Everything about Valentinian Iii totally explained
Flavius Placidius Valentinianus (
July 2,
419 –
March 16,
455), known in English as
Valentinian III, was among the last
Western Roman Emperors (
425-
455).
Life
Born in the western capital of
Ravenna, Valentinian was the only son of later Emperor
Constantius III and
Galla Placidia, daughter of the Emperor
Theodosius I and granddaughter of Emperor
Valentinian I. After the death of his father (421), he followed his mother and his sister (
Justa Grata Honoria) to
Constantinople, when Galla broke with her brother, Emperor
Honorius, and went to live at the court of
Theodosius II. He is supposed to have been a near relative of the
Pope Celestine I.
In
423, Honorius died, and the
usurper Joannes took the power in
Rome. To counter this menace, Theodosius nominated Valentinian
Caesar of the west (
October 23,
424), and betrothed him to his own daughter
Licinia Eudoxia (Valentinian would marry her in
437). In
425, after Joannes had been defeated in war, Valentinian was installed Western Emperor in Rome, on
October 23, at the age of six.
Given his minority, the new
Augustus ruled under the control first of his mother, and then, after
433, of the
Magister militum Flavius Aëtius. Valentinian's reign is marked by the dismemberment of the Western Empire; the conquest of the province of
Africa by the
Vandals in
439; the final abandonment of
Britain in
446; the loss of great portions of
Spain and
Gaul, in which the barbarians had established themselves; and the ravaging of
Sicily and of the western coasts of the
Mediterranean Sea by the fleets of
Geiseric.
As an off-set against these calamities, there was the great victory of Aëtius over
Attila the Hun in
451 near Chalons, and his successful campaigns against the
Visigoths in southern Gaul (
426,
429,
436), and against various invaders on the
Rhine and
Danube (
428-
431).
The burden of taxation became more and more intolerable as the power of Rome decreased, and the loyalty of its remaining provinces was seriously impaired in consequence. Ravenna was Valentinian's usual residence; but he fled to Rome on the approach of Attila, who, after ravaging the north of Italy, died in the following year (
453).
In
454 Aëtius, whose son had married a daughter of the emperor, was treacherously murdered by Valentinian. On
March 16 of the following year, however, the emperor himself was assassinated in Rome, by two of the barbarian followers of Aëtius. These retainers may have been put up to the act by
Petronius Maximus, a wealthy senator who the following day
March 17 had himself proclaimed emperor by the remnants of the Western Roman army after the paying of a large donative. He wasn't as prepared as he thought to take over and restabilize the depleted empire, however; after a reign of eleven weeks, Maximus was murdered by a Roman mob. King Gaiseric and his Vandals
captured Rome a few days later and sacked it for two weeks.
Valentinian not only lacked the ability to govern the empire in a time of crisis, but aggravated its dangers by his self-indulgence and vindictiveness.
In literature
Valentinian III was dramatized by
John Fletcher in his play
Valentinian, c. 1612 (published
1647).
Further Information
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