Editing Valentinian I (section)

== Reputation ==
Modern historian [[A.H.M. Jones]] writes that although Valentinian I was "less of a boor" than his chief rival for election to the imperial throne, "he was of a violent and brutal temper, and not only uncultivated himself, but hostile to cultivated persons". According to [[Ammianus Marcellinus|Ammianus]], "he hated the well-dressed and educated and wealthy and well-born", which suggests Valentinian had his enemies in Rome who wanted to defame him by describing him as an uneducated brute. This was not a complete picture: Ammianus concedes that Valentinian had some spontaneous oratorical skill, and also says that in his spare time the Emperor was "an elegant painter and modeller [i.e., sculptor], and an inventor of new kinds of [weapons]" (XXX.9.4).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Marcellinus |first1=Ammianus |translator-last1=Rolfe |translator-first1=John C. |title=Loeb Classical Library: Ammianus Marcellinus, III |date=1972 |publisher=Harvard University Press and William Heinemann Ltd. |location=Cambridge, MA, and London |isbn=0-674-99365-9 |page=371}}</ref> He appointed the Latin scholar [[Ausonius]] as tutor for his son Gratian,<ref>Robert Colton, "Ausonius and Juvenal", in: ''The Classical Journal'', 1973, p. 41</ref> showing an appreciation for the kind of classical education which he himself had been denied. According to Hugh Chisholm (1911), he was an able soldier and a conscientious administrator who took an interest in the welfare of the humbler classes, from which his father had risen. He founded schools, and provided medical attendance for the poor of [[Ancient Rome|Rome]] by appointing a physician for each of the fourteen districts of the city.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Valentinian I.|volume=27|page=851}}</ref> He also reissued an edict of [[Constantine I]] condemning abandonment of infants.<ref>Gibbon, ch. XIV, p. 375; ch. XXV, p. 859</ref>

Unfortunately Valentinian's good intentions were often frustrated by a bad choice of ministers, and "an obstinate belief in their merits despite all evidence to the contrary."<ref>A.H.M. Jones, ''The Later Roman Empire, 284–602: A Social, Economic and Administrative Survey'' (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 1986), p. 139.</ref> Further, the benevolence of his more generous edicts was counterbalanced by remarkable cruelty and barbarism in his private affairs.
He often had servants and attendants executed on trifling charges, and was reportedly accustomed to feed his victims to two bears, known as ''Mica Aurea'' (golden flake), and ''Innocence'', whose iron cage was transported wherever the emperor went. At length ''Innocence'', when she was considered to have faithfully discharged her office, was released with Valentinian's good wishes into her native wilds.<ref>Ammianus Marcellinus, ''Res Gestae'' XXIX.3.9; [[Charles Kingsley]], ''The Roman And The Teuton, A Series Of Lectures delivered before the University of Cambridge'', (Macmillan & Co., 1889, London), lecture II, ''The Dying Empire''</ref>

Valentinian was a [[Christians|Christian]] but permitted liberal religious freedom to all his subjects, proscribing only some forms of rituals such as particular types of sacrifices, and banning the practice of [[Magic in the Greco-Roman world|magic]]. In Christian affairs, he released [[edict]]s against the increasing wealth and worldliness of the clergy. One new law, issued via [[Pope Damasus I]], prohibited the granting of bequests to clergymen, and another said that members of the sacerdotal order must discharge the public duties owed on account of their property, or else relinquish it.<ref>Gibbon, ch. XXV, p. 864; ch. XX, p. 662, editor's note</ref><ref name="EB1911"/>

An account by [[Socrates of Constantinople|Socrates Scholasticus]], in his ''Historia Ecclesiastica'',  has led some to describe Valentinian as [[Polygamy in Christianity|polygamous]]. The text says that, having heard his wife [[Marina Severa]] constantly praise the beauty of her friend [[Justina (empress)|Justina]],

{{Blockquote|text=[t]he emperor, treasuring this description by his wife in his own mind, considered with himself how he could espouse Justina, without repudiating Severa, as she had borne him Gratian, whom he had created Augustus a little while before. He accordingly framed a law, and caused it to be published throughout all the cities, by which any man was permitted to have two lawful wives. The law was promulgated and he married Justina, by whom he had [[Valentinian II|Valentinian the younger]].|author=Socrates Scholasticus|title=Historia Ecclesiastica|source=IV.31}}<ref>Translated by A.C. Zenos. From ''Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers'', Second Series, Vol. 2. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1890.)</ref>

This story is known only from Socrates, and there is no trace of any edict by any emperor allowing polygamy. Valentinian I and Severa may have divorced, a course permitted by Roman law (see [[marriage in ancient Rome]]).<ref>Frier, Bruce W. and McGinn, Thomas A.J.: ''A Casebook on Roman Family Law'' (American Philological Association) OUP US, 2003. Part D, "The End of Marriage"</ref> However, since divorce was not acknowledged by Christians,<ref>Matthew 19, 4–6.</ref> Socrates contemptuously describes him as a bigamist. It is also possible that Socrates attempted to accuse Justina, who was an [[Arianism|Arian]], of fornication, a common aspersion against other cults. According to [[John Malalas]], the [[Chronicon Paschale]], and [[John of Nikiu]], the empress Severa was banished by Valentinian I for conducting an illegal transaction, before he consorted with Justina. Barnes believes this story to be an attempt to justify the divorce of Valentinian I without accusing the Emperor.<ref>Timothy Barnes, ''Ammianus Marcellinus and the Representation of Historical Reality'' (1998), pp. 123–125</ref>

The historian [[Michael Grant (classicist)|Michael Grant]], while noting Valentinian's unpleasant personality and bad choice of subordinates, nevertheless calls him "the last really impressive Emperor Rome ever had", and summarizes his career thus:

{{Blockquote|text=Valentinian was a superb soldier and a conscientious worker, endowed with ferocious energy. He felt a strong duty to the state, and, much more unusual, a strong duty to the poor, an emotion which he combined with a considerable distaste for the Roman upper class. More unusual still, in the age in which he lived, he believed in tolerating differences of religious opinion. For all his faults he would have been an outstanding man in any epoch, and it is only because of the misleading tradition which dismisses the personalities of the later Empire that most people have never heard of him.}}<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Fall of the Roman Empire- A Reappraisal |last=Grant |first=Michael |publisher=The Annenberg School Press |year=1976 |isbn=0517524481 |location=Pennsylvania |pages=30}}</ref>

=== Appearance ===
The coin portraits of Valentinian and Valens are of dubious quality, showing "heavy" faces rendered with "no animation, and little consistency".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kent |first1=J. P. C. |last2=Hirmer |first2=Max |last3=Hirmer |first3=Albert |title=Roman Coins |date=1978 |publisher=Thames and Hudson |location=London |isbn=0-500-23273-3 |page=57}}</ref> A more flattering physical description of Valentinian is given by Ammianus (XXX.9.6), who praises the emperor's "strong and muscular body, his brilliant complexion, his grey eyes, with a gaze that was always sidelong and stern, his fine stature, and his regular features".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Marcellinus |first1=Ammianus |translator-last1=Rolfe |translator-first1=John C. |title=Loeb Classical Library: Ammianus Marcellinus, III |date=1972 |publisher=Harvard University Press and William Heinemann Ltd. |location=Cambridge, MA, and London |isbn=0-674-99365-9 |page=373}}</ref>