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VALENTINIAN I

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Originally appearing in Volume V27, Page 852 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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VALENTINIAN I ., See also:

Roman See also:emperor of the See also:West from A.D. 364 to 375, was See also:born at Cibalis, in See also:Pannonia. He had been an officer of the guard under See also:Julian and See also:Jovian, and had risen high in the imperial service. Of robust See also:frame and distinguished See also:appearance, he possessed See also:great courage and military capacity. He was chosen emperor in his See also:forty-third See also:year by the See also:officers of the See also:army at See also:Nicaea in See also:Bithynia in 364, and shortly after-wards named his See also:brother See also:Valens (q.v.) colleague with him in the See also:empire. The two See also:brothers, after passing through the See also:chief cities of the neighbouring See also:district, arranged the See also:partition ' Until nearly the See also:close of the 19th See also:century the See also:custom of sending " valentines "—i.e. See also:anonymous love-tokens, written or otherwise —on St See also:Valentine's See also:day was fairly See also:general. They gradually lost their See also:original significance, and the custom, where it survives, has become completely vulgarized.of the empire at Naissus (Nissa) in Upper See also:Moesia. As emperor of the West, Valentinian took See also:Italy, Illyricum, See also:Spain, the Gauls, See also:Britain and See also:Africa, leaving to Valens the eastern See also:half of the See also:Balkan See also:Peninsula, See also:Greece, See also:Egypt, See also:Syria and See also:Asia See also:Minor as far as See also:Persia. During the See also:short reign of Valentinian there were See also:wars in Africa, in See also:Germany and in Britain, and See also:Rome came into collision with See also:barbarian peoples of whom we now hear for the first See also:time—Burgundians, See also:Saxons, See also:Alamanni. The emperor's chief See also:work was guarding the frontiers and establishing military positions. See also:Milan was at first his headquarters for settling the affairs of See also:northern Italy; next year (365) he was at See also:Paris, and then at See also:Reims, to See also:direct the operations of his generals against the Alamanni. This See also:people, defeated at Scarpona (Charpeigne) and Catelauni (Chalons-sur-See also:Marne) by Jovinus, were driven back to the See also:German See also:bank of the See also:Rhine, and checked for a while by a See also:chain of military posts and fortresses.

At the close of 367, however, they suddenly crossed the Rhine, attacked Moguntiacum (See also:

Mainz) and plundered the See also:city. Valentinian attacked them at Solicinium (Sulz in the See also:Neckar valley or See also:Schwetzingen) with a large army, and defeated them with great slaughter, but his own losses were so considerable that he abandoned the See also:idea of following up his success. Later, in 374, he made See also:peace with their See also:king, Macrianus, who from that time remained a true friend of the See also:Romans. The next three years he spent at See also:Trier, which he chiefly made his headquarters, organizing the See also:defence of the Rhine frontier, and personally superintending the construction of numerous forts. During his reign the coasts of See also:Gaul were harassed by the Saxon pirates, with whom the Picts and Scots of northern Britain joined hands, and ravaged the See also:island from the See also:wall of Antorinus to the shores of See also:Kent. In 368 See also:Theodosius was sent to drive back the invaders; in this he was completely successful, and established a new See also:British See also:province, called See also:Valentia, in See also:honour of the emperor. In Africa the Moorish See also:prince, Firmus, raised the See also:standard of revolt, being joined by the provincials, who had been rendered desperate by the See also:cruelty and extortions of See also:Count See also:Romanus, the military See also:governor. The services of Theodosius were again requisitioned, He landed in Africa with a small See also:band of veterans, and Firmus, to avoid being taken prisoner, committed See also:suicide. In 374 the Quadi, a German tribe in what is now See also:Moravia and See also:Hungary, resenting the erection of Roman forts to the See also:north of the See also:Danube in what they considered to be their own territory, and further exasperated by the treacherous See also:murder of their king, See also:Gabinius, crossed the See also:river and laid See also:waste the province of Pannonia. The emperor in See also:April of the following year entered Illyricum with a powerful army, but during an See also:audience to an See also:embassy from the Quadi at Brigetio on the Danube (near See also:Pressburg) died in a See also:fit of See also:apoplexy. His general See also:administration seems to have been thoroughly honest and able, in some respects beneficent. If he was hard and exacting in the See also:matter of taxes, he spent them in the defence and improvement of his dominions, not in idle show or luxury.

Though himself a See also:

plain and almost illiterate soldier, he was a founder of See also:schools, and he also provided medical attendance for the poor of Rome, by appointing a physician for each of the fourteen districts of the city. He was an orthodox See also:Catholic, but he permitted See also:absolute religious freedom to all his subjects. Against all abuses, both See also:civil and ecclesiastical, he steadily set his See also:face, even against the increasing See also:wealth and worldliness of the See also:clergy. The great blot on his memory is his cruelty, which at times was frightful, and showed itself in its full fierceness in the See also:punishment of persons accused of See also:witchcraft, soothsaying or magical practices. See See also:Ammianus See also:Marcellinus See also:xxv.-See also:xxx.; See also:Gibbon, Decline and Fall, See also:chap. 25; T. See also:Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders, bk. i. chap. 3; H. See also:Schiller, Geschichte der romischen .f(aiserzeit (See also:Gotha, 1883-87), bk. iii. chap. iv. 27-30; H. See also:Richter, Das westromische Reich (See also:Berlin, 1865), pp. 24o-68.

After his See also:

death, his son, VALENTINIAN II., an See also:infant of four years of See also:age, with his half-brother See also:Gratian (q.v.) a lad of about' seventeen, became the emperors of the West. They made Milan their See also:home; and the empire was nominally divided petween them, Gratian taking the trans-Alpine provinces, Hhilst Italy, Illyricum in See also:part, and Africa were to be under jhe See also:rule of Valentinian, or rather of his See also:mother, Justina. Justina was an Arian, and the imperial See also:court at Milan pitted Itself against the Catholics, under the famous See also:Ambrose, See also:bishop of that city. But so great was his popularity that the court was decidedly worsted in the contest, and the emperor's authority materially shaken. In 387 See also:Magnus See also:Maximus (q.v.), who had commanded a Roman army in Britain, and had in 383 (the year of Gratian's death) made himself See also:master of the northern provinces, crossed the See also:Alps into the valley of the Po and threatgned Milan. The emperor and his mother fled to Theodosius, the emperor of the See also:East and See also:husband of Galla, Valentinian's See also:sister. Valentinian was restored in 388 by Theodosius, through whose See also:influence he was converted to Orthodox Catholicism. Four years later he was murdered at See also:Vienne in Gaul, probably at the instigation of his Frankish general See also:Arbogast, with whom he had quarrelled. See Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chap. 27; Schiller, Geschichte der romischen Kaiserzeit, bk. iii. vol. iv. pp. 32, 33 ;L. See also:Ranke,Weltgeschichte, bk. iv. vol. i. chap.

6 ; and especially H. Richter, Das westromische Reich unter den Kaisern Gratian, Valentinian II. and Maximus (Berlin, 1865), pp. 577-65o, where full references to authorities are given.

End of Article: VALENTINIAN I

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