Valentinian II

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Valentinian II

Flavius Valentinianus Iunior (371 – 15 May 392

392

Events...
), known usually by his anglicised name, Valentinian II, was a Roman Emperor

Roman Emperor

The Roman Emperor was the ruler of the Roman Empire during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office: Latin language titles such as imperator , Augustus , Caesar and princeps were all associated with it....
from 375 to 392.

ius Valentinianus was born to Emperor Valentinian I

Valentinian I

Flavius Valentinianus, known in English as Valentinian I, was Roman Emperor from 364 until his death. Valentinian is often referred to as the "last great western emperor"....
and his second wife, Justina. He was the half-brother of Valentinian’s other son, Gratian

Gratian

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Flavius Valentinianus Iunior (371 – 15 May 392

392

Events...
), known usually by his anglicised name, Valentinian II, was a Roman Emperor

Roman Emperor

Early Life and Accession (371–375)

Flavius Valentinianus was born to Emperor Valentinian I

Valentinian I

Gratian

Flavius Gratianus , known usually by the anglicised name Gratian, was a Western Roman Emperor from 375 to 383.He favoured the Christian religion against Roman polytheism, refusing the traditional polytheistic attributes of the emperors and removing the Altar of Victory from the Roman Senate....
, who had shared the imperial title with his father since 367. He had three sisters Galla, Grata and Justa. The elder Valentinian died on campaign in 375. Instead of merely acknowledging Gratian as his father’s successor, Valentinian I’s generals acclaimed the four-year old boy augustus on 22 November 375. The army may have been uneasy about Gratian's lack of military ability, and so raised a boy who would not immediately aspire to military command.

Reign from Milan (375–387)

Gratian, forced to accommodate the generals who supported his half-brother, governed the trans-alpine provinces (including Gaul

Gaul

Gaul is the name used for the region of Western Europe comprising part of present day northern Italy, France, Belgium, western Switzerland and the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the west bank of the River Rhine....
, Hispania

Hispania

Hispania was the name given by the Ancient Rome to the whole of the Iberian Peninsula . When Rome was a Roman Republic, Hispania was divided into Roman provinces: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior....
, and Britain

Roman Britain

Roman Britain refers to those parts of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire between AD 43 and 410. The Romans referred to their province as Britannia....
), while Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
, part of Illyricum

Illyricum

Illyricum can refer to:* Illyricum * Diocese of Illyricum* Praetorian prefecture of Illyricum...
, and Africa

Africa Province

File:Roman Africa.JPGThe Roman province of Africa was established after the Romans defeated Carthage in the Third Punic War. It roughly comprised the territory of present-day northern Tunisia, north-eastern Algeria and the Mediterranean Sea coast of modern-day western Libya along the Syrtis Minor....
were under the rule of Valentinian. In 378, their uncle, the Emperor Valens

Valens

Flamin Julius Valens was Roman Emperor , after he was given the Eastern part of the empire by his brother Valentinian I. Valens, sometimes known as the Last of the Romans, was defeated and killed in the Battle of Adrianople, which marked the beginning of the fall of the Western Roman Empire....
, was killed in battle with the Goths

Goths

The Goths were East Germanic tribes who, in the 3rd and 4th centuries, invasion the Roman Empire and later adopted Arian Christianity. In the 5th and 6th centuries, divided as the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, they established powerful successor-states of the Roman Empire in the Iberian peninsula and Italy....
at Adrianople

Battle of Adrianople

The second Battle of Adrianople , sometimes known as the Battle of Hadrianopolis, was fought between a Roman Empire army led by the Roman Emperor Valens and Goths rebels led by Fritigern....
, and Gratian invited the general Theodosius

Theodosius I

Flavius Theodosius , also called Theodosius I and Theodosius the Great , was Roman Emperor from 379 to 395. Reuniting the eastern and western portions of the empire, Theodosius was the last emperor of both the Eastern Roman Empire and Western Roman Empire....
to be emperor in the East. As a child, Valentinian II was under the influence of his Arian

Arianism

Arianism is the theological teaching of Arius , a Christian priest, who was first ruled a heresy at the First Council of Nicea, later exonerated and then pronounced a heretic again after his death....
mother, the Empress Justina, and the imperial court at Milan

Milan

Milan is the second largest city of Italy, located in the plains of Lombardy. It is the capital in the Province of Milan, as well as the Regions of Italy capital of Lombardy....
, an influence contested by the Catholic

Catholic

Catholic is an adjective derived from the Greek language adjective , meaning "whole" or "complete". In the context of Christianity ecclesiology, it has a rich history and several usages....
bishop

Bishop

A bishop is an ordination or consecration member of the Clergy#Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight....
of Milan, Ambrose

Ambrose

Saint Ambrose was a Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milan who became one of the most influential ecclesiastical figures of the fourth century. He is counted as one of the four original doctors of the Church....
.

