Valentinian II.

Marble bust of Valentinian II (?) In the Istanbul Museum (387–390)

Portrait of Valentinian II on the missorium of Theodosius I.

Solidus Valentinians II. On the reverse, Valentinian and Theodosius I are depicted as victorious.

Valentinian II (* autumn 371 probably in Augusta Treverorum , today Trier ; † 15 May 392 in Vienne ), actually Flavius ​​Valentinianus , was Roman emperor in the west from 375 until his death , until his death as co-emperor of his half-brother Gratian . His reign is a peculiarity because Valentinian II came to the imperial throne at a very young age. This sets him apart from most of the emperors who had ruled since the so-called imperial crisis of the 3rd century , most of whom were experienced generals: Although it had long been customary to endow Augusti's biological sons with imperial dignity as early as childhood, to arrange the succession; for example, at the age of five, Commodus had been promoted to Caesar . But Valentinian II was the first of these child emperors who nominally actually headed his own court and was supposed to rule his own part of the empire. This became possible in view of the growing importance of dynastic thinking for the succession in the Roman Empire. One can understand Valentinian's emperor rise as a prelude to the 5th century, in which emperor sons like Honorius , Theodosius II. And Valentinian III. also came to the throne very young and were therefore controlled by their relatives, advisers and generals.

Life

Augustus of the West

Valentinian II. Was at the age of four years, 375 after the sudden death of his father I. Valentinian by the troops in Aquincum to Augustus (Kaiser) in the west of the Roman Empire proclaimed. His emperor's rise was apparently largely carried out by the Germanic army master ( magister militum ) Merobaudes . Valentinian's 17-year-old half-brother Gratian , who had been raised to Augustus by his father eight years earlier , finally agreed, as did his uncle, now the longest-serving emperor ( senior Augustus ) Valens , who resided in the east of the empire.

The empire was nominally divided between the three Augusti (but remained a unit under constitutional law). Gratian got the transalpine provinces , while Valentinian was awarded to Italy , parts of Illyria and Africa and Valens remained responsible for the east. Of course, Valentinian, who resided in Milan , was not able to rule independently due to his age, so that Gratian de facto continued to rule the entire western part of the empire.

After the violent death of Valens in the Battle of Adrianople in July 378, the imperial college was expanded at the beginning of 379 to include Theodosius I , whom Gratian appointed as the successor to his uncle Valens as emperor in the east in order to forestall usurpation.

Justina and Ambrosius

Valentinian, although fundamentally legally responsible as a Roman emperor, was in fact under the tutelage of his half-brother Gratian for a long time, but above all under the influence of his mother Justina , who dominated him until her death around 388. Justina was an Arian (homoer) and thus stood in opposition to the extremely powerful and popular Catholic bishop Ambrosius in Milan , another important advisor to the emperor (see also the dispute over the Victoria altar in 384). A third essential advisor to the emperor was, besides Justina, the Franconian army master Bauto († around 385).

Ambrose more and more frequently opposed Valentinian's orders, especially with regard to his edict of tolerance in favor of the Arians, which finally culminated in the Church's first-ever claim to be allowed to judge emperors: 385/386 there was another conflict with Ambrosius. At Justina's request, the Basilica Portiana at the gates of Milan was to be made into a church for the Arians; this would have been formally in accordance with the laws that forbade Arian churches only within the cities. Ambrosius refused to do this and had both the Basilica Portiana and the large Basilica nova intramurana in the city center occupied by a violent crowd who opposed the imperial commissioners. Ambrosius wrote a letter to the emperor in which he stated that the final decision rests principally with the bishop. At the last moment the emperor called his soldiers back and left Milan for Aquileia. In June 386, Ambrose also claimed to have discovered the bones of the martyrs Gervasius and Protasius . Through this supposed miracle the bishop finally became unassailable; Valentinian II and Justina had to give in. In view of this obvious weakness, a little later Magnus Maximus (see below) openly intervened in church politics in the Valentinian part of the empire.

Magnus Maximus

In 383 a revolt broke out among the Roman troops in Britain . Its commander Magnus Maximus was finally by the army in Britain, Belgium , Germania prima and Germania secunda to Augustus proclaimed. Gratian went to meet the usurper , but his troops abandoned him and ran over to Magnus Maximus. Gratian was murdered shortly afterwards in Lyon . Maximus chose Trier as his residence and was temporarily recognized by Theodosius I , the emperor in the east and husband of Valentinian's sister Galla . At first he limited himself to the former part of the empire of Gratian, but in 387 Magnus Maximus crossed the Alps and marched towards Milan.

Valentinian and his mother fled to Thessalonike to Theodosius I. The latter reinstated Valentinian after he had defeated Maximus in two battles and executed shortly afterwards.

Death and succession

Valentinian himself had resided in Trier and Vienne since 389 , but even now he did not succeed in exercising independent government activity, although he was now formally Senior Augustus , the longest- serving emperor. This was mainly due to the powerful position of the Frankish army master Arbogast , who in fact ruled the west, well covered by Theodosius. He had an interest in keeping the younger, but formally superior, Valentinian under control. Arbogast is said to have even murdered a friend of Valentinian's, who had publicly contradicted him, before the eyes of the emperor. When Valentinian gave Arbogast a letter of dismissal, Arbogast tore it up, because since it was not he, but Theodosius who appointed him, only he could dismiss him: “You have neither given me power, nor can you take it from me.” Arbogast, however, succeeded Securing the Roman frontier against the Franks, who had plundered Gaul in 388 and destroyed a Roman punitive expedition; this emerges from the report by Sulpicius Alexander , which is preserved in the historical work of Gregory of Tours (see also Marcomer ).

Valentinian, whose character is praised in the sources, but who must have suffered badly under the tutelage of Arbogast, was found hanged on May 15, 392 in his palace in Vienne. The circumstances of his death are not entirely clear: According to several sources, he was secretly murdered at Arbogast's instigation; it was said that he was strangled while bathing. Since these authors were often concerned with portraying Theodosius I positively and as the avenger of Valentinian, great caution is required: the young emperor probably committed suicide because of his powerlessness. In this case, too, Arbogast could of course hardly be denied indirect guilt. Since it is not clear what advantage the army master could have expected from Valentinian's death, this reading is much more plausible in the opinion of most ancient historians . The fact that the emperor was not murdered is further supported by the fact that the throne had been vacant for months: If Valentinian had been killed, an immediate successor would probably have been available.

In any case, Arbogast asked Theodosius to raise or send a new Augustus to the West. But Theodosius, who perhaps did not want to let either of his two young sons fall into the hands of the master, remained inactive for three months. In August Arbogast therefore had the rhetorician Eugenius proclaimed emperor by the troops. He was a rather tolerant Christian and, after attempts to get closer to Ambrose of Milan had failed, soon came to an understanding with the pagan senatorial circles around Virius Nicomachus Flavianus , a pronounced pagan, although it is noticeable that several prominent pagans, including Quintus Aurelius Symmachus , are very close restrained. There was one final riot of paganism in the west, which in Rome the following year led to the reopening of the temples. Modern research, however, usually no longer attaches great importance to the religious aspect of the dispute, since Christians and pagans were on both sides. Theodosius's military reaction soon stifled the cautious pagan restoration: Theodosius passed laws that were supposed to finally ban paganism across the empire. In 394 he defeated Eugenius in the battle of Frigidus ; Both Eugenius and Arbogast lost their lives in this context, the empire was then reunited for the last time (and only briefly) under the rule of a single emperor (even if there were formally three Augusti , namely next to Theodosius and his two sons).

literature

• Alan Cameron : The Last Pagans of Rome. Oxford University Press, Oxford et al. 2011, ISBN 978-0-19-974727-6 .
• Brian Croke: Arbogast and the Death of Valentinian II. In: Historia 25, 1976, pp. 235-244.
• Wilhelm Enßlin : Valentinianus II. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume VII A, 2, Stuttgart 1948, Col. 2205ff.
• Meaghan A. McEvoy: Child Emperor Rule in the Late Roman West, AD 367-455 . Oxford University Press, Oxford et al. 2013, ISBN 978-0199664818

Web links

Commons : Valentinian II.  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Walter E. Roberts: Short biography (English) at De Imperatoribus Romanis (with references).

Remarks

1. ↑ This example shows the strong role of the army masters (the highest ranking officers in the army) that they could play in the late Roman Empire, especially in the west of the empire, against weaker emperors. See also the "Arbogast Affair" below.
2. ↑ The term "Arians" is very vague, as it sometimes denotes very different Christian theological currents. They generally held the view that Jesus was created only by God the Father. More on this in the articles Arius and Arianism .
3. ^ Zosimos 4:53.
4. ^ Gregory of Tours, Historiae 2.9.
5. ↑ Zosimos (4,54,3f.) And John of Antioch (fragment 187), however, report that the emperor was publicly slain by Arbogast during a military exercise , but this is obviously a mixture with the death circumstances of the emperor Valentinian III. in front.
6. ↑ Cf. Croke, Arbogast and the Death of Valentinian II.
7. ↑ See Joachim Szidat: Historical fiction in Zosimus: Der Tod Valentinians II. In: Historia 61, 2012, p. 371.
8. ↑ On the entire process, including the death of Valentinian, cf. also Hartmut Leppin: Theodosius the Great . Darmstadt 2003, pp. 205ff.

predecessor	Office	successor
Valentinian I. and Gratian	Roman Emperor 375–392	Theodosius I.