A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

1202 VALENS. VALENS.
VACCUS, M. VITRU'VIUS, a citizen of fearing him as a rival, and hating him as a private
Fundi, was the leader of the revolt of the Fundani foe, despatched an emissary [PIso, No. 33], to put
and Privernates against Rome in B. C. 330. He him to death. Valens, upon receiving intelligence of
was a man of considerable reputation both in his this design, conceived that he might best avoid the
own state and also at Rome, where he had a house threatened danger by assuming the purple. Acon the Palatine. The consul L. Plautius Venno cordingly he was proclaimed emperor, and was
was sent to quell the revolt, which he effected soon after murdered by his soldiers. (Trebell.
without difficulty. On the capture of Privernum, Poll. Trig. Tyrcann. xviii.) [W. R.]
Vaccus fell into the consul's hands, and was put to VALENS, the maternal granduncle or uncle of
death after his triumph. His property was con- the preceding, rebelled in Illyria during the reign
fiscated to the state, his house on the Palatine de- of Gallienus, and perished after having held sway
stroyed, and the site on which it stood was ever for a few days. He also, as well as his nephew, is
after called the Vacci Prata. (Liv. viii. 19, 20; pressed into the list of the thirty tyrants by Pollio.
Cic. pro Dom. 38.) (Trebell. Poll. Trig. Tyrann. xix.) [W. R.]
VACUINA, a Sabine divinity identical with VALENS, emperor of the East A. D. 364-378,
Victoria. She had an ancient sanctuary near the brother of Valentinian [VALENTINIANUS I.],
Horace's villa at Tibur, and another at Rome. was born about A. D. 328. The name of his wife
The Romans however derived the name from Va- was Albia Dominica, by whom he had a son and
Cuus, and said that she was a divinity to whom two daughters. Under Julian he was one of the
the country people offered sacrifices when the la- Domestici. He was made emperor of the East by'bours of the field were over, that is, when they his brother on the 28th of March A. D. 364, as is
were at leisure, vacui. (Schol. ad HIorat. Epist. told in the article VALENTINIANUS.
i. 10. 49; Ov. Fast vi. 307; Plin. H. N. iii. 17.) Valens had in his service the Prefect Sallustius,
From the Scholiast on Horace, we also learn that and the generals Lupicinus, Victor, and Arinthaeus.
some identified her with Diana, Ceres, Venns, or By a constitution of the 16th of December of this
Minerva. [L. S.] year, he forbade the practice of giving presents to
VALA, NUMO'NIUS. 1. C. NUMONIUS those who carried to the provinces important news,
VALA, known only from coins, from which it ap. such as the accession of an emperor or his assumppears that he had obtained renown by storming a tion of the consulship: he allowed the carriers of
vallum, and had hence obtained the surname of such news to receive the presents which persons of
Fala, which, according to tihe usual custom, be- property or condition might choose to give, but not
came hereditary in his family. The coins were to exact anything from those who were not in easy
struck by one of his descendants in commemoration circumstances. The Goths are spoken of as having
of the exploit. The one annexed has on the ob- made their appearance in Thrace in this year, but
verse the head of Numonius, with c. NVMONIVS they were induced to retire, probably by money.
VAALA, and on the reverse a man storming the Valens left Constantinople in the spring of A. D.
vallum of a camp, which is defended by two others, 365, for Asia Minor, and he was at Caesarea in
with VAALA. Vaala is an ancient form of Vala, Cappadocia in the month of July, when the great
just as on the coins of Sulla we find Feelix instead earthquake happened, which shook all the country
of Felix. (Eckhel, vol. v. p. 263.) round the Mediterranean. The revolt of Procopius
for a time rendered the throne of Valens insecure.
-PP0300 Procopius assumed the imperial title at Constan-,c A R~40 o tinople, on the 28th of September, A. D. 365, and,Of i ~Valens received the intelligence as he was going to
leave Caesarea. [PRocoPIus]. After the death
(Da " of Procopius, A. D. 366, Valens treated the partisans
L____ o er A o } of the rebel with great clemency according to
Themistius; but Ammianus and Zosimus say that
he punished many innocent persons. The fact of
COIN OF C. NUMONIUS VALA. some persons being punished iscertain: the nature
and degree of their participation in the revolt may
2. NuTaorNIUs VALA, to whom Horace addresses be doubtful. The emperor had sworn to demolish
one of his Epistles (i. 15), appears to have had estates the walls of Chalcedon for the share which it had
in the neighbourhood of Velia and Salernum, since taken in the insurrection, but at the prayer of the
the poet makes inquiries of Vala about the climate people of Nicaea, Nicomedia, and Constantinople,
of those places, as he intended to pass the winter he satisfied his superstition by pulling down some
in one of them. As this poem was probably small portion of the walls and rebuilding it. Prowritten about B. C. 22, the friend of Horace was bably about this time he did Constantinople the
most likely the father of No. 3, if not the same service of improving the supply of water by building
person. an aqueduct.
3. NUMONIUS VALA, legate of Quintilius Varus The year A. n. 367 is memorable in the reign
in A. D. 9, left the infantry when they were at- of Valens for an extraordinary event, the diminutacked by the enemy in the fatal battle of that tion of the taxes by one fourth, a measure which
year, and fled with the cavalry to'the Rhine, but rarely happens in the history of a nation, the
was overtaken in his flight and slain. (Vell. Pat. general rule being progressive taxation till people
ii. I19.) can pay no more. The diminution was the less
VALENS, one of the thirty tyrants enumerated expected as a war with the Goths was imminent.
by Trebellius Pollio [see AaREOLUS], was nomi- These barbarians had for some time hung on the
nated proconsul of Achaia by Gallienus in conse- northern frontier, and occasionally pillaged the
quence of his high character as a soldier, and a Roman lands. Three thousand Goths, who had
statesman. The usulrper Mlacrianus [MA( LJAN i been sent by Atlhntl llmric to aid Procopius, were