Valens Flavius
328 – 378 · Generation XVII · Eastern emperor (r. AD 364–378) · Valentinian · Theodosian
Valens (AD 328 – AD 378). Eastern emperor (r. AD 364–378). Fell with two-thirds of the eastern army at Adrianople — the defeat that let the Goths inside the empire for good. Before the catastrophe came fourteen busy years: he put down the usurper Procopius, twice crossed the Danube against the Goths, and wrestled with Persia over Armenia while facing revolts of Isaurians and the Saracen queen Mavia. In Constantinople he inaugurated the great aqueduct that bears his name, longer than any that served Rome itself, and as an administrator he did much to lighten what the population owed in tax. Yet his suspicious temper fed treason trials and executions, and he is remembered as an indecisive man and a mediocre soldier. When the Goths he had admitted across the Danube rose against their corrupt Roman handlers, he declined to wait for his nephew Gratian's western army — advancing to a battle he believed he could win alone.
One of 16 people of Valentinian · Theodosian (321–462) in this archive. The last house to rule both halves of the empire at once.
Parents
- Gratianus Funarius (290 – 350)
Siblings
- Valentinian I Flavius (321 – 375)