Valentinian II

Infobox Roman emperor
name = Valentinian II
full name = Flavius Valentinianus Junior (from birth to accession);
Flavius Valentinianus Junior Augustus (as emperor)
title =Emperor of the Roman Empire


caption =A solidus minted by Valentinian II. On the reverse, both Valentinian and Theodosius I are celebrated as victorious.
reign =375 - May 15 392
predecessor =Valentinian I
successor =Theodosius I
spouse 1 =
spouse 2 =
issue =
dynasty =Valentinian
father =Valentinian I
mother =Justina
date of birth =371
place of birth =
date of death =death date|392|5|15|mf=y
place of death =Vienne
place of burial =|

Flavius Valentinianus Junior (371 – 15 May 392), known usually by his anglicised name, Valentinian II, was a Roman Emperor from 375 to 392.

Early Life and Accession (371–375)

Flavius Valentinianus was born to Emperor Valentinian I and his second wife, Justina. He was the half-brother of Valentinian’s other son, Gratian, who had shared the imperial title with his father since 367. He had two sisters Galla 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. [ [http://www.roman-emperors.org/valenii.htm "DIR" "Valentinian II"] ]

Reign from Milan (375–387)

Gratian, forced to accommodate the generals who supported his half-brother, governed the trans-alpine provinces (including Gaul, Hispania, and Britain), while Italy, part of Illyricum, and Africa were under the rule of Valentinian. In 378 their uncle, the Emperor Valens, was killed in battle with the Goths at Adrianople, and Gratian invited the general Theodosius to be emperor in the East. As a child, Valentinian II was under the influence of his Arian mother, the Empress Justina, and the imperial court at Milan, an influence contested by the Catholic bishop of Milan, Ambrose.

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 Ambrose and his congregation barricaded themselves inside the church, and the imperial order was rescinded.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 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. Buoyed by this instruction, the pagan senators, led by Aurelius Symmachus, the Prefect of Rome, petitioned in 384 for the restoration of the Altar of Victory in the Senate House, 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. However, in 387 Maximus crossed the Alps into the Po 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. Although he was to appoint both of his sons emperor (Arcadius in 383, Honorius in 393), Theodosius remained loyal to the dynasty of Valentinian I.

Reign from Vienne (388–392)

After the defeat of Maximus, Theodosius installed Valentinian’s court at Vienne in Gaul. Justina had already died, and Vienne was far away from the influence of Ambrose. Theodosius appointed the trusted Frankish general Arbogast as magister militum for the Western provinces (bar Africa). Acting in the name of Valentinian, the Frank was actually subordinate only to Theodosius. [Williams & Friell, 126] 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 Julia 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, 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.

Significance

Valentinian himself seems to have exercised no real authority, and was a figurehead for various powerful interests: his mother, his co-emperors, and powerful generals. Since the Crisis of the Third Century, the empire had been ruled by powerful generals, a situation formalised by Diocletian and his collegiate system. While Constantine and his sons had been strong military figures, they had also re-established the practice of hereditary succession, adopted by Valentinian I. The obvious flaw in these two competing requirements came in the reign of Valentinian II, a child. [Williams & Friell, 42] His reign was a harbinger of the fifth century, when children or nonentities, reigning as emperors, were controlled by powerful generals and officials.

Notes

Bibliography

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

External links

* This [http://www.fourthcentury.com/index.php/imperial-laws-chart-364 list of Roman laws of the fourth century] shows laws passed by Valentinian II relating to Christianity.
* [http://www.roman-emperors.org/valenii.htm Walter F. Roberts, "Valentinian II" "De Imperatoribus Romanis" ]
* [http://www.roman-emperors.org/eugene.htm Walter F. Roberts, "Flavius Eugenius" "De Imperatoribus Romanis" ] s-ttl | title=Roman Emperor
years=371–392
alongside=Valens, Gratian and Theodosius I