Refine your search

The results of your search are listed below alongside the search terms you entered on the previous page. You can refine your search by amending any of the parameters in the form and resubmitting it.

Select all Deselect all Add selection to lightbox
Large Small
Thumbnails per page
Italy: Gratian (359-383), 67th Roman emperor, from the book <i>Icones imperatorvm romanorvm</i> (Icons of Roman Emperors), Antwerp, c. 1645. Gratian was the son of Emperor Valentinian I by his first wife Marina Severa. Gratian became Augustus in 367, but when his father died in 375 and the army proclaimed his half-brother Valentinian II emperor, Gratian was forced to comply and shared administration of the western provinces with his infant sibling and his stepmother, though power was still held by him in reality.
Valens (328-378) was the brother of Valentinian, and lived in his brother's shadow for many years. When his brother was appointed emperor in 364 CE, he chose Valens to serve as co-emperor, obtaining the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire. Valens made Constantinople his capital.<br/><br/> Valens was soon presented with a usurper named Procopius in 365, a surviving relative of Emperor Julian who proclaimed himself emperor in Constantinople while Valens was away. He managed to defeat Procopius in the spring of 366, executing the usurper. He then warred against the revolting Goths, before heading back east to face the Sassanid Empire. A resurgent Gothic presence, alongside Huns and Alans, led to the commencement of the Gothic War, after an attempted resettlement of Goths had resulted in them revolting in 377.<br/><br/> Rather than wait for his nephew and co-emperor Gratian to arrive with reinforcements as advised by many, Valens marched out on his own. Valens was struck down during the decisive but avoidable Battle of Adrianople. He was known by some as the 'Last True Roman', and the battle that resulted in his death was considered the beginning of the collapse of the decaying Western Roman Empire.