22 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 brother, was then sidelined by a usurper, and only after 388 sole ruler, 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.

However, Valentinian II soon found himself struggling to break free from the control of general Arbogast.

In 392, 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.

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 took no part in Theodosius's triumphal celebrations over Maximus.

Arbogast's domination over the emperor was considerable, and the general even murdered Harmonius, a friend of Valentinian II suspected of taking bribes, in the emperor's presence.

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

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

Zosimus writing in the early sixth century from Constantinople, states that Arbogast had Valentinian II murdered; ancient authorities are divided in their opinion.

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.

Valentinian II himself seems to have exercised no real authority, and was a figurehead for various powerful interests: his mother, his co-emperors, and powerful generals.

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

Valentinian II's reign was a harbinger of the fifth century, when children or nonentities, reigning as emperors, were controlled by powerful generals and officials in the West and in the East until mid-century.