Valentinian II (371-15 May 392) was Western Roman Emperor from 25 August 383 to 15 May 392, succeeding Gratian and preceding Theodosius I.
Biography[]
Flavius Valentinianus was born in 371, the son of the Romano-Illyrian emperor Valentinian I and the half-brother of Gratian. On 22 November 375, the Roman Army acclaimed the four-year-old Valentinian II co-emperor in Pannonia, as the army was concerned about Gratian's lack of military ability. Ultimately, Gratian partitioned the Western Roman Empire between him and his brother, ruling over Gaul, Hispania, and Roman Britain, while Valentinian II ruled over Italia, Illyricum, and Roman Africa. While Valentinian II's mother was an Arian, he was influenced by the Roman Catholic bishop Ambrose of Milan, and he ultimately adopted Latin Christianity in 391. In 383, on his brother's assassination, Valentinian II became the sole ruler of the Western Roman Empire, and he attempted to practice religious tolerance by restraining the despoiling of pagan temples in Rome, although he refused to restore the Roman Senate's Altar of Victory, which his brother had removed in 382. In 388, with the help of the Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius I, Valentinian II defeated the usurper Magnus Maximus, and he continued to rule from Mediolanium (Milan) until 391, when he moved his court to Vienne in Gallia, far away from Ambrose's influence. Theodosius kept Valentinian II under his control by appointing the Frankish general Arbogast magister militum in the West and Valentinian II's guardian. Arbogast dominated the emperor, even murdering his friend in front of him after the friend was accused of embezzlement. Arbogast later prevented Valentinian II from leading the Gallic armies into Italy to repel a Germanic invasion, leading to Valentinian II dismissing Arbogast. Arbogast tore up the letter, arguing that Valentinian II had not appointed him in the first place, and Valentinian II wrote to Theodosius and Ambrose and complained of Arbogast's insubordination. On 15 May 392, Valentinian II was found hanged at his home, and Arbogast - the murderer - claimed that the emperor had committed suicide. He then chose the imperial official Eugenius as his successor, but Theodosius defeated Arbogast and the usurper at the Battle of the Frigidus and reunited the Roman Empire for the last time.