Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 19.djvu/935

* VALENTINE AND ORSON. r'J9 VALENTINIAN. I VALENTINE AND OR'SON. A Carolingian romance, written in the second half of the fif- teenth century and jjrinted at Lyons in 14!15. It narrates the liistory of the two title eliarac- ters. who are twin brutlicrs, sons of the linijjcror of Constantinople. They are born in a wood. Orson is earrieil oft' by a bear and ijrows up as a savage denizen of the forest, but Valentine is found b' his uncle. King Pepin, and is trained at the palace to be a finished courtier. In 1589 Hathaway and JIunday wrote a play founded upon the story, and six years later an interlude bearing the same title was prcnluced. VALENTINE VOX, THE VENTRILO- QUIST. A lengthy and once popular novel by Henry Cockton (1840), abounding in farcical situations produced by the hero's use of his gift. It is said to have infiuenced a change in the English lunacy laws through its description of a sane man driven to madness by incarceration in a lunatic asylum. VALENTINIAN. A highly rhetorical ro- mantic drama by Fletcher produced before March, 1018-19, but not printed until 1G47. It contains some quite simple and very beautiful songs. VAL'ENTINIAN ( Valektimianus). The name of three Roman emperors of the same family. The most famous, Valenti.nian I. (a.d. 304-375), was the son of humble parents, and was born at Cibalis, in Pannonia, in 321. Valen- tinian entered the army at an early age, and rose rapidly in rank under the emperors Con- stantius and Julian, only, however, to fall more rapidly; for he was degraded by Constantius in 357, and banished by Julian in 302. Restored to favor in the following year, he distinguished himself in the East, and on the death of Jovian was unanimously chosen as his successor (Febru- ary 25, 304 ). A month after his accession he chose as his colleague his brother, Valcns (q.v. ), to whom he resigned the government of the East, reserving for himself lUyricuni, Italy, the Gauls, Britain, Spain, and Africa. During Valentin- ian"s reign the Alemanni repeatedly (306-308) ravaged the east, and the Saxons (370) the north- cast of Gaul; lllyricnm was wasted (370) by the Quadi. and Africa by the southern desert tribes, though these invasions were mostly repelled and revenged. The internal administration, on the other hand, was excellent, for the Emperor added to his ability prudence and firmness, vigilance and impartiality. Though himself a zealous Catholic, he permitted his subjects to adopt wliatever religion they chose, and strictly forbade all persecution or annoyance on account of re- ligious belief. On account of the abuse of eccle- siastical influence, he excluded priests and monks from the right of succession to property; judicial proceedings were forbidden to be held in private; the extreme license of speech hitherto allowed to advocates was restrained; gratuitous medi- cal attendance was providecl for the poor of Rome; and schools were established throughout the Empire. The success of his administration was doubtless much owing to his fortunate choice of officers: Thcodosius the Elder in Africa and Britain, Jovinus in Gaul, and Theodosius the Younger (afterwards Emperor) in lllyricnm. In private life Valentinian was above reproach, but his violent temper ultimately caused his death, for while giving auilienec to the deputies of the IjHiadi, with whom he was then at war, he worked himself into such an excess of passion as to rupture a blood-vessel in his chest, and fell back dead into the arms of his guards (No- vember 17, 375). lly his first wife he had one son, Gratianus (([.v.) ; and by the second. Justina, an- other son, 'alentinian, ami three daughters, one of whom, (ialla, became the wife of the Emperor Theodosius I. Valexti.xian II. (A.D. 375-392) the younger son of the preceding, was born a.d. 372, and re- ceived from his elder brother, tiratianus (q.v.), the provinces of Italy, lllyricnm, and Africa, as his share of the Western Empire. During his long nfinority the Kni|iress Justina administered the government; and about three years after her death Valentinian, who had given promise of good administrative qualities, was nuirdered at the instigation of the Frank Arbogastcs, the commander-in-chief of his army (May 15, 392). Valentinian III. (a.d. 425-455), the grand- nephew of the preceding, was born about a.d. 419 and was seated on tlie throne of the West by Theodosius II., Emperor of the East, in 425. Valentinian was a weak and contemptible prince and may be said never to have ruleil dur- ing the thirty years that he sat on the Imperial throne; his mother, Placidia, governed till her death in 450. and she was succeeded by the eunuch Ileraclius. The regulations enacted for the internal administration were creditable, and especially so when ecclesiastical interests were in- volved, but the utter corruption of manners, the complete extinction of 'public spirit,' the exac- tions of the tax collectors and eonnnissioners, the employment of the powers of the executive in the avenging of private quarrels, and the impos- sibilitj' of obtaining redress for injuries, showed that the Empire had fallen far beyond remedy. The early part of Valentinian's reign was dis- turbed by the contests between the 'conntes' Boniface and Aetius, the former of whom had supported, and the latter resisted Valentinian's claims to the throne; but notwithstanding this, Aetius prevailed upon the Empress to declare his rival, the Governor of Africa, a public enemy; and the latter called to his aid the Vandals under Cienseric (q.v.). Thus Africa was lost to the Em- pire. But Aetius, notwithstaniling. ])rovcd him- self the bulwark of the Roman power in Europe; the Franks. Goths, Burgujulians. and other Ger- man nations who had encroached on the Empire were successively defeated and repelled, and the advance of the Huns was stayed on the field of Chalons. Yet the labor of defending an extensive empire from attack on all sides was too much for one man ; and nnich of Spain and Gaul was seized by the Snevi and Visigoths, the north of Italy was ravaged by the Huns, Sicily and Sardinia by the Vandals, and even Rome was repeatedly besieged, while Britain was abandoned to the Picts and Scots. Aetius seems to have connuitted the same error as his predecessor Stilicho (q.v.) in at- tenipting, by the marriage of his son to Valen- tinian's daughter, to transfer the Imperial dig- nity to his own family, and, like him also, he was assassinated, though by the sword of his master (454). In the following year Valentinian was consiiired against by the friends of Petronius ifaximus and the adherents of Aetius, and mur- dered, March Iflth.