Valens
Flavius Valens ( medium Greek Οὐάλης Oualis , * 328 in Cibalae , Pannonia Secunda ; ⚔ August 9 378 in the Battle of Adrian Opel ) was Roman Emperor in the East in the years 364-378.
Life
family
Valens was the younger brother of Valentinian I , who, shortly after his accession to the throne, appointed him tribunus stabuli (head stable master) on March 1, 364 , which gave him a post close to the emperor. On March 28th of the same year Valens was made junior Augustus , and he was given the responsibility of governing the east of the empire. After that, the brothers never saw each other again. On November 17, 375, Valens succeeded Valentinian as senior Augustus of the entire empire. With his wife Domnica he had daughters Anastasia and Carosa as well as Valentinianus Galates , heir to the throne, who was born on January 18, 366 and appointed consul in 369, but died a little later . In the then second imperial capital Constantinople , one can still see considerable remains of the Valens aqueduct that he built.
Religious politics
During his reign, Valens had to grapple with the theological problems that had arisen during the reign of his predecessors. Pagan philosophers were sometimes persecuted , but otherwise Valens was tolerant of the pagans. In the dispute between the followers of Nicene and the followers of so-called Arianism (more precisely in this context the term Homoer would be ), Valens supported the latter, which made him extremely unpopular, especially since there were sometimes violent riots against the Nicans. The religious policy of the Valens opposed, among others, the church fathers Athanasius and Basilius .
Military operations
Valens put down the usurpation of Procopius , probably a maternal relative of the emperor Julian , who claimed the succession to the throne in Constantinople on September 28, 365, citing his relationship to the Constantinian dynasty and alleged succession on the part of Julian. Valens defeated the opposing army at the Battle of Thyatira in Lydia on May 27, 366 , and Procopius was executed. In addition to many other supporters of the counter-emperor, his relative Marcellus , who allegedly planned a usurpation himself, was killed shortly afterwards .
367-369 Valens carried out a punitive expedition against the ( Terwingian ) Goths , who had tried to support the uprising with troops; the alleged success brought the emperor the victor by the name Gothicus maximus , which is mentioned in the dedication of the historical work of Eutropius .
In 376, three Gothic warriors' associations, who retreated from the Huns invasion of the previous year, turned south towards the Roman Empire. They asked the emperor to join them. The transfer of Terwingen , led by Alaviv and Fritigern , took place in consultation with Valens; Both military leaders provided the emperor with auxiliary troops for this purpose . The Greutungen under Alatheus and Safrax and the third, probably also from Greutungen and taifals existing group Farnobius forced in the following chaos the way across the Danube limes . Farnobius was defeated and his group settled in Italy. Both the Terwingen and the Greutungen of Alatheus and Safrax, which were also joined by the Huns and Alans in 377, were given residences in the province of Moesia secunda .
The emperor was then in Antioch , where he was planning a campaign against the New Persian Sassanid Empire , Rome's great opponent in the east; As so often, the point of contention was the Kingdom of Armenia , and Valens also sought revenge for the defeat that Julian had suffered in the east in 363. The Goths were supposed to fight for the emperor in the planned great war. Due to the fact that Roman troop commanders backed their food supplies, the Goths finally revolted against this patronizing and breach of contract in 376. The Roman troops on the Danube did not succeed in suppressing the rebellion. In the summer of 377, Valens was forced to take military action against the rebellious Goths instead of fighting the Persians, and concluded a peace treaty with the Sassanids.
death
When Valens reached the Danube region with his elite troops the next year, he decided not to wait for his nephew Gratian , who came to his aid from the west with a strong army. On August 9, 378, the battle of Adrianople took place , in which Valens was killed under dubious circumstances; he probably died fighting on the battlefield after most of his generals had already fled. According to other reports, however, the wounded emperor was burned alive when the Goths set fire to a house in which he had been hiding with some loyal followers. In any case, his body was never found. At the same time a large part of his army was destroyed.
The reign of Valens went with this military catastrophe to an end, the contemporary historian Ammianus Marcellinus regarded as a significant turning point and by some people as a beginning of the end of the Roman Empire, in retrospect as a precursor to the two pillaging of Rome in 410 and 455 was understood . Ammianus Marcellinus, the most important source for this time, let his historical work, the Res Gestae , end with the account of this battle.
To the population, the majority of which were already inclined towards Nicene, the death of the Arian Valens may have seemed like a divine judgment . At least that is how Isaac of Dalmatia saw it . The now senior emperor Gratian, Valentinian's eldest son, appointed Theodosius, a capable man who was not related to the imperial family, to be his successor as emperor after a short period in which Valens' wife Albia Domnica was regent . He was the son of the magister militum (army master) Valentinians of the same name and had proven himself five years earlier as dux Moesiae superioris (military commander in Moesia on the lower Danube); After the intermediate stage of an army master in Illyricum, the entire Balkan region, he was appointed Augustus on January 19, 379 , perhaps to forestall a usurpation. Theodosius founded the last dynasty in the late Roman Empire with the ruling family later named after him .
literature
- Jan den Boeft, Jan Willem Drijvers, Daniel den Hengst, Hans C. Teitler (Ed.): Ammianus after Julian. The Reign of Valentinian and Valens in Books 26-31 of the Res Gestae (= Mnemosyne Supplementa, Volume 289). Brill, Leiden 2007, ISBN 978-90-04-16212-9 .
- Alexander Demandt : The late antiquity (= handbook of ancient studies. 3rd section, 6th part). 2nd Edition. CH Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-55993-8 , pp. 136-154.
- Noel Lenski: Failure of Empire. Valens and the Roman State in the Fourth Century AD University of California Press, Berkeley 2002, ISBN 0-520-23332-8 .
- Franz Josef Wiebe: Emperor Valens and the pagan opposition. Habelt, Bonn 1995, ISBN 3-7749-2678-6 .
Web links
- Literature by and about Valens in the catalog of the German National Library
- Noel Lenski: Short biography (English) at De Imperatoribus Romanis (with references).
Remarks
- ↑ Gerd Kampers: History of the Visigoths. Schöningh, Paderborn 2008. ISBN 978-3-506-76517-8 . P. 111.
- ↑ Daniel Ziemann: From wandering people to great power. The emergence of Bulgaria in the early Middle Ages (7th – 9th centuries). Böhlau, Cologne, Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-412-09106-4 . P. 26.
- ↑ Walther Judeich: The Battle of Adrianople on August 9, 378 AD In: Deutsche Zeitschrift für Geschichtswwissenschaft Volume 6 (1891), pp. 1–21 ( online )
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Valentinian I. |
Roman emperor 364–378 |
Theodosius I. |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Valens |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Valens, Flavius |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | roman emperor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 328 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Cibalae, Pannonia |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 9, 378 |
| Place of death | Adrianople |