19 Facts About Valentinian II

Valentinian II was a Roman emperor in the western part of the Roman Empire between AD 375 and 392.

Valentinian II was at first junior co-ruler of his half-brother, then was sidelined by a usurper, and finally became sole ruler after 388, albeit with limited de facto powers.

Until 383, Valentinian II remained a junior partner to his older half-brother Gratian in ruling the Western empire, while the East was governed by his uncle Valens until 378 and Theodosius I from 379.

In 392, after repeated conflicts with Arbogast, Valentinian II was discovered hanged in his room under unknown circumstances.

Valentinian II was the half-brother of Valentinian's other son, Gratian, who had shared the imperial title with his father since 367.

The elder Valentinian II died on campaign in Pannonia in 375.

At the time, the younger Valentinian II was living with his mother in Sirmium or an imperial villa near Carnuntum.

However, Gratian and his court was essentially in charge of the whole Western empire, including Illyricum, and Valentinian II did not issue any laws and was marginalized in textual sources.

Valentinian II tried to restrain the despoiling of pagan temples in Rome.

Valentinian II refused the request and, in so doing, rejected the traditions and rituals of pagan Rome to which Symmachus had appealed.

Rufinus, influenced by Ambrose's writing, claimed that when Ambrose was found to have determinedly infracted the new laws, Justina persuaded Valentinian II to have him banished, and Ambrose was forced to barricade himself, with the enthusiastic backing of the people, within the walls of the Basilica.

Maximus indeed wrote a scathing letter attacking Valentinian II for plotting against God.

Valentinian II wrote to Theodosius and Ambrose complaining of his subordination to his general.

The latter ignored the order, publicly tearing it up and arguing that Valentinian II had not appointed him in the first place.

Valentinian II was laid in a porphyry sarcophagus next to his brother Gratian, most probably in the Chapel of Sant'Aquilino attached to San Lorenzo.

Valentinian II was deified with the consecratio: Divae Memoriae Valentinianus, lit.

Constantine I and his sons re-established the practice of hereditary succession, a system that Valentinian II I continued to maintain.

Valentinian II seems to have lacked authority as a figurehead for various interests: his mother, his co-emperors, and powerful generals.

Valentinian II's reign was a harbinger of the fifth century, when young emperors were controlled by powerful generals and officials until mid-century.