Flavius
Julius Valens was born in 328 at Cibalae, which is now Vinkovci in eastern Croatia . He was
the second son of Gratian the Elder (so called to distinguish him from his
grandson who became Emperor Gratian) and the younger brother of Valentinian by
about seven years.
His early life
Although
Valentinian held important military commands under Emperors Julian and Jovian,
Valens stayed mainly on the family estate although he did accompany his brother
on Julian’s ill-fated foray into Persia in 363-4.
Valens only
came to public notice when his brother was unexpectedly elected Emperor by the
troops after the sudden death of Jovian. Valentinian, quite wisely, decided
that the job was too big for one man to do and asked that Valens should share
it with him. Valens therefore became Emperor of the eastern half of the Roman Empire on 28th March 364. Based in
Constantinople he had jurisdiction over the provinces bordering the eastern
Mediterranean and extending towards Persia . The eastern Balkans, as far
north as the Danube River , were also part of the Eastern
Empire .
The two
halves of the Empire were run as separate units to all intents and purposes,
with very little contact between the governments in Rome (or wherever the
Emperor and his officials chose to base themselves) and Constantinople. When
Valentinian fell dangerously ill in 367, the discussions over a possible
successor did not involve Valens, and when Valentinian died in 375 and his son
Gratian succeeded him, the subsequent proclamation of his much younger brother
as co-Emperor was carried out without Valens being asked to agree to it.
Dealing with the Goths
The main
issue to face Valens during his reign was the threat of an invasion from Goths
who lived north of the Danube but who were
threatening to cross over into the Empire. After a number of battles against
the Gothic tribes a truce was concluded in 369 according to which the Goths
agreed to stay north of the Danube , but they then
came under severe pressure from the Huns and sought refuge within the Empire.
The Gothic
tribes in question were the Tervingi and the Greuthingi. Many of the Tervingi
had abandoned their lands and sought refuge among the Greuthingi. When the
Greuthingi also sought to escape from the Huns by moving across the Danube , their numbers were therefore greatly swelled by
the neighbouring Tervingi who were incorporated with them.
In principle,
Valens was not against allowing the Goths to cross the Danube ,
as he saw them as a potential source of recruits for the Roman army. However,
he hoped to regulate their numbers by only allowing the Greuthingi to settle in
the Empire, which might have worked had it been possible to control the
situation by assigning enough troops to separate the two tribes and monitor
their entry.
As it was,
most of Valens’s troops were stationed on the eastern borders where the
Persians were a constant threat, so it was impossible to prevent far more
people crossing the Danube than had been intended. The situation was made worse
by the food supply network being totally inadequate to cope with a sudden
influx of so many hungry Goths.
Relations
between the Romans and the immigrants broke down completely. Instead of the
expected 30,000 to 40,000 people, around double that number were now swarming
across into a relatively small area south of the Danube .
If the Goths could not be contained, they would have to be countered on the
battlefield.
Valens sought
in vain for help from his western colleagues. Merobaudes, the military
commander in the western Balkans region that was nominally ruled by Valentinian
II, was more interested in securing his own borders against any incursions by
the Goths. Gratian, Valens’s nephew, might have been willing to send troops
east but had problems of his own in the form of an insurrection on the lower Rhine .
It was not
until 378 that Gratian was able to help, but by the time he could advance
eastwards Valens had taken action on his own behalf, with disastrous
consequences.
The Battle of Adrianople
By August 378
the Goths had advanced into Roman territory as far as Thrace (modern Turkey-in-Europe ). An army of some
30,000 men encamped at Adrianople , which is
where Valens’s force of 30,000 to 40,000 men met them on 9th August
after an eight mile march from their camp. The Roman left advanced and was
routed by the Gothic cavalry, which then encircled and destroyed the Roman
centre. The defeat was total, with up to two-thirds of the Roman army being
killed.
Valens died
along with his troops, although his body was never found. There was a story
that he was wounded and taken to a farmhouse which was later set on fire, thus
cremating his remains. Whatever the truth of this story, the Battle of
Adrianople was certainly one of the worst defeats ever suffered by a Roman
army.
The Arian Emperor
Valens is
also notable for having been a proponent of Arian Christianity, as opposed to
the Trinitarian Catholicism that had been sanctioned by the Council of Nicaea
in 325. In this he had differed from his brother Valentinian, but unlike his
brother had been less tolerant of opposing views. There was therefore a degree
of persecution of Catholic bishops in the Eastern Empire
during Valens’s reign. However, Theodosius, his successor in the east, was a
Catholic, so Arianism in the Eastern Empire
died with Valens.
© John
Welford
No comments:
Post a Comment