Justina used her influence over her young son to oppose the Catholic party which was championed by Ambrose. In 386, she sanctioned the requisitioning of a Milanese church for Arian usage. Ambrose and his congregation barricaded themselves inside the church, and the imperial order was rescinded. Magnus Maximus

Magnus Maximus

Magnus Clemens Maximus , also known as Maximianus, was a Hispanic Roman usurper of the Western Roman Empire from 383 until his death, in 388, by order of Emperor Theodosius I....
used the emperor’s heterodoxy against him, and even his eventual protector, Theodosius, cast aspersions on his Arianism. Valentinian also tried to restrain the despoiling of pagan temples in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
. Buoyed by this instruction, the pagan senators

Roman Senate

The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic. According to the Greek historian Polybius, our principal source on the Constitution of the Roman Republic, the Roman Senate was the predominant branch of government....
, led by Aurelius Symmachus

Quintus Aurelius Symmachus

Quintus Aurelius Symmachus , the cultured and prominent son of a prominent father, Lucius Aurelius Avianius Symmachus, in the patrician gens Aurelia, held the offices of proconsul of Africa in 373, urban prefect of Rome in 384 and 385, and consul in 391....
, the Prefect of Rome

Praefectus urbi

Praefectus urbanus, or praefectus urbi, Prefect#Ancient Rome of the city of Rome, and later of Constantinople. The office originated under the Kingdom of Rome#Kings of Rome, continued during the Republic and Empire, and held high importance in late antiquity....
, petitioned in 384 for the restoration of the Altar of Victory

Altar of Victory

The Altar of Victory was located in the Roman Senate House bearing a gold statue of the goddess Nike . The altar was established by Augustus in 29 BC in honor of the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra at Actium....
in the Senate House

Curia Julia

File:Forum of Roma before Caesar.svgThe Curia Hostilia, was the original Senate House of the Roman Republic. It is believed to have been constructed during the reign of Tullus Hostilius , in the 7th century BC, and rebuilt a number of times....
, which had been removed by Gratian in 382. Valentinian, at the insistence of Ambrose, refused the request and, in so doing, rejected the traditions and rituals of pagan Rome to which Symmachus had appealed.

In 383, Magnus Maximus, commander of the armies in Britain, declared himself Emperor and established himself in Gaul and Hispania. Gratian died while fleeing him. For a time the court of Valentinian, through the mediation of Ambrose, came to an accommodation with the usurper, and Theodosius recognized Maximus as co-emperor of the West

Western Roman Empire

The Western Roman Empire refers to the western half of the Roman Empire, from its division by Diocletian in 285; the other half of the Roman Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire, today widely known as the Byzantine Empire....
. However, in 387, Maximus crossed the Alps

Alps

The Alps is the name for one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east; through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany; to France in the west....
into the Po

Po River

The Po is a river that flows 652 km eastward across northern Italy, from Monviso to the Adriatic Sea near Venice. It has a drainage area of 71,000 km? and is the longest river in Italy....
valley and threatened Milan. Valentinian II and Justina fled to Theodosius in Thessalonica. The latter came to an agreement, cemented by his marriage to Valentinian’s sister Galla, to restore the young emperor in the West. In 388, Theodosius marched west and defeated Maximus. He then proceeded to marginalise the restored Valentinian, while still remaining theoretically loyal to the dynasty of Valentinian I.

Reign from Vienne (388–392)

After the defeat of Maximus, Theodosius installed Valentinian’s court at Vienne

Vienne, Isère

Vienne is a Communes of France in southeastern France, located 20 miles south of Lyon, on the Rh?ne River. It is the second largest city after Grenoble in the Is?re department in France, of which it is a Subprefectures in France....
in Gaul. Justina had already died, and Vienne was far away from the influence of Ambrose. Theodosius appointed the trusted Frankish

Franks

The Franks or Frankish people were a West Germanic ethnic group first identified in the 3rd century as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River....
general Arbogast

Arbogast (general)

Flavius Arbogastes , or Arbogast was a Franks general in the Roman Empire. It has been stated by some ancient historians that he was the son of Flavius Bauto, Valentinian II's former magister militum and protector before Arbogast, but modern scholars largely discount this claim ....
as magister militum

Magister militum

Magister militum was a top-level military command used in the later Roman Empire, dating from the reign of Constantine I . Used alone, the term referred to the senior military officer of the Empire....
for the Western provinces (bar Africa). Acting in the name of Valentinian, the Frank was actually subordinate only to Theodosius. While the general campaigned successfully on the Rhine, the young emperor remained at Vienne, in contrast to his warrior father. Even his less competent older brother had campaigned at his age. Valentinian wrote to Theodosius and Ambrose complaining of his subordination to his general.

The crisis reached a peak when Valentinian formally dismissed Arbogast. The latter ignored the order, arguing that Valentinian had not appointed him in the first place. The reality of where the power lay was openly displayed. On 15 May 392, Valentinian was found hanged in his residence in Vienne. Arbogast maintained that the emperor’s death was suicide. The young man’s body was conveyed in ceremony to Milan for burial by Ambrose, mourned by his sisters Justa and Grata. The bishop gave a eulogy which was ambiguous on the question of foul play.

Whether or not Arbogast had a hand in Valentinian’s death, he was to elevate an imperial official, Eugenius

Eugenius

Flavius Eugenius was a Roman usurper against Roman Emperor Theodosius I. Though himself a Christian, he was the last Emperor to support Roman polytheism....
, as Emperor in the West. Theodosius initially tolerated this regime, but in January 393, elevated the eight year old Honorius as augustus in place of Valentinian II. Civil war ensued, and in 394, Theodosius defeated Eugenius and Arbogast.

Bibliography

Stephen Williams & Gerard Friell, Theodosius: the Empire at Bay. (Routledge, 1994)

External links

This shows laws passed by Valentinian II relating to Christianity.