Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/1214

Rh 1202 VALENS. VACCUS, M. VITRU'VIUS, a citizen of Fundi, was the leader of the revolt of the Fundani and Privernates against Rome in B. c. 330. He was a man of considerable reputation both in his own state and also at Rome, where he had a house on the Palatine. The consul L. Plautius Venno was sent to quell the revolt, which he effected without difficulty. On the capture of Privemum, Vaccus fell into the consul's hands, and was put to death after his triumph. His property was con- fiscated to the state, his house on the Palatine de- stroyed, and the site on which it stood was ever after called the Vacci Praia. (Liv. viii. 19, 20 ; Cic. pro Dom. 38.) VACU'NA, a Sabine divinity identical with Victoria. She had an ancient sanctuary near Horace's villa at Tibur, and another at Rome, i The Romans however derived the name from Va- cuus, and said that she was a divinity to whom the country people offered sacrifices when the la- bours of the field were over, that is, when they were at leisure, vacui. (Schol. ad Horat. Epist. i. 10. 49 ; Ov. Fast. vi. 307 ; Plin. H. N. iii. 17.) From the Scholiast, on Horace, we also learn that some identified her with Diana, Ceres, Venus, or Minerva. [L. S.] VALA, NUMO'NIUS. 1. C. Numonius VaLA, known only from coins, from which it ap- pears that he had obtained renown by storming a vallum^ and had hence obtained the surname of Vala^ which, according to the usual custom, be- came hereditary in his family. The coins were struck by one of his descendants in commemoration of the exploit. The one annexed has on the ob- verse the head of Numonius, with c. nvmonivs VAALA, and on the reverse a man storming the vallum of a camp, which is defended by two others, with Vaala. Vaala is an ancient form of Vala,, just as on the coins of Sulla we find Feelix mstead of Felix. (Eckhel, vol. v. p. 263.) COIN OP C. NUMONIUS VALA. 2. Numonius VALA,to whom Horace addresses one of his Epistles (i. 15), appears to have had estates in the neighbourhood of Velia and Salernum, since the poet makes inquiries of Vala about the climate of those places, as he intended to pass the winter in one of them. As this poem was probably written about B. c. 22, the friend of Horace was most likely the father of No. 3, if not the same person. 3. Numonius Vala, legate of Quintilius Varus in A. D. 9, left the infantry when they were at- tacked by the enemy in the fatal battle of that year, and fled with the cavalry to the Rhine, but was overtaken in his flight and slain. (Veil. Pat. il 119.) VALENS, one of the thirty tyrants enumerated by Trebellius PoUio [see Aureolus], was nomi- nated proconsul of Achaia by Gallienus in conse- quence of his high character as a soldier, and a statesman. The usurper Macrianus [Macrianus] VALENS. fearing him as a rival, and hating him as a private foe, despatched an emissary [Piso, No. 33], to put him to death. Valens, upon receiving intelligence of this design, conceived that he might best avoid the threatened danger by assuming the purple. Ac- cordingly he was proclaimed emperor, and was soon after murdered by his soldiers. (Trebell. Poll. Trig. Tyrann. xviii.) [W. R.] VALENS, the maternal granduncle or uncle of the preceding, rebelled in Illyria during the reign of Gallienus, and perished after having held sway for a few days. He also, as well as his nephew, is pressed into the list of the thirty tyrants by PoUio. (Trebell. Poll. Trig. Tyrann. xix.) [W. R.] VALENS, emperor of the East A. D. 364—378, the brother of Valentinian [Valentinianus I.], was bom about A. D. 328. The name of his wife was Albia Dominica, by whom he had a son and two daughters. Under Julian he was one of the Domestici. He was made emperor of the East by his brother on the 28th of March A. D. 364, as is told in the article Valentinianus. Valens had in his service the Prefect Sallustius, and the generals Lupicinus, Victor, and Arinthaeus. By a constitution of the 16th of December of this year, he forbade the practice of giving presents to those who carried to the provinces important news, such as the accession of an emperor or his assump- tion of the consulship : he allowed the carriers of such news to receive the presents which persons of property or condition might choose to give, but not to exact anything from those who were not in easy circumstances. The Goths are spoken of as having made their appearance in Thrace in this year, but they were induced to retire, probably by money. Valens left Constantinople in the spring of A. d. 365, for Asia Minor, and he was at Caesarea in Cappadocia in the month of July, when the great earthquake happened, which shook all the country round the Mediterranean. The revolt of Procopius for a time rendered the throne of Valens insecure. Procopius assumed the imperial title at Constan- tinople, on the 28th of September, a. d. 365, and Valens received the intelligence as he was going to leave Caesarea. [Procopius]. After the death of Procopius, A. D. 366, Valens treated the partisans of the rebel with great clemency according to Themistius ; but Ammianus and Zosimus say that he punished many innocent persons. The fact of some persons being punished is certain : the nature and degree of their participation in the revolt may be doubtful. The emperor had sworn to demolish the walls of Chalcedon for the share which it had taken in the insurrection, but at the prayer of the people of Nicaea, Nicomedia, and Constantinople, he satisfied his superstition by pulling down some small portion of the walls and rebuilding it. Pro- bably about this time he did Constantinople the service of improving the supply of water by building an aqueduct. The year a. i). 367 is memorable in the reign of Valens for an extraordinary event, the diminu- tion of the taxes by one fourth, a measure which rarely happens in the history of a nation, the general rule being progressive taxation till people can pay no more. The diminution was the less expected as a war with the Goths was imminent These barbarians had for some time hung on the northern frontier, and occasionally pillaged the Roman lands. Three thousand Goths, who had been sent by Athanaric to aid Procopius, were