Flavius Valens
Dynasty: Family of Valentinian
Augustus (AD 364-378)Flavius Valens became Augustus (Emperor) after his brother Valentinian raised him to his colleague shortly after his own election to Emperor by the troops in AD 364. Valentinian recognised that a colleague closely bound to him and trustworthy would be needed to help run the Empire. Valens ruled the East and was based in Constantinople. Valens was insecure in his rule, and suspected Procopius, a cousin of the earlier emperor Julian, of ambitions to become emperor, even though Procopius had previously declined all claims on the throne. Procopius went into hiding and then won the support of several generals, and it was Valens who had to flee Constantinople in AD 365. Procopius’ rebellion was defeated in AD 366 and Valens returned to Constantinople, persecuting Procopius’ adherents. When Valentinian died in AD 375, his son Gratian succeeded him, and Valens became the senior Augustus. In AD 376 the Huns had driven the Goths to the borders of the Roman Empire and they sought asylum with Valens. The emperors allowed them to cross, hoping to use them to bolster the Roman Army. The integration of the Goths, however, was badly mishandled, and in AD 377 they revolted. In AD 378 Valens and his army met the Goths at Adrianople where they were soundly defeated and Valens killed in the fighting: “At the first coming of darkness the emperor amid the common soldiers … fell mortally wounded by an arrow, and presently breathed his last breath; and he was never afterwards found anywhere.” (Ammianus 31.13.12). The Roman Empire was in disarray and the remaining emperor, Gratian, hastily proclaimed an exiled noble, Theodosius, to be Emperor in the East and salvage the loss.
For explanations of many of the abbreviations used in Roman imperial obverse legends, click here.
Currently there are no coins available for this person.