[image] Flavius Julius Valens (Latin: IMP·CAESAR·FLAVIVS·IVLIVS·VALENS·AVGVSTVS) (328 - August 9, 378) was Roman emperor from 364 until his death, after he was given the Eastern part of the empire by his brother Valentinian I. His father was the general Gratian the Elder. Valens was known as the Last True Roman.Appointment to Emperor
Flavius Valens and his brother Flavius Valentinianus were both born 48 miles east of Sirmium, in the town of Cibalae in 328 and 321, respectively. They had grown up on estates purchased by their father, Gratian the Elder, in Africa and Britain. While Valentinian had enjoyed a successful military career prior to his appointment as emperor, Valens apparently had not. He had spent much of his youth on the family's estate and only joined the army in the 360s.
In February 364, the reigning emperor Jovian, while hastening to Constantinople to secure his claim to the throne, he was asphyxiated during a stop at Dadastana, 100 miles east of Ancyra. Among Jovian’s agents was Valentinian. His perseverance in the army had won for him a promotion to tribunus scutariorum along with a measure of renown. When it came time to elect Jovian’s successor, Valentinian was an obvious choice. Like Jovian, he was an Illyrian and he shared close connections with the army who had promoted Jovian the previous summer. Unlike Jovian, however, Valentinian was elected , not forced, into the office of Emperor. He was proclaimed Augustus on February 26, 364. Valentinian was aware that the empire was too large and dangerous to govern alone. On March 28, 364, precisely one month after his accession by Roman reckoning, Valentinian appointed his brother Flavius Valens as co-emperor at the Hebdomon, the first in a long line of emperors proclaimed there.
After only two months of co-rulership, the two departed from Constantinople for their native Illyricum. Outside Naissus, in Moesia, they divided their administrative staff between them, and at Sirmium they did the same with their mobile forces. As Western Roman Emperor, Valentinian took Italy, Illyrium, Spain, Gaul, Britain and Africa, leaving to Eastern Roman Emperor Valens the eastern half of the Balkan peninsula, Greece, Egypt, Syria and Asia Minor as far east as Persia. By late August 365 Valentinian had moved on toward Mediolanum, where he resided for the following year before moving on to Treviri, which remained his capital until 375. Similarly, Valens was back in his capital of Constantinople by December 364.
After narrowly escaping arrest, he went into hiding and reemerged at Constantinople where he was able to convince two military units passing through the capital to proclaim him emperor on 28 September, 365. Though his early reception in the city seems to have been lukewarm, Procopius won favor quickly by using propaganda to his advantage: he sealed off the city to outside reports and began spreading rumors that Valentinian had died; he began minting coinage flaunting his connections to the Constantinian dynasty; and he further exploited dynastic claims by using the widow and daughter of Constantius to act as showpieces for his regime. This program met with some success, particularly among soldiers loyal to the Constantinians and eastern intellectuals who had already begun to feel persecuted by the Valentinians.
Valens, meanwhile, faltered. When news arrived that Procopius had revolted, Valens considered Abdication and perhaps even Suicide. Even after he steadied his resolve to fight, Valens's efforts to forestall Procopius were hampered by the fact that most of his troops had already crossed the Cilician gates into Syria when he learned of the revolt. Even so, Valens sent two legions to march on Procopius, who easily persuaded them to desert to him. Later that year, Valens himself was nearly captured in a scramble near Chalcedon. Troubles were exacerbated by the refusal of Valentinian to do any more than protect his own territory from encroachment. The failure of imperial resistance in 365 allowed Procopius to gain control of the dioceses of Thracia and Asiana by year's end.
Only in the spring of 366 had Valens assembled enough troops to deal with Procopius effectively. Marching out from Ancyra through Pessinus, Valens proceeded into Phrygia where he defeated Procopius’s general Gomoarius at the Battle of Thyatira. He then met Procopius himself at Nacoleia and convinced his troops to desert him. Procopius was executed on May 27 and his head sent to Valentinian in Trier for inspection.
Already in the summer following his Gothic settlement, Valens sent his general Arinthaeus to re-impose Pap on the Armenian throne. This provoked Sapor himself to invade and lay waste to Armenia. Pap, however, once again escaped and was restored a second time under escort of a much larger force in 370. The following spring, larger forces were sent under Terentius to regain Iberia and to garrison Armenia near Mt. Npat. When Sapor counterattacked into Armenia in 371, his forces were worsted by Valens' generals Traianus and Vadomarius at Bagavan. Valens had overstepped the 363 treaty and then successfully defended his transgression. A truce settled after the 371 victory held as a quasi-peace for the next five years while Sapor was forced to deal with a Kushan invasion on his eastern frontier.
Meanwhile, troubles broke out with the boy king Pap, who began acting in high-handed fashion, even executing the Armenian Bishop Narses and demanding control of a number of Roman cities, including Edessa. Pressed by his generals and fearing that Pap would defect to the Persians, Valens made an unsuccessful attempt to capture the prince and later had him executed inside Armenia. In his stead, Valens imposed another Arsacid, Varazdat, who ruled under the regency of the sparapet Musel Mamikonean, a friend of Rome. Also, in the year 375, Valen’s older brother Valentinian suffered a burst Blood vessel in his skull, which resulted in his death on November 17, 375. Valentinian’s two sons and Valen’s nephews, Gratian and Valentinian II were evelated to Augusti by the imperial troops in Pannonia upon his death.
