Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/49

Rh V A L V A L 35 Maritime Andes. There are several manufactories, among them a weaving factory and one for the making of machinery and agricultural implements. An iron aque duct supplies the town with drinking water. Among the educational institutions are a college of science and a normal school. The climate is said to be healthy. The highest temperature is equal to 85 Fahr., the lowest 68, the mean 76 5. The population in 1883 was 36,145. A T ALENCIENNES, a town of France and a first-class fortress, in the department of N&quot;ord, is 157 miles north- north-east of Paris on the railway to Brussels, at the point where the river Rhonelle joins the Scheldt. The latter here divides into two branches, one of which flows through the town, while the other, canalized, fills the trenches of the citadel and skirts the fortifications. Valenciennes is the centre of a rich coal-field, which has called into exist ence numerous foundries, forges, rolling-mills, wire-works, and machine shops. There is also an extensive beetroot cultivation, with attendant sugar -works and distilleries. Cambrics and lawns are manufactured and calico-printing is carried on, though little of the famous lace is now made. There are a court of first instance, a chamber of commerce, a conseil de prud hommes, a chamber of agri culture, and a sugar exchange. The town -hall, rebuilt after the old plan in 1867-68, and surmounted by a square campanile, contains examples of the three &quot;Watteaus, Van Dyck, Velazquez, Rubens (the Stoning of St Stephen), as well as numerous productions of the native school of fine arts (founded in 1782). There are also collections of medals and seals and a fine specimen of old Valenciennes tapestry. The library, formed at the Revolution from the libraries of the religious houses of Valenciennes, St Amand, and the neighbourhood, contains 25,000 printed volumes and 980 MSS., the latter including valuable works in early Romance. Valenciennes also contains several interesting private collections, and has associations for the promotion of agriculture, science, art, music, itc. The church of Xotre Dame du Cordon, of the 13th-century style, was consecrated in 1864. The church of St Gery has a grace ful modern tower ; but only a few pillars remain of the old building of 1225. The crooked and ill-paved streets contain some houses of the 15th and 16th centuries. Statues of Watteau and Froissart adorn the town. Of the six gates three have some architectural pretensions. The population in 1881 was 23,291 (commune 27,607) and in 1886 22,919 (commune 27,575). Valenciennes, so named because founded or restored by the emperor Valentinian I., was a residence of Clovis, and it was hither that Charlemagne summoned his first assembly of states in 771. The Normans were repulsed from its fortifications in 881. Valen ciennes by turns belonged to Hainault and was independent, till taken by Baldwin of Flanders in 1003. It espoused the cause of Jean d Avesnes in 1353, and was unsuccessfully besieged by the Flemings. In the 16th century Valenciennes became the strong hold of Protestantism in Hainault, but was conquered by the Spaniards, who committed all sorts of excesses. In 1656 the Spaniards under Conde made a successful defence against the French under Turcnne ; but in 1677 Louis XIV. took the town after an eight days siege, and Vauban constructed the citadel. Valenciennes has since always belonged to France. In 1793, after forty-three days bombardment, the garrison, reduced to 3000 men, surrendered to the allied forces numbering some 140,000 or 150,000 men, with 400 cannon. In 1815 it defended itself successfully. Among the natives of Valenciennes may be mentioned Isabella of Hainault, wife of Philip Augustus of France, Baldwin IX. of Flanders (emperor of Constantinople), Jeanne of Flanders, Henry VII. of Luxemburg (emperor of Germany), Froissart, the painters Watteau (3), Pater, and Abel de Pujol, the sculptors De Crauck, Durez, Saly, Carpcaux, and Lemaire, the soldiers Jacques de Lalaing and Charles de Lannoy (viceroy of Naples), and the navigator Lemaire. VALENS, emperor of the East from 364 to 378, owed his elevation in the thirty -sixth year of his age to his brother Valentinian, who chose him to be his associate in the empire, of which a formal division into East and West was now once for all definitively arranged (see VALENTIN IAN I.). Valens had been attached to Julian s bodyguard, but he was not much of a soldier, though his father, Gra- tian of Pannonia, had risen from the ranks to a high posi tion. A revolt headed by Procopius in the second year of his reign, and backed up by the public opinion of Con stantinople and the sympathy of the Gothic princes and chiefs on the Danube, seemed so alarming that he thought of negotiation ; but in the following year the revolt collapsed at the prompt action of a loyal and able veteran officer. In the year 366 Valens at one stroke reduced the taxes of the empire by one-fourth, a very popular measure, though one of questionable policy in the face of the threaten ing attitude of the Goths on the lower Danube. Before venturing on a campaign against them, Valens received baptism from Eudoxus, the bishop of Constantinople and the leader of the Arian party. After some small successes over the Goths, won by his generals, Valens concluded a peace with them, which lasted six years, on a general understanding that the Danube was to be the boundary between Goths and Romans. On his return to Constanti nople in 369-370 Valens began to persecute his orthodox and Catholic subjects. Yet he can hardly have been a hearty and willing persecutor, or he would not have suffered the orthodox Basil to remain bishop of Csesarea in Cappa- docia, nor can he have been a thoroughgoing religious fanatic, or he would not have restrained many of his sub jects from burying themselves in monasteries to escape the duties of citizens. Indeed he had not the strength of will or force of character to have been either the one or the other. In the years 371 to 377 Valens was in Asia Minor, most of the time at the Syrian Antioch. The late war with Persia under the emperors Julian and Jovian had not been satisfactorily concluded : the question as to the possession or the protectorate of Armenia was still in suspense. Valens, though anxious to avoid an Eastern war, because of danger nearer home from the restlessness of the Goths, was compelled to take the field against Sapor, who had invaded and occupied Armenia. It seems that Valens l crossed the Euphrates in 373, and in Meso potamia his troops drove back the king of Persia to the farther bank of the Tigris. But the Roman success was by no means decisive, and no definite understanding as to boundaries was come to Avith Persia. Valens returned to Antioch, where in the winter of 373 a young man of high rank, Theodoras by name, was made to believe by a pack of fortune-tellers and magicians that the emperor s suc cessor would be a man whose name began with &quot; Theod.&quot; Theodorus was put to death, with many others whose name began with the same fatal letters ; and this led to a vindictive persecution throughout the province of Asia of all who professed or practised magic and necromancy. The age was a very superstitious and inquisitive one, and Valens certainly shared its weakness. Between 374 and 377 we read of grievous complaints of injustice and extor tion perpetrated under legal forms, the result probably of the recent panic, and pointing to an increasing weakness and timidity at headquarters. Although preparations were made for following up the war with Persia and securing the frontier, a truce was patched up, rather to the disad vantage of the empire, Armenia and the adjacent country being half conquered and annexed by Sapor. The armies of Rome, in fact, were wanted in another quarter. The Huns, of whom we now hear for the first time, were be ginning in 376 to press the Goths from the north, and the latter asked leave of the emperor to cross the Danube into Roman territory. This they were allowed to do, on the condition that they came unarmed, and their children were 1 Amm. Marc., xxix. 1 ; the narrative is brief aud iiot very clear.