Valens Thessalonicus

Valens Thessalonicus († probably 261) was a Roman counter-emperor.

Valens Thessalonicus was governor of the province of Achaea in what is now Greece . Possibly he was also responsible for the province of Macedonia . During the usurpation of the Macriani, he remained loyal to the rightful emperor Gallienus . Macrianus Maior therefore commissioned Piso , who a little later proclaimed himself emperor, to fight Valens. The soldiers of the Valens countered this threat by making him emperor as well. Piso was soon killed by the Valen's troops, who eventually turned against their commander. So this one also found death in 261.

The events of Valens Thessalonicus and Piso remain unclear and the only detailed source, the Historia Augusta , is contradictory and generally considered to be unreliable. References to the Res Gestae of Ammianus Marcellinus in the works of other authors suggest that Valens Thessalonicus also treated this, but the books in question have been lost.

literature

Thomas Franke : Valens [1]. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 12/1, Metzler, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-476-01482-7 , Sp. 1079.
Arnold Hugh Martin Jones , John Robert Martindale, John Morris : Valens 2. In: The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire (PLRE). Volume 1, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1971, ISBN 0-521-07233-6 , pp. 929-930.

Web links

Christian Körner: Short biography (English) at De Imperatoribus Romanis (with references).

Remarks

↑ The Cognomen Thessalonicus is attested in Ammianus Marcellinus 21,16,10 and possibly indicates that Valens was proclaimed emperor in Thessaly.
↑ On the events of Valens Thessalonicus see Gallienus 2: 2–4; Thirty tyrants 19-21.
↑ Cf. Ammianus Marcellinus 21,16,10; Robert M. Frakes: Cross-References to the Lost Books of Ammianus Marcellinus. In: Phoenix. Volume 49, 1995, pp. 232-246.

personal data
SURNAME	Valens Thessalonicus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Valens
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Roman counter-emperor
DATE OF BIRTH	2nd century or 3rd century
DATE OF DEATH	uncertain: 261

[1] The Cognomen Thessalonicus is attested in Ammianus Marcellinus 21,16,10 and possibly indicates that Valens was proclaimed emperor in Thessaly.

[2] On the events of Valens Thessalonicus see Gallienus 2: 2–4; Thirty tyrants 19-21.

[3] Cf. Ammianus Marcellinus 21,16,10; Robert M. Frakes: Cross-References to the Lost Books of Ammianus Marcellinus. In: Phoenix. Volume 49, 1995, pp. 232-246.