265 



VALENS, ABURNUS. 



VALENTINIAN I., FLAV1US. 



has been claimed by the Sociuians, but it is difficult from the few 

 works attributed to him, and published after his death, to glean what 

 his doctrinal opinions really were. That which was published at 

 Basel in 1550, with the title ' Le cento dieci Considerazioni del 8. 

 Giovanni Valdesso, nelle quali si ragioua delle Cose piu utili, piu 

 necessarii, e piu perfette della Cristiana Professione,' consists of com- 

 mentaries on the gospels of St. Matthew and St. John, the Epistle to 

 the Romans, and the Epistle to the Corinthians. It is exclusively 

 practical. Bayle attributes to Valdes two dialogues printed at Venice 

 without date or author's name, which, judging from their titles, must 

 be rather historical than polemical. 



VALENS, ABURNUS, a Roman jurist, whose age is partly deter- 

 mined by the fact that he cites Javolenus and Julian us (Dig. 4, tit. 4, 

 s. 33), from which we may conclude that he was younger than both. 

 He is called Aburnius in the Florentine Pandect. He was a Sabinian, 

 as appears by his being placed by Pomponius among the followers of 

 Javolenus. It appears that he was living under Antoninus Pius 

 (Capitol., 'Pius,' 12), though, as the text of Capitoliuus stands, he is 

 called Salvius Valens. His complete name may have been Salvius 

 Aburnus Valens ; or Salvius in this passage may be separated from 

 Valens and may mean Salvius Julianas. But there is a rescript of 

 Pius (Dig. 48, tit. 2, s. 7, 2) addressed to Salviu* Valens. 



Valeus wrote seven books on Fideicommissa, from which there are 

 excerpts in the Digest ; and there is also in the Digest a passage from 

 the seventh book of a work on Actiones. Valens is mentioned by 

 Pomponius, and cited several times by Paulus (Dig. 4, tit. 4, s. 33). 



VALENS, FLA'VIUS, empei'or of Constantinople, reigned from 

 A.D. 364 to 378. He was a brother of Flavius Valentinian, who, after 

 being proclaimed emperor in 364, made Valens his colleague, and gave 

 to him the government of the Eastern empire, and Constantinople as 

 his capital. The year after his accession, while he was staying at 

 Cfesarea in Syria, he received intelligence of a rebellion, which was 

 headed by Procopius, a Cilician, who assumed the purple at Constan- 

 tinople. Valens himself was in despair at the news, and would have 

 resigned himself to his fate, but the courage and resolution of his gene- 

 rals saved him ; and in the two engagements of Thyatira and Nacosia, 

 Procopius was deserted by his troops and conducted by some of his 

 own followers to the camp of the enemy, where he was immediately 

 beheaded, 366. The year after this victory Valens marched with an 

 army across the Danube against the Goths, who had supported the 

 usurper Procopius. During the war which now ensued, and lasted for 

 upwards of two years, the Goths acted on the defensive. In the third 

 year the Goths suffered a great defeat, and Athanaric, the judge of 

 the Visigoths, sued for peace and obtained it, A.D. 369. Valens 

 returned to Constantinople in triumph. About the tame time he was 

 threatened with a war by Persia, but he confined himself to the pro- 

 tection of Armenia, without letting matters come to an open war. His 

 empire now enjoyed peace for several years, during which some wise 

 regulations in the administration and legislation were made. In 375 

 his brother Valentinian died, and Valens was thus deprived of a wise 

 adviser at a time when he was most in need of him. In the year 

 following the Huns entered Europe from Asia, and after having 

 subdued the Alani, pressed upon the Goths north of the Danube, 

 some of whom were likewise subdued. About 200,000 Visigoths took 

 refuge in the Roman territory as suppliants, and obtained permission 

 to settle in it. They were soon followed by hosts of Geuthrungi, or 

 Ostrogoths, who crossed the Danube without having asked the per- 

 mission of the Romans. The Goths soon found themselves exposed 

 to all kinds of vexations from the Roman officers : in consequence of 

 which a part of them, headed by Fritigern, took up arms, defeated 

 the Romans near Marcianopolis, and began ravaging the country. 

 Valens had been staying during the last years at Antioch, watching 

 the proceedings of the Persians, and was still there when these events 

 occurred. Two generals whom he sent to Pannonia, was unable to 

 effect anything against the Goths. Fritigern secured the assistance of 

 the cavalry of the Huns and the Alani, and at last Valens himself 

 hastened with an army of veterans from Syria against the Goths. A 

 slight advantage gained by his general Sebastianus emboldened him so 

 much that he hastened to fight a decisive battle in the neighbourhood 

 of Adrianople before the emperor of the West could come to his 

 assistance. The victory of the Goths on that memorable day in A.D. 

 378 was so complete, that scarcely the third part of the Roman army 

 escaped. Valens himself was wounded and carried to his tent, which, 

 according to some accounts, was set on fire by the barbarians, and the 

 emperor ended his life in the flames. 



Coin of Valens. 

 British Museum. Actual size. 



Valens, who at the time of his elevation was in his thirty-sixth year, 



was a man of a passionate and also of a cruel character, and always 

 lent a ready ear to informers. Most of the noble acts of his reign, 

 such as his legislative measures, the establishment of schools, and the 

 reduction of taxes, were owing partly to the influence of his brother, 

 to whom he was sincerely attached, and partly to the wisdom and 

 virtue of his prsefect Sallust. During the first year of his reign 

 he imitated the toleration of his brother ; but after he had received 

 baptism at the hands of the Ariau bishop Eudoxus, he adopted his 

 theological views, and persecuted those who differed from him. 



