34 Facts About Valentinian I

Valentinian I, sometimes called Valentinian the Great, was Roman emperor along with his brother Valens from 364 to 375.

Gratianus was promoted to comes Africae in the late 320s or early 330s, and the young Valentinian I accompanied his father to Africa.

Valentinian I joined the army in the late 330s and later probably acquired the position of protector domesticus.

In 357 Valentinian I was a tribunus of cavalry, possibly the Joviani in Roman Gaul.

Valentinian I was then exiled to Thebes, in the Thebaid of Roman Egypt.

Valentinian I's death was attributed to either assassination by poisoning or accidental carbon monoxide poisoning.

Valentinian I reassured them that the army was his greatest priority.

Valentinian I retained the services of Dagalaifus and promoted Aequitius to Comes Illyricum.

Valens resided in Constantinople, while Valentinian I's court was situated in Milan.

In early 367 Valentinian I was distracted from launching a punitive expedition against the Alamanni due to crises in Britain and northern Gaul.

Valentinian I succeeded in arranging the assassination of Vithicabius, an Alamannic leader, but Valentinian I was more determined to bring the Alamanni under Roman hegemony.

Valentinian I spent the entire winter of 367 gathering a massive army for a spring offensive.

Valentinian I summoned the Comes Italiae Sebastianus, with the Italian and Illyrian legions, to join Jovinus and Severus, the magister peditum.

Finally, Valentinian I fought the Alamanni in the Battle of Solicinium; the Romans were victorious but suffered heavy casualties.

Valentinian I campaigned unsuccessfully for four more years to defeat Macrian who in 372 barely escaped capture by Theodosius.

Meanwhile, Valentinian I continued to recruit heavily from Alamanni friendly to Rome.

In 374 Valentinian I was forced to make peace with Macrian because the Emperor's presence was needed to counter an invasion of Illyricum by the Quadi and Sarmatians.

In 367, Valentinian I received reports from Britain that a combined force of Picts, Attacotti and Scots had killed the Comes litoris Saxonici Nectaridus and Dux Britanniarum Fullofaudes.

Valentinian I set out for Britain, sending Comes domesticorum Severus ahead of him to investigate.

Valentinian I then sent Jovinus to Britain and promoted Severus to magister peditum.

In 368 Valentinian I appointed Theodosius as the new Comes Britanniarum with instructions to return Britain to Roman rule.

Valentinian I did not receive news of these crises until late 374.

Valentinian I replied that he would investigate what had happened and act accordingly.

Valentinian I was accompanied by Sebastianus and Merobaudes, and spent the summer months preparing for the campaign.

Clearly, Valentinian I had his enemies in Rome who wanted to defame him by describing him as an illiterate brute.

Valentinian I was an able soldier and a conscientious administrator, and took an interest in the welfare of the humbler classes, from which his father had risen.

Valentinian I reissued an edict of Constantine I making infanticide a capital offence.

Notwithstanding the benevolence of these more generous edicts, Valentinian I was remarkable for cruelty and barbarism in his private affairs.

Valentinian I often had servants and attendants executed on trifling charges, and was reportedly accustomed to keep two bears, known as Mica Aurea, and Innocence, in an iron cage which was transported wherever he went, whom he employed to execute the sentence, which he often delivered, of capital punishment.

Valentinian I was a Christian but permitted liberal religious freedom to all his subjects, proscribing only some forms of rituals such as particular types of sacrifices, and banning the practice of magic.

Again, Valentinian I steadily set his face against the increasing wealth and worldliness of the clergy.

Valentinian I issued a pointed edict via Pope Damasus I, forbidding the grant of bequests to Christian clergy-men; and another forcing members of the sacerdotal order to discharge the public duties owed on account of their property, or else relinquish it.

Valentinian I accordingly framed a law, and caused it to be published throughout all the cities, by which any man was permitted to have two lawful wives.

Barnes believes this story to be an attempt to justify the divorce of Valentinian I without accusing the emperor.