Valentinos (General)

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Valentinos ( Middle Greek Οὐαλεντῖνος , Latin Valentinus ; † 644 ) was a Byzantine general, pretender to the imperial crown and temporarily regent of the Byzantine Empire under Emperor Konstans II .

origin

Valentinos was of Armenian descent and came from a noble family that traced itself back to the Arsacids , whose lineage dates from around 240 BC. Ruled the Persian Empire until 224 AD and ruled the Kingdom of Armenia from 54 to 428 AD .

His father Johannes (* 545 in Thrace ; † 591 ) had played an important role in the Roman-Persian wars , as he had served as the Eastern Roman army master under the emperors Tiberios Konstantinos and Maurikios in central command positions: from 579 to 582 as magister militum per Armeniam , from 582 to 583 as magister militum per Orientem , 587 as magister militum per Thracias and from 589 to 591 again as magister militum per Armeniam .

Valentinos' mother was Placida (* around 560), a daughter of Anastasios (* around 530, † after 571) - who was a grandson of Empress Theodora I , the wife of Emperor Justinian (527-565), from an early relationship - and Juliana. This Juliana, Valentinos' grandmother, is remarkable in that she was in direct line with Valentinian III through her mother Proba . who ruled the Western Roman Empire from 425 to 455 as emperor . Valentinos was thus distantly related to the Theodosian dynasty .

Life

In spring 641 Valentinos was from the terminally ill Emperor Constantine III. allegedly assigned to distribute funds to the army in order to prevent the soldiers from supporting his stepmother Martina and her son Heraklonas . After Constantine's death, they initially came to power, but in the end the rival court party around Valentinos, who Heraklonas had in the meantime named comes excubitorum , succeeded in the autumn of 641 with military pressure, Constantine's son Constantine II, as heir to the throne.

At this point in time Valentinos is said to have tried for the first time to raise himself to the rank of co-emperor ( Caesar ), but met with massive opposition in Constantinople . Nevertheless, tolerated by the imperial mother and nominal regent Gregoria , in the years 642 and 643 he effectively led the government for the still underage Konstans and continued to claim quasi-emperor powers. His daughter Fausta was married to Konstans and made Augusta .

643/644, Valentinos, as magister militum per Orientem, carried out a campaign in Syria against the Arabs under Caliph Uthman in reaction to the Islamic conquest of the Levant , which failed bloody. The failure of this operation apparently led to a rift between the emperor and his general. According to the contemporary chronicler Sebeos , Valentinos then appeared with part of his army in front of the capital and again demanded the dignity of Caesar . It is unclear whether he received the title. In the medium term, his grip on power failed due to resistance from the court and the Patriarch Paulos . Valentinos' soldiers were defeated, and the angry people are said to have killed the usurper as a result.

Marriage and offspring

Neither the name nor the origin of the wife of the Arsakid Prince Valentinos is known. Valentinos had at least one daughter: Fausta "Augusta" (* around 625; † after 661) was married to Konstans II (* November 7, 630 ; † September 15, 668 in Syracuse ), who owed his rule to the influence of his father-in-law, however, large parts of the Eastern Roman-Byzantine Empire in the southeast were lost to the rapidly advancing Arabs .

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literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Christian Settipani : Continuité des élites à Byzance durant les siècles obscurs. Les princes Caucasiens et l'empire du VIe au IXe siècle. De Boccard, Paris 2006, ISBN 2-7018-0226-1 , p. 126.
  2. ^ Christian Settipani: Continuité des élites à Byzance durant les siècles obscurs. Les princes Caucasiens et l'empire du VIe au IXe siècle. De Boccard, Paris 2006, ISBN 2-7018-0226-1 , p. 125, note 3.
personal data
SURNAME Valentinos
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Valentinus; Οὐαλεντῖνος (Middle Greek)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Eastern Roman general
DATE OF BIRTH 6th century or 7th century
DATE OF DEATH 644
Place of death Constantinople