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VALENTINIAN I ., See also: Roman emperor of the West from A.D
.
364 to 375, was See also: born at Cibalis, in See also: Pannonia
.
He had been an officer of the guard under Julian and Jovian, and had risen high in the imperial service
.
Of robust See also: frame and distinguished appearance, he possessed See also: great courage and military capacity
.
He was chosen emperor in his See also: forty-third See also: year by the See also: officers of the army at See also: Nicaea in See also: Bithynia in 364, and shortly after-wards named his See also: brother See also: Valens (q.v.) colleague with him in the See also: empire
.
The two See also: brothers, after passing through the chief cities of the neighbouring See also: district, arranged the See also: partition
' Until nearly the close of the 19th century the See also: custom of sending " valentines "—i.e. See also: anonymous love-tokens, written or otherwise —on St See also: Valentine's See also: day was fairly general
.
They gradually lost their See also: original significance, and the custom, where it survives, has become completely vulgarized.of the empire at Naissus (Nissa) in Upper See also: Moesia
.
As emperor of the West, Valentinian took See also: Italy, Illyricum, See also: Spain, the Gauls, Britain and See also: Africa, leaving to Valens the eastern See also: half of the See also: Balkan Peninsula, See also: Greece, See also: Egypt, See also: Syria and See also: Asia Minor as far as See also: Persia
.
During the See also: short reign of Valentinian there were See also: wars in Africa, in See also: Germany and in Britain, and See also: Rome came into collision with See also: barbarian peoples of whom we now hear for the first time—Burgundians, See also: Saxons, Alamanni
.
The emperor's chief See also: work was guarding the frontiers and establishing military positions
.
Milan was at first his headquarters for settling the affairs of See also: northern Italy; next year (365) he was at See also: Paris, and then at See also: Reims, to See also: direct the operations of his generals against the Alamanni
.
This See also: people, defeated at Scarpona (Charpeigne) and Catelauni (Chalons-sur-See also: Marne) by Jovinus, were driven back to the See also: German See also: bank of the Rhine, and checked for a while by a chain of military posts and fortresses
.
At the close of 367, however, they suddenly crossed the Rhine, attacked Moguntiacum ( See also: Mainz) and plundered the city
.
Valentinian attacked them at Solicinium (Sulz in the See also: Neckar valley or See also: Schwetzingen) with a large army, and defeated them with great slaughter, but his own losses were so considerable that he abandoned the idea of following up his success
.
Later, in 374, he made See also: peace with their See also: king, Macrianus, who from that
See also: time remained a true friend of the See also: Romans
.
The next three years he spent at See also: Trier, which he chiefly made his headquarters, organizing the defence of the Rhine frontier, and personally superintending the construction of numerous forts
.
During his reign the coasts of See also: Gaul were harassed by the Saxon pirates, with whom the Picts and Scots of northern Britain joined hands, and ravaged the See also: island from the See also: wall of Antorinus to the shores of Kent
.
In 368 See also: Theodosius was sent to drive back the invaders; in this he was completely successful, and established a new See also: British province, called Valentia, in honour of the emperor
.
In Africa the Moorish See also: prince, Firmus, raised the See also: standard of revolt, being joined by the provincials, who had been rendered desperate by the cruelty and extortions of Count See also: Romanus, the military governor
.
The services of Theodosius were again requisitioned, He landed in Africa with a small See also: band of veterans, and Firmus, to avoid being taken prisoner, committed suicide
.
In 374 the Quadi, a German tribe in what is now Moravia and Hungary, resenting the erection of Roman forts to the See also: north of the Danube in what they considered to be their own territory, and further exasperated by the treacherous See also: murder of their king, See also: Gabinius, crossed the See also: river and laid waste the province of Pannonia
.
The emperor in See also: April of the following year entered Illyricum with a powerful army, but during an See also: audience to an See also: embassy from the Quadi at Brigetio on the Danube (near Pressburg) died in a See also: fit of apoplexy
.
His general administration seems to have been thoroughly honest and able, in some respects beneficent
.
If he was hard and exacting in the See also: matter of taxes, he spent them in the defence and improvement of his dominions, not in idle show or luxury
.
Though himself a plain and almost illiterate soldier, he was a founder ofSee also: schools, and he also provided medical attendance for the poor of Rome, by appointing a physician for each of the fourteen districts of the city
.
He was an orthodox Catholic, but he permitted absolute religious freedom to all his subjects
.
Against all abuses, both See also: civil and ecclesiastical, he steadily set his face, even against the increasing See also: wealth and worldliness of the See also: clergy
.
The great blot on his memory is his cruelty, which at times was frightful, and showed itself in its full fierceness in the punishment of persons accused of See also: witchcraft, soothsaying or magical practices
.
See See also: Ammianus See also: Marcellinus See also: xxv.-See also: xxx.; See also: Gibbon, Decline and Fall, See also: chap
.
25; T
.
See also: Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders, bk. i. chap
.
3; H
.
Schiller, Geschichte der romischen .f(aiserzeit (See also: Gotha, 1883-87), bk. iii. chap. iv
.
27-30; H
.
See also: Richter, Das westromische Reich (Berlin,
1865), pp
.
24o-68
.
After his See also: death, his son, VALENTINIAN II., an infant of four years of age, with his half-brother See also: Gratian (q.v.) a lad of about' seventeen, became the emperors of the West
.
They made Milan their home; and the empire was nominally divided
petween them, Gratian taking the trans-Alpine provinces, Hhilst Italy, Illyricum in See also: part, and Africa were to be under jhe See also: rule of Valentinian, or rather of his See also: mother, Justina
.
Justina was an Arian, and the imperial See also: court at Milan pitted Itself against the Catholics, under the famous See also: Ambrose, See also: bishop of that city
.
But so great was his popularity that the court was decidedly worsted in the contest, and the emperor's authority materially shaken
.
In 387 See also: Magnus See also: Maximus (q.v.), who had commanded a Roman army in Britain, and had in 383 (the year of Gratian's death) made himself master of the northern provinces, crossed the See also: Alps into the valley of the Po and threatgned Milan
.
The emperor and his mother fled to Theodosius, the emperor of the See also: East and See also: husband of Galla, Valentinian's See also: sister
.
Valentinian was restored in 388 by Theodosius, through whose influence he was converted to Orthodox Catholicism
.
Four years later he was murdered at See also: Vienne in Gaul, probably at the instigation of his Frankish general See also: Arbogast, with whom he had quarrelled
.
See Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chap
.
27; Schiller, Geschichte der romischen Kaiserzeit, bk. iii. vol. iv. pp
.
32, 33 ;L
.
See also: Ranke,Weltgeschichte, bk. iv. vol. i. chap
.
6 ; and especially H . Richter, Das westromische Reich unter den Kaisern Gratian, Valentinian II. and Maximus (Berlin, 1865), pp . 577-65o, where full references to authorities are given . |
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