V A L 



cidia, fifter of the emperor Honoriua, by Conftantius, one 

 of that emperor's generals, was born in the year 418, and 

 after the death of Honorius, declared emperor of the Weft. 

 In 437 he was married to Eudoxia, the daughter of Theo- 

 dofius IL; but during the life of his mother, who died in 450, 

 he took no part in the government. The dread of Attila 

 caufed him to retire from Ravenna to Rome, where he pro- 

 pofed terms of accommodation with this formidable enemy, 

 which were accepted. The weaknefs and timidity of this 

 emperor occafioned a jealoufy of the famous general Aetius, 

 and bafe meafures were fecretly concerted for putting him to 

 death. Valentiuian himfelf perpetrated the foul deed of his 

 affaflination : and this aft was followed by the murder of 

 feveral of his friends. This deteftable aft, which took place 

 in 454, was fucceeded by the violation of the chafte and 

 beautiful wife of Petronius Maximus, a wealthy fenator. 

 Her hufband, as foon as he was informed of it, determined 

 upon revenge ; and for this purpofe engaged two of the im- 

 perial guards who had ferved under Aetius. Oneofthefe 

 feized the opportunity of fome military fports in the Cam- 

 pus Martius to ftab the emperor to the heart. This event 

 happened in March 455, when Valentinian was thirty-four 

 years of age, and after he had borne the title of emperor 

 twenty-nine years. He was the lail emperor of the race of 

 Theodofius, and had all the weaknefs, with none of the vir- 

 tues of that line. Anc. Un. Hift. Gibbon. Gen. Biog. 



VALENTINIANS, in Ecclefiajlical Hi/lory, an ancient 

 and famous feft of Gnoftics ; thus called from their leader 

 Valentinus, an Egyptian by birth, who was eminently dif- 

 tinguifhed by the extent of his fame, and the multitude of 

 his followers. His feft, which took rife at Rome towards 

 the clofe of the fecond century, grew up to maturity in the 

 ifle of Cyprus, and fpread itfelf through Afia, Africa, and 

 Europe, with amazing rapidity. His principles were much 

 the fame with thofe of the Gnoftics, though, in many re- 

 fpefts, he entertained opinions peculiar to himfelf. He 

 placed in the pleroma, as the Gnoftics called the habitation 

 of the deity, thirty aeons, half male and half female : to 

 thefe he added four others, which were of neither fex, vtz. 

 Horus, Chrift, the Holy Ghoft, and Jefus. The youngeft 

 aeon, called Sophia, or Wifdom, conceived an ardent defire 

 of comprehending the nature of the Supreme Being, and 

 by the force of this propenfity, brought forth a daughter, 

 named Achamoth ; who being exiled from the pleroma, fell 

 down into the undigefted mafs of matter, and arranged it ; 

 and, by the afliftance of Jefus, produced the demiurge, the 

 lord and creator of all things. This demiurge feparatcd the 

 animal from the terreftrial matter ; and out of the former 

 created the fuperior world, or vifible heavens ; and out of 

 the latter, the inferior world, or the terraqueous globe. 

 He alfo made man, uniting in his compofition the animal 

 and terreftrial matter, to which Achamoth added a fpiritual 

 and celeftial fubftance. The demiurge, according to Va- 

 lentine, arrogating the honours of God alone, fent prophets 

 to the Jewifh nation to urge his claims ; and his ambition 

 was imitated by the other angels that prefide over the dif- 

 ferent parts of the univerfe. In order to chaftife this lawlefs 

 arrogance, and to illuminate the minds of rational beings 

 with tlie knowledge of the true and fupreme Deity, Chrift 

 appeared on earth, compofed of an animal and fpiritual fub- 

 ftance, and clothed, moreover, with an aerial body. The 

 Redeemer, in defcending upon earth, pafled through the 

 womb of Mary ; and Jefus, one of the fupreme aeons, was 

 united to him when he was baptifed by John in Jordan. 