None of this sat well with the Persians, who began agitating again for compliance with the 363 treaty. As the eastern frontier heated up in 375, Valens began preparations for a major expedition. Meanwhile, trouble was brewing elsewhere. In Isauria, the mountainous region of western Cilicia, a major revolt had broken out in 375 which diverted troops formerly stationed in the east. Furthermore, by 377, the Saracens under Queen Mavia had broken into revolt and devastated a swath of territory stretching from Phoenicia and Palestine as far as the Sinai. Though Valens successfully brought both uprisings under control, the opportunities for action on the eastern frontier were limited by these skirmishes closer to home.
As Valens' advisers were quick to point out, these Goths could supply troops who would at once swell Valens' ranks and decrease his dependence on provincial troop levies — thereby increasing revenues from the recruitment tax. Among the Goths seeking asylum was a group led by the chieftain Fritigern. Fritigern had enjoyed contact with Valens in the 370s when Valens supported him in a struggle against Athanaric stemming from Athanaric's persecution of Gothic Christians. Though a number of Gothic groups apparently requested entry, Valens granted admission only to Fritigern and his followers. This did not, however, prevent others from following.
When Fritigern and his Goths undertook the crossing, Valens's mobile forces were tied down in the east, on the Persian frontier and in Isauria. This meant that only riparian units were present to oversee the Goths’ esettlement. The small number of imperial troops present prevented the Romans from stopping a Danube crossing by a group of Goths and later by Huns and Alans. What started out as a controlled resettlement mushroomed into a massive influx. And the situation grew worse. When the riparian commanders began abusing the Visigoths under their charge, they revolted in early 377 and defeated the Roman units in Thrace outside of Marcianople.
After joining forces with the Ostrogoths and eventually the Huns and Alans, the combined barbarian group marched widely before facing an advance force of imperial soldiers sent from both east and west. In a battle at Ad Salices, the Goths were once again victorious, winning free run of Thrace south of the Haemus. By 378, Valens himself was able to march west from his eastern base in Antioch. He withdrew all but a skeletal force — some of them Goths — from the east and moved west, reaching Constantinople by May 30, 378. Meanwhile, Valens’ councilors, Comes Richomer, and his generals Frigerid, Sebastian, and Victor cautioned Valens and tried to persuade him to wait for Gratian’s arrival with his victorious legionaries from Gaul, something that Gratian himself strenuously advocated. What happened next is an example of Hubris, the impact of which was to be felt for a years to come. Valens, jealous of his nephew Gratian's success, decided he wanted this victory for himself.The Battle of Adrianople
Main article: Battle of Adrianople''
After a brief stay aimed at building his troop strength and gaining a toehold in Thrace, Valens moved out to Adrianople. From there, he marched against the confederated barbarian army on August 9, 378 in what would become known as the Battle of Adrianople. Although negotiations were attempted, these broke down when a Roman unit sallied forth and carried both sides into battle. The Romans held their own early on but were crushed by the surprise arrival of Visigoth cavalry which split their ranks.
The primary source for the battle is Ammianus, who is quoted at length by Edward Gibbon (The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, XXVI). Valens had left a sizeable guard with his baggage and treasures depleting his force. His right wing, cavalry, arrived at the Gothic camp sometime before the left wing arrived. It was a very hot day and the Roman cavalry was engaged without strategic support, wasting its efforts while they suffered in the heat.
Meanwhile Fritigern once again sent an emissary of peace in his continued manipulation of the situation. The resultant delay meant that the Romans present on the field began to succumb to the heat. The army's resources were further diminished when an ill timed attack by the Roman archers made it necessary to recall Valens’ emissary, Count Richomer. The archers were beaten and retreated in humiliation.
Gothic cavalry under the command of Althaeus and Saphrax then struck and, with what was probably the most decisive event of the battle, the Roman cavalry fled. The Roman infantry was abandoned, surrounded and cut to pieces. Valens was wounded and carried to a small wooden hut. The hut was surrounded by the Goths who put it to the torch, evidently unaware of the prize within. According to Ammianus, this is how Valens perished.
When the battle was over, two-thirds of the eastern army lay dead. Many of their best officers had also perished. What was left of the army of Valens was lead from the field under the cover of night by Count Richomer and General Victor.
J.B. Bury, a noted authority on the barbarian invasion of Europe provides specific interpretation on the significance the battle; It was "a disaster and disgrace that need not have occurred."
For Rome, the battle incapacitated the government. Emperor Gratian, nineteen years old, was overcome by the debacle, and until he appointed Theodosius, unable to deal with the catastrophe which spread out of control.
Though he displayed some talent as an administrator, Valens' persecutions of Nicene Christians and pagan philosophers, his halting efforts at military achievement and his obtuse personality rendered him a less than glorious emperor. To have died in so inglorious a battle has thus come to be regarded as the nadir of an unfortunate career. This is especially true because of the profound consequences of Valens' defeat. Adrianople spelled the beginning of the end for Roman territorial integrity in the late empire and this fact was recognized even by contemporaries. Ammianus understood that it was the worst defeat in Roman history since the Battle of Cannae and Rufinus called it "the beginning of evils for the Roman empire then and thereafter."
Like the brothers Constantius II and Constans, Valens and Valentinian I held divergent theological views. Valens was an Arian and Valentinian upheld the Nicene Creed. When Valens died however, the cause of Arianism in the Roman East was to come to an end. His successor Theodosius I would endorse the Nicene Creed.
| Preceded by: Jovian | Roman Emperor 364-378 (governing the Eastern part of the Empire) (with Valentinian I, Gratian, and Valentinian II) | Succeeded by:<br.>Theodosius I |