774 



VALENCIENNES VALERIUS. 



1500 students; but the course of study is antiquated. 

 The inhabitants excel in the arts more than in 

 literature. The principal manufacture is that of 

 silk. The maritime trade is carried on by lighters, 

 which load and unload vessels at the village of 

 Grao, near the mouth of the river. It is an an- 

 cient town, supposed to be the Valcntia Edetanorutn 

 lit' the Romans, and was the capital of the kingdom 

 of Valencia, which continued from 713 to 1238. It 

 is now an archbishop's see. 



The province of Valencia (255,000 inhabitants) 

 lies between the Mediterranean sea, Murcia, Cuenca, 

 Arragon and Catalonia. It is the Eden of Spain, 

 and enjoys the finest climate in Europe. The face 

 of the country is diversified with hills, valleys and 

 small plains, well watered by numerous streams. 

 The Alieant wine, olives, and other fruits, corn, 

 flax and hemp, with bees, silkworms, and rich 

 mineral productions, are among its riches. Manu- 

 factures are also flourishing, and, in the city of Va- 

 lencia, upwards of 22,000 workmen are engaged in 

 the manufacture of silk stuffs and stockings. 



VALENCIENNES ; a city of France, situated 

 on the Scheldt, which runs through the town in 

 several places, and here becomes navigable ; Ion. 

 3 36' E.; lat. 50 21' N.; population, 16,918. 

 The form of the town is circular ; the streets nar- 

 row and crooked ; the houses generally old and ill 

 built, many of them of wood ; the chief manufac- 

 tures, lace of great fineness, cambric, gauze and 

 linen stuffs. The public square is handsome. It 

 is supposed to have derived its name from the em- 

 peror Valentinian I. who, pleased with the tempera- 

 ture of the climate, and charming situation of the 

 place, laid the foundation of a town, about the 

 year 367, endowing it with many privileges. It was 

 taken by the allies, in 1793, after a severe siege, 

 but was given up to the French in 1794. 



VALENTINE, ST, is called by some ecclesias- 

 tical writers bishop, but, according to others, was 

 only a presbyter. He suffered martyrdom in the 

 reign of the emperor Claudius II. having been be- 

 headed at Rome, and was early canonized. He was 

 so eminently distinguished for his love and charity, 

 that the custom of choosing Valentines, or special 

 loving friends, on his day (Feb. 14), is supposed by 

 some to have originated from thence : others deduce 

 it from the birds choosing their mates on this day ; 

 but it is more likely to be a corruption of a prac- 

 tice during the Roman Lupercalia, when the names 

 of young women were put into a box, and drawn out 

 by the young men. 



VALENTINIAN; the name of three Roman 

 emperors. 



Valentinian I. son of Gratian, a distinguished 

 general, was born in Pannonia, and ascended the 

 throne A. D. 364. He divided the government of 

 the empire with his brother Valens, to whom he 

 intrusted the eastern provinces. Brave, but ig- 

 norant, rude, and addicted to the grossest debauch- 

 eries, Valentinian was unable to arrest the decline 

 of the empire. He died in 375. See Rome, His- 

 torji of, 



Valentinian II. son of the preceding, administered 

 the government after the death of his elder brother 

 Gratian (383), under the regency of his mother, 

 Justina, and was killed by one of his officers, Ar- 

 bogastes, a Gaul, in 392. 



Valentinian III. son of Constantius and Placi- 

 dia, a daughter of Theodosius the Great, was pro- 

 claimed emperor (423), in the sixth year of his age, 

 on the death of his uncle Honorius. (See Western 



Empire.) During his reign, Spain was overrun by 

 the Suevi and the Visigoths (see Goths'), Africa by 

 the Vandals, Britain by the Anglo-Saxons, Gaul by 

 the Franks, 'and Italy by the Huns under Attila. 

 Feeble and voluptuous, he perished by a conspiracy 

 in 455. See Vandals. 



VALENTINIANS. See Gnostics. 



VALENTINOIS, DUCHESS OF. See Diana of 

 Poitiers. 



VALERIA. See Coriolanus. 



VALERIAN (valeriana'). These plants are 

 mostly herbaceous, with simple, opposite, pinnatifid 

 leaves and small flowers, usually disposed in a 

 corymb or panicle. They are distinguished from 

 most dicotyledonous plants by having three stamens, 

 a number almost exclusively belonging to the other 

 great division of vegetables. The species are 

 numerous in the northern and temperate parts of 

 Europe. The root of the officinal valerian has an 

 acrid and somewhat bitter taste, and a strong, dis- 

 agreeable odour. It has been employed in medi- 

 cine, principally in epilepsy and hysterical affections, 

 but sometimes as a vermifuge, and intermittent 

 fevers. Cats are excessively fond of this plant, so 

 much so that it is difficult to preserve it in a gar- 

 den ; and rat-catchers employ the roots to draw the 

 rats together, as they do oil of anise. Other species 

 have the same properties in a greater or less degree. 



VALERIAN, PUBLIUS LICINICS, Roman em- 

 peror from A. D. 253 to 260, was born in 190. He 

 was descended of a noble family and had distin- 

 guished himself, in several campaigns, for his mili- 

 tary skill, and in general bore the character of great 

 magnanimity and virtue. The emperor Decius 

 having determined to revive the cenborship, for the 

 purpose of checking the decline of the empire, 

 Valerian was unanimously named for this post by 

 the senate. But the corruption of Roman manners 

 was too great to be cured by the appointment of a 

 censor. Being declared emperor by the legions at 

 the age of sixty-three years, he associated his son 

 Gallienus with himself in the government. But 

 the position of the Roman empire was such, that 

 the whole period of their united reign was little 

 else than a scene of internal confusion and foreign 

 war. In the year 225, a new Persian empire had 

 been founded in Asia by Artaxerxes ; and his suc- 

 cessor, Sapor, endeavoured to recover the Persian 

 provinces which had been conquered by the Romans. 

 Valerian marched against him at the head of his 

 army, but was defeated and made prisoner near 

 Edessa (260). If the accounts of historians are not 

 exaggerated, Sapor treated him in a most unworthy 

 manner. The unhappy old man was daily exposed 

 to the insults of the people, and Sapor mounted on 

 horseback by placing his foot on the neck of his 

 captive. When Valerian died of grief, his skin was 

 stuffed, and preserved by Sapor as a trophy of vic- 

 tory. The truth of this story is, however, doubted 

 by Gibbon (ch. x.). 



VALERIUS ; the name of many Romans. The 

 most distinguished of this name was the chief insti- 

 gator of the conspiracy against the last king, Tarqui- 

 nius Superbus, and was famed for his love of liberty, 

 of his country and of justice, which procured him 

 the surname of Publicola, or Puplicola (friend of 

 the people). He and Brutus were the first consuls 

 of the new republic. He retained the office after 

 the death of Brutus, for some time exercised it 

 alone with the greatest impartiality, and made 

 several ordinances of great benefit to the people, 

 and highly conducive to civil freedom, fie was 