(Ammianus Marcellinus, xxvi.-xxxi.; Aurelius Victor, Epitome, 46 ; 

 Orosius, vii. 32 ; Sozomen, vi. 8 : compare Gibbon, Decline and Fall, 

 chaps. 25, 26.) 



VALENTIN, MOlSE, a French painter of great ability, was born 

 at Coulomiers, in Brie, in 1600. Writers differ as to the Christian 

 name of Valentin ; some call him Moses, and others Peter. He was 

 first educated in the school of Vouet; he afterwards visited Italy, 

 and adopted the style of Michel Angelo Caravaggio, in which ho 

 painted several admirable pictures, and he became one of the best of the 

 ' naturalisti,' or followers of Caravaggio, at Rome, although he died in 

 1632, aged only thirty-two. Valentin died of a fever in consequence 

 of taking a cold bath on a hot summer's evening, after smoking and 

 drinking wine to excess. Cardinal Francesco Barberini, nephew of 

 Pope Urban VIII., was a great patron to Valentin, and employed him 

 to paint several pictures for him, a Death of John the Baptist, and 

 others : it was also through his interest that Valentin was com- 

 missioned to paint an altar-piece for St. Peter's, of the Martyrdom of 

 SS. Processo and Martiniano. There is also in the Corsini palace an 

 excellent picture by him of the Denial by Peter. He did not often 

 paint religious subjects : his favourite pictures were scenes from 

 common life, as soldiers playing at cards, fortune-tellers, concerts, 

 and tavern scenes, &c. He painted with ease and rapidity, generally 

 from nature, had a light touch, and coloured well and forcibly, but 

 his drawing is often incorrect, and his forms are vulgar. There 

 are eleven pieces by Valentin in the Louvre at Paris, but his 

 works are not numerous : several of them have been engraved. N. 

 Poussin aud Valentin were contemporaries at Rome, and were great 

 friends. 



VALENTINIAN I., FLA'VIUS, a Roman emperor, who reigned 

 from A.D. 364 to 375. He was a sou of Count Gratian, and a native 

 of Cibalis in Pannouia. He distinguished himself as a gallant warrior 

 in various campaigns ; his mind was uncorrupted by the sophistries of 

 the age, and his body was strong and healthy. After the death of 

 Jovian in 364, Valentinian, then at the age of forty-three, was pro- 

 claimed emperor at Nicrca, although he himself was absent at Ancyra, 

 and had never employed any means for the purpose of raising himself 

 to that high station. Shortly after his accession he divided the 

 empire between himself and his brother Valens, reserving for himself 

 the western portion. [VALENS, FLAVIUS.] The frontiers of the empire 

 were successively exposed to great danger during his reign. The 

 Alemanni and Burgundians penetrated into Gaul from the east, the 

 Franks from the north, and the Saxons made inroads from the sea. 

 The Picts and Scots pressed forward from the north, aud ravaged the 

 province of Britain. Valentinian chose Paris as the central point for 

 his operations against the barbarians, and through his general, Joviims, 

 he gained a great victory over the Alemanni in 366. The year following 

 he was attacked by a dangerous illness, and on his recovery he raised 

 his son Gratian to the rank of Augustus. Britain was in the mean- 

 time delivered from the inroads of the Picts and Scots by Count 

 Theodosius, who recovered the country as far as the wall of Anto- 

 ninus. In 368 the Alemanni renewed their attacks upon eastern Gaul, 

 and plundered Moguntiacum (Mainz); but Valentinian drove them 

 back, crossed the Rhine, and defeated them in their own country, near 

 Solicinum (Schmetzingen or Sulzbach), and as they retreated into their 

 forests the emperor re-crossed the Rhine and took up his residence at 

 Treves. With the view of securing the eastern frontier of Gaul against 

 further inroads of the neighbouring Germans, Valentinian built a line 

 of fortifications along the banks of the Rhine, and a bridge of boats 

 on the Rhine at Moguntiacum. Peace was also concluded with Maori- 

 anus, king of the Alemanni, and security on that side was for the 

 present firmly established. The Saxons, in one of the predatory 

 inroads on the coast of Gaul, were likewise defeated, and all who fell 

 into the hands of the Romans were cut to pieces. After these 

 victories and the establishment of peace, Valentinian celebrated a 

 splendid triumph at Treves, and the orator Q. Aurelius Symmachus 

 proclaimed the valour and enterprising spirit of the emperor. Theo- 

 dosius, who after the recovery of Britain had been raised to the rank 

 of magister equitmn, was sent, in 372, into Africa, where Firmus had 

 revolted and set himself up as an independent prince. Firmus was 

 conquered by Theodosius, and reduced to such extremities that he put 

 an end to his own life, in 373. While peace was thus restored in 

 Africa, the Quadi and Sarmatae rose in arms and invaded Pannouia. 

 Valentiuian himself set out from Treves at the head of his army, 

 drove the barbarians across the Danube, and pursued them into Hun- 

 gary. He ravaged the country, and put to death all the Quadi who 

 fell into his hands. The barbarians desparing of .success, sent ambas- 

 sadors to the emperor to sue for pardon and peace. Valentinian, who 

 was staying at Bregetio when they arrived, poured out against them 

 all his indignation. During this excitement he broke a blood-vessel 