 The creator of this world, perceiving that the foundations 

 of his empire were fliaken, eaufed him to be apprehended 

 and nailed to the crofs ; but before Chrift fubmitted to thie 



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puniftiment, not only Jefus the Son of God, but the ra- 

 tional foul of Chrift, afcended up on high ; fo that only 

 the ajiimal foul and the etherial body fuffcred crucifixion. 

 Thofe who, abandoning the fervice of falfe deities and the 

 worftiip of the God of the Jews, live according to the pre- 

 cepts of Chrift, and fubmit the animal and fenfual foul to 

 the difciphne of reafon, ftiall be truly happy ; and when all 

 the parts of the divine nature, or all fouls, are purified tho- 

 roughly and feparately from matter, then a raging fire (hall 

 fpread its flames through the univerfe, and diflblve the frame 

 of the corporeal world. Such is the doftrine of Valentine 

 and the Gnoftics ; and fuch, in general, are the tenets of 

 the oriental philofophy. The feft of the Valentinians was 

 divided into many branches. See Ptolemaites, Secun- 

 DiANs, Heracleonites, and Marcosians. Moflieim's 

 Eccl. Hift. vol. i. 



VALENTINUS, the founder of a feft of heretics, for 

 an account of which, fee Valentinians. 



VALENZA, in Geography, a town of Italy, in the 

 department of the Gogno, on the Po ; 6 miles N. of 

 Alexandria. 



VALEPONGA, in Ancient Geography, a town of Hif- 

 pania Citerior, at the eaftern foot of mount Ubeda, neai' the 

 fource of the river Turia. In the Itinerary of Antonine it 

 is marked on the route from Laminium to Toletum, between 

 Ad Putea and Urbiaca. 



VALERE. See Perinde Valere. 



VALERIA, Valera, in Ancient Geography, a town ia 

 the interior of Hifpania Citerior, S. of Ergavica. Pliny 

 reckons it in the number of colonies, and Ortelius gives it 

 the epithet of Julia. It was fituated in Celtiberia, E. of 

 Sucro, and W. of Lobetum — Alfo, a town of the ifle 

 of Corfica, which had the title of a colony, according to 

 Ptolemy. — Alfo, a country of Germany, comprehending a 

 part of Pannonia, and fo called by Maximian, after the name 

 of Valeria, his wife, the daughter of Dioclefian. It was 

 fituated between the Danube and the Drave. — Alfo, the 

 thirteenth province of Italy, to which Nurtia was annexed. 

 It was between Umbria, Campania and Picenum, and com- 

 prehended the country of the Marfi and their lake, called 

 " Fucinus." — Alfo, a town of Italy, in Latium, on the 

 Valerian way. 



VALERIAN, P. LiciniusValerianus, \n Biography, 

 a Roman emperor, the defcendant of an illuftrious family at 

 Rome, was betimes fo diftiaguiflied by his attention both to 

 civil and miUtary affairs, that he was appointed conful and 

 prince of the fenate, and alfo cenfor. He occupied other fta- 

 tions of confiderable truft and importance. At length his own 

 troops proclaimed him emperor, in which choice every indi- 

 vidual of the empire was difpofed to concur. Accordingly 

 he was inverted with the purple A.D. 253, after having pafled 

 his fixtieth year. The commencement of his reign was ren- 

 dered illuftrious by many popular and laudable afts, from 

 which eulogy, however, we muft except the appointment of 

 his fon Gallienus, a vicious youth, to be his colleague in the 

 empire ; more efpecially as in the progrefs of it he had many 

 enemies with whom to contend ; among whom we may enu- 

 merate Franks, Goths, AUemans, and Perfians, the latter 

 of whom may be deemed the moft formidable. When Ab- 

 tioch was furprifed and pillaged, under the inftigation of Sa- 

 por, king of Perfia, by Cyriades, who aflumed the title of 

 emperor. Valerian marched to the reftoration of this city, 

 and having expelled the Scythians, who had taken pofleflioB 

 of it, he haftened to crofs the Euphrates, in order to relieTC 

 Edefla, which was befieged by Sapor. After a vain attempt 

 for this purpofe, he was reduced to the neceffity of nego- 

 ciating with the Perfian king. The refult, however, was, 



that 



