with the capacity

Valens was born towards 328 in Cibales in Pannonia (Latin: COLONIA AURELIA CIBALAE, currently Vinkovci in Croatia), a city located at approximately 80 km in the east of Sirmium. It is the second wire of Gratien Old the, Comes Africae then Comes Britanniarum . He lived in the regions managed by his father. In its youth, Valens fulfills the functions of officer to the palate of Julien the Philosopher. This last does not succeed in transmitting its passion of the letters to him. It does not succeed better in the army.

The March 28th 364, his/her brother Valentinien associated it with the capacity in the town of Hebdomon (currently Bakirköy close to Istanbul), one month after to have reached itself the throne, knowing that the Empire was too wide to be directed by a person alone. Two months after this nomination, the two brothers from went away in their native province of Illyrie. With the variation of the town of Naissus (currently Niš in Serbia), they divided the civils servant and administrators and with Sirmium, they made in the same way for the armies. Valentinien took the load of the Roman provinces of Italy, Illyrie, Spain, Gaulle, Brittany and Africa, leaving in Valens the oriental party of the Balkan Peninsula, the Greece, the Egypt, the Syria and the Asia Mineure

Charged with the government of the provinces of the East, it turned over to Constantinople in December 364 and installed its capital there. Less skilful and less enlightened than his/her brother and of a cruel nature when he believed himself threatened, Valens however brought order in the economy and cause a drop in the taxes of a quarter.

Fight against Procope

Valens inherited the oriental party of an empire who had recently withdrawn herself from her possessions in Mésopotamie and in Arménie. Indeed, Jovien had signed a peace treaty with Shapur II of the Persian empire which returned these grounds to them and made give up the Roman Empire any sovereignty on a good part of the Asia Mineure. The first priority of Valens after the winter 365 was to move in the East in order to reverse the situation created by its predecessor. With autumn 365, it reached Caesarea Mazaca in Cappadoce where it learned that a usurper had proclaimed emperor. The usurper, Procope, were a maternal cousin of the emperor Julien. He had been in charge of the supervision of a division of the army of Julien during forwarding in Persia. Procope was not present at the time of the election of the new emperor and although Jovien left instructions to alleviate its succession, its suscipicion with regard to Valens was growing during the first year of reign of the new emperor.

Whereas Valens was distant to push back Persians, Procope came incognito to Constantinople and of the veterans of Julien the Apostate who were stationed there proclaimed it emperor the September 28th 365. He could thus seize the capital of the Byzantine Empire and rejoin with his cause the troops of Balkans. During the months which followed, many towns of Thrace and Asia Mineure changed camp However Valens succeeds in beating the army of Procope with Nacolea in Phrygie, in 366, after the generals of this last had fled. Betrayed once again, it was delivered to Valens which made it decapitate.

Valens had to fight twice against the Goths: - against the Visigoths of Athanaric (367 - 369), which had supported the attempt of the Procope usurper; - against the Ostrogoths (driven back by the Huns) and the brought together Visigoths, which in 375, were presented in mass to the border of the empire. Not being able to prevent them from entering to Thrace (377), it delivered to them, on August 9th 378, disastrous the Bataille of Turkey-red cotton, where it found death.

Religious Arianism and dissensions

Valens supported the ariens against the nicéens. He persecuted also the pagan intellectual mediums, to which he lent magic capacities and hostile intentions. On the other hand, it took protection measures in favor of the lower classes.

The battle of Turkey-red cotton

Valens perishes the August 9th 378 in the Bataille of Turkey-red cotton where the Visigoths led by Fritigern, although weakened by misery and the famine, beat its army severely. The Roman cavalry is beaten and must beat a retreat while the infantry, left delivered to itself, is literally exterminated under the blows of the fury of the Goths. Valens is touched by an arrow. Taken of panic, he manages to flee surrounded by his personal guard and finds refuge in a miserable hut. Visigoths, furious of the resistance of the imperial guard, put fire at the building. The emperor finds there death, burned alive. According to another version, he would have died on the battle field of the arrow which had reached it.

This defeat, at the beginning of the cruel invasions, is a true shock for the Romains, sign of a disastrous future for the Empire.

See too

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