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

1216 VALERIANUS. VALERTANUS.
Great and others. The Valeria gens enjoyed ex- make known his own sentiments and wishes. The
traordinary honours