Valens Flavius

, a son of Gratian, born in Pannonia. His brother Val ent in i an took him as his colleague on the throne, and appointed him over the eastern parts of the Roman empire. The bold measures and the threats of the rebel Procopius frightened the new emperor; and if his friends had not interfered, he would have willingly resigned all his pretensions to the empire which his brother had entrusted to his care. By perseverance, however, Valens was enabled to destroy his rival, and to distinguish himself in his wars against the northern barbarians. But his lenity to these savage intruders proved fatal to the Roman power; and by permitting some of the Goths to settle in the provinces of Thrace, and to have free acce to every part of the country, Valens encouraged them to make depredations on his subjects, and to disturb their tranquillity. His eyes were opened too late; he attempted to repel them, but he failed in the attempt. A bloody battle was fought, in which the barbarians obtained some advantage, and Valens was hurried away by the obscurity of the night, and the affection of the soldiers for his person, into a lonely house, which the Goths set on fire. Valens, unable to make his escape, was burnt alive in the 50th year of his age, after a reign of 13 years, A.D. 378. He has been blamed for his superstition and cruelty, in putting to death all such of his subjects whose name began by Theod , because he had been informed by his favourite astrologers that his crown would devolve upon the head of an officer whose name began with these letters. Valens did not po e any of the great qualities which distinguish a good and powerful monarch. He was illiterate, and of a disposition naturally indolent and inactive. Yet though timorous in the highest degree, he was warlike; and though fond of ease, he was acquainted with the character of his officers, and preferred none but such as po e ed merit. He was a great friend to discipline, a pattern of chastity and temperance, and he showed himself always ready to listen to the just complaints of his subjects, though he gave an attentive ear to flattery and malevolent informations. Ammianus , . ――Valerius, a proconsul of Achaia, who proclaimed himself emperor of Rome, when Marcian, who had been invested with the purple in the east, attempted to a a inate him. He reigned only six months, and was murdered by his soldiers, A.D. 261.――Fabius, a friend of Vitelli us, whom he saluted emperor, in opposition to Otho. He was greatly honoured by Vitelli us, . ――A general of the emperor Honor i us.――The name of the second Mercury mentioned by Cicero , de Natura Deorum , bk. 3 , ch. 22 , but considered as more properly belonging to Jupiter.