Valentinian I

Valentinian I was Roman emperor in the West from 364 to 375 and founder of a dynasty that ruled both halves of the empire. An experienced soldier from Pannonia, he was proclaimed emperor after the death of Jovian and soon appointed his brother Valens to govern the eastern provinces. Valentinian concentrated on the Rhine and Danube frontiers, where he strengthened fortifications, campaigned against Alamanni and other groups, and relied on a mobile imperial court closely tied to the army.

His government combined energetic military defence with strict administration and heavy fiscal demands. Valentinian promoted some measures protecting provincial populations from official abuse and appointed officials to hear complaints, but ancient sources also describe severe punishments and a volatile temper. Religious policy in the West was comparatively tolerant by the standards of later emperors, despite his own Nicene Christianity. In 375, while negotiating with Quadi envoys at Brigetio on the Danube, Valentinian suffered a fatal cerebral event after an angry outburst. His sons Gratian and Valentinian II inherited western imperial authority.

Ian Hughes’s Imperial Brothers studies Valentinian I alongside the brother he elevated as eastern emperor, Valens. Valentinian’s western reign is followed through warfare on the Rhine and Danube, the recovery of Britain after the Barbarian Conspiracy and the suppression of revolt in Africa, while Valens faces different pressures in the east. The parallel structure lets Hughes assess Valentinian as a frontier emperor and compare the brothers’ military records before the later catastrophe at Adrianople fixed Valens’s much darker reputation.