Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/1224

Rh 1212 VALENTINIANUS. jiossession of the place without any difficulty. Joannes was seized and sent to Aquileia, where he was ignominiously put to death. Little is known of this usurper, but it is certain that the ecclesiastics were his enemies, for he attempted to destroy the privileges of the church ; and as an instance, he compelled all ecclesiastics to submit to the jurisdiction of the civil judge. In the meantime Aetius entered Italy with the Huns, and there was a bloody battle between him and Aspar, which was followed by a peace. The barbarians retired at the instance of Aetius and by the stronger persuasion of money ; and Aetius was pardoned and raised to the dignity of Comes. The first measure of Valentinian, or rather of Placidia, who acted in his name, was to restore to the ec- clesiastics all their privileges of which the usurper had deprived them. The same edict excluded Jews and Heathens from the practice of the law, and from all military rank. Manichaeans and other heretics and schismatics and astrologers were driven out of the towns. Placidia was zealous for the church. On the 23rd of October, A. D. 425, Valentinian, who was then probably at Rome, received from his cousin Theodosius the imperial purple and the title of Augustus. Placidia also received the title of Au- gusta, and probably at the same time when her son was made Augustus. In this year Theodoric, king of the Goths, took several places within the limits of the empire, and laid siege to Arelate (Aries) in Gaul, but on the approach of Aetius the Goths re- tired with some loss. In January A. D. 426, Valentinian was at Rome, as appears from the date of the imperial constitutions, which contained various provisions against informers (delatores), for the maintenance of the privileges of senators and magistrates, and other matters. Some constitutions of this year, dated from Ravenna, were intended to maintain the Christian faith : Jews and Samari- tans were prohibited from disinheriting their chil- dren because they had turned Christians. Bonifacius, comes of Africa, had assisted the cause of Placidia and her son by refusing to ac- knowledge the usurper Joannes, while Aetius had supported him ; and Bonifacius had received from Placidia during a visit to Italy testimonials of her gratitude. But on his return to Africa, Aetius, who was jealous of Bonifacius, accused him to Placidia of having a design to make himself in- dependent in his province, and advised her to test his fidelity by summoning him to appear before her. With double treachery, he at the same time warned Bonifacius not to come, because Placidia designed him no good, and Bonifacius, believing what he heard, disobeyed the summons of Placidia. Troops were sent against Bonifacius, and he called in to his aid (a. d. 428) the Vandals from Spain and their king Genseric. The subsequent history of Bonifacius is told elsewhere. [Bonifacius.] Aetius, who had stirred up an enemy in Boni- facius, was employed at the same time in fighting against the Franks, whom he defeated A. D. 428, and recovered from them those parts on the Rhine, where they had settled. In the following year Aetius was made commander of the Roman armies, in place of Felix, and he defeated the Goths near Aries, and took prisoner their chief Ataulphus. He also defeated the Juthongi, a German tribe near Rhaetia, and reduced the tribes of Noricum, which had revolted. Aetius VALENTINIANUS. had with him in these campaigns Avitus, who was afterwards emperor. In a. d. 431 he also reduced the Vindelici, having the same enemies to contend against whom Tiberius and Drusus had subdued in the time of Augustus. In a. d. 432 Aetius was consul with Valerius ; and in the same year apparently while Aetius was in Gaul, Boni- facius was recalled to Italy by Placidia, who had discovered the knavery of Aetius, and gave him the rank of master general of the forces. As early as A. D. 430 Placidia and Bonifacius knew the treachery of Aetius and were reconciled ; and Bonifacius then attempted to check the formidable enemy whom he had invited. After maintaining himself against the Vandals for some time in Hippo Regius and losing a battle, he retired from Africa and was welcomed at the court of Ravenna. On hearing of the promotion of his rival, Aetius re- turned to Italy, and the two generals settled their quarrel by a battle, in which Aetius was defeated, and Bonifacius received a mortal wound from the spear of Aetius, who fled to the Hmis in Pannonia; but he was soon pardoned and restored : he was too dangerous a man to make an enemy of. In February A. D. 435 Valentinian made peace with Genseric ; but at the same time disturbances broke out in Gaul, caused by the Bagaudae. The name first occurs in the time of Diocletian, and appears to have been adopted by the peasants themselves, who rose in arms, as it appears, against the oppression of their governors. (Eutropius, ix. 20, and the note in Verheyk's edition.) The Bagaudae were put down again, but they were not destroyed, for to destroy them it would have been necessary to remove the causes that called forth these bands of armed peasants, and the cause was the evils under which they groaned, heavy taxation, and all kinds of oppression. The picture of their sufferings, drawn by Salvianus, bears no small resemblance to the condition of the French peasantry before the revolution of 1789. In this year is also recorded a defeat of the Bur- gundians on the Rhine by the Romans, under Aetius. The Western empire- had enemies on all sides. The Goths who had been settled in Aquitania and the bordering coimtries since A. n. 419, broke out in hostilities in A. D. 436, and besieged the ancient Roman colony of Narbonne under their king Theo- doric, the son of Alaric. The siege lasted some time, but the Goths finally abandoned the under- taking, when the town had received a supply of provisions through the vigor of some Hunnish aux- iliaries, headed by Comes Litorius. At this time the western part of the Mediterranean and the shores of the ocean were infested by pirates, some of whom were Saxons. On the 21st of October a. d.437, Valentinian, being then eighteen years of age, came to Constan- tinople to celebrate his marriage with Eudocia, the daughter of Theodosius, who had been betrothed to him in a. d. 424. Valentinian surrendered to his father-in-law the western Illyricum, which had been already promised to the Eastern emperor by Placidia. He passed the winter with his wife at Thessalonica, and returned to Ravenna in the fol- lowing year. By this marriage Valentinian had two daughters, Eudoxia and Placidia. In A. D. 439 the Gothic war still continued, and Litorius was besieging Theodoric in Toulouse, who asked for peace, which Litorius refused. A battle