I 



V A L 



garrifon ; but receiving an uiifatisfaftory aufwei, tlie artil- 

 lery began to play upon the town with great vigour, and in 

 the courfe of the night above 500 r^u-liot balls were poured 

 upon it. Towards the beginning of July, the befiegers 

 were able to bring 200 pieces of heavy artillery to play vpith- 

 out intermiffion on the town, and the greater part of it was 

 reduced to afhes. The moft fingular faft in the hiftory of 

 this fiege is, that a confiderable part of the war was earned 

 on under ground, mines and counter-mines innumerable hav- 

 ing been formed both by the befiegers and befieged. The 

 principal of thefe, on the fide of the former, were one under 

 the glacis, and one under the horn-work of the fortrefs ; 

 thefe mines were completed and charged on the 2jth of 

 July, and in the night between nine and ten o'clock were 

 fprung with the moll complete fuccefs. The Englilh and 

 Auftrians immediately embraced the opportunity to throw 

 themfelves into the covered way, of which they made them- 

 felves mailers. The die was now call, and on the 26th the 

 duke of York again fummoned the place, which furrendered 

 on capitulation the fucceeding day ; the duke of York tak- 

 ing poffeffion of it in behalf of the emperor of Germany. 

 The following year, however, in confequcnce of the fuc- 

 cefTes of the French arms, Valencienneo furrendered to the 

 republicans, by capitulation, on the 26th of Augull. The 

 garrifon were made prifoners of war, but to be condudled 

 to the fird poll of the imperial and Dutch armies, on con- 

 dition that they were not to ferve againll the republic till 

 regularly exchanged. Confiderable llores of every kind, 

 with 200 pieces of cannon, i,ooo,coo pounds of gun- 

 powder, and 3,000,000 florins in fpecie, and 6,joo,ooo 

 Lrres, were found in Valenciennes ; 1000 head of horned 

 cattle, and great quantities of oats and other corn, were 

 alfo included within the fortrefs. So earneft indeed had 

 the emperor been to retain this important place, that he 

 is faid to have expended 3,000,000/. in repairing and im- 

 proving the fortifications. What is the moft to be lamented 

 is, that upwards of 1000 unhappy emigrants were furren- 

 dered on this occafion to the vengeance of their enraged 

 countrymen. The principal manufaftures are lace, cam- 

 bric, and woollen mitts, camlets, &c. ; 4^ pofts E. of 

 Douay. N. lat. 50° 21'. E. long. 3° 36'. 



VALENGIN, or Vallengin, or Fa/angin,^ town znd 

 ' capital of a lordfhip, in the county of Neufchatel ; 3 miles 

 N.N.W. of Neufchatel. See Neuchatel. 



VALENS, Flavius, in Biography, a Roman emperor, 

 was born at Cibahs in Pannonia, and aflbciated in the empire 

 with his brother Valentinian A.D. 364, at the age of thirty- 

 fix. To him his brother, to whom he was much attached, 

 affigned the eallem portion of the Roman dominions, com- 

 prehending the whole of Afia, with Egypt and Thrace : 

 upon this divifion, Valens made Conllantinople the feat of 

 his empire. Alarmed by the movements of the Perfians on the 

 borders of his territory, he departed for Syria, and at Cae- 

 farea, in Cappadocia, he was informed that Procopius had 

 taken polTeffion of his capital. The emperor was fo terrified 

 by this intelligence, that he intended to negociate with the 

 ufurper, and to propofe to him an abdication of the empire. 

 His minifters, however, advifed him to detach a body of 

 troops, in order to fupprefs the infurreftion at its commence- 

 ment : but thefe troops joined Procopius, and contributed 

 to his fuccefs. At length many of the infurgents abandoned 

 their commander, who rendered himfelf unpopular by his 

 rapacity and tyranny, and he was ultimately betrayed to 

 Valens, who ordered him to be beheaded. The emperor 

 was thus eftablilhed on the throne ; but his conduft was 

 fuch as to cool the ardour of his friends, and to excite enmity 

 and oppofition. In procefs of time, from the year 366 to 



V A L 



369, he contended fuccefsfuUy with the Goths, and having 

 reduced them to great dillrefs, confented to conclude a 

 treaty with them, which was ratified witli great magnifi- 

 cence in barges upon the Danube. Having accompUlhed 

 this objeft, Valens returned in triumph to Conllantinople. 



Valens, having received his Chriitian creed from Eudoxus, 

 the Arian bilhop of Conllantinople, difgraced himfelf by be- 

 coming a perfecutor of the Atiianafians : and in a conteft 

 between thefe two parties, he afted in a manner fo rigorous 

 and violent, as to entail indelible reproach on his memory. 

 In 371 he loft his only fon, and in the fjUov/ing year he 

 defeated the Perfians, and afterwards readily confented to a 

 truce. Whilft he was pafiing the winter at Antioch, in the 

 year 374, he manifefted, in his treatment of perfons who 

 recurred to magical pradtices for afcertaining the name of 

 the future fuccelTor to the imperial throne, the jealous cru- 

 elty of his charafter. Many perfons were involved in real 

 or fufpefted guilt, and configned to the punilhment of tor- 

 ture, banilhment, or death. Having refided five years at 

 Antioch, watching the motions of the Perfian king, re- 

 prefling the incurfions of the Saracens and Ifaurians, and 

 condufting ftate inquifitions and religious perfecutions, his 

 attention was excited by a terrible inroad of the Huns upon 

 the territories of the Vifigoths, and thefe Goths, having 

 obtained permiflion to crofs the Danube, penetrated into the 

 cultivated part of Thrace. The Gothic tribes were joined 

 by the Huns and Alans. The emperor arrived at Conftan- 

 tinople in 378, and urged by the clamours of the people, 

 marched againft the enemy to the vicinity of Conftantinople. 

 An engagement enfued, which proved fingularly difaftrous 

 to the Romans. Valens, deferted by his guards and wounded, 

 betook himfelf to a cottage, in which his attendants were 

 dreffing his wound : the cottage was befet by the enemy, 

 who being refifted, fet fire to a pile of faggots, that con- 

 fumed the emperor and all that were with him. Thus did 

 Valens terminate his life at the age of fifty, and in the fix- 

 teenth year of his reign. His charafter, as it has been de- 

 lineated by hillorians, merits in many refpedls contempt and 

 deteftation. He was neverthelefs modeft and temperate in 

 his mode of living ; addifted to no private vice or fuper- 

 fluous expence ; ready to liften to the complaints of his 

 fubjedls, and to proteft them from the oppreflion of the 

 mihtar)', among whom he prefcrved exaft difcipline ; and 

 it has been faid that the Eailern provinces in general were 

 never happier than under his government. Anc. Un. Hift. 

 Gibbon's Rom. Emp. Gen. Biog. 



VALENSOLE, in Geography, a town of France, in the 

 department of the Lower Alps ; 18 miles S. of Digne. 



VALENTANO, a town of the Popedom, in the duchy 

 of Caftro ; 14 miles S.W. of Orvieto. 



VALENTIA, in Ancient Geography, a town of Hifpania 

 Citerior, upon the Turia. See Valencia. 



Valentia, a town and colony of Gallia Narbonnenfis, 

 belonging to the Segalauni, according to Ptolemy, but to the 

 Cavares, according to Phny. In the Itinerary of Antoniue, 

 this town is marked on the route from Mediolanum to Lug- 

 dunum, between Augufta and Urfolac. At the fall of the 

 Roman empire this town became fubjedl to the Burgundians, 

 afterwards to the Merovingians ; but under the Carlovin- 

 gians, it belonged to the kingdom of Burgundy and Aries. 



Alfo, a country of the ifle of Albion, according to Am- 



mianus Marcellinus. It was conquered by Theodofius the 

 elder, and made a fifth Roman province. (See OxopiNl.) 



Alfo, a town of Italy, in Melfapia, between Clipis and 



Civitas Brindifi, according to the Itinerary of Jerufalem. — 

 Alfo,* a town fituated in the interior of the ifle of Sardinia. 

 Valentia, in Geography, a fmall ifland on the coaft of 

 4A 2 Kerry, 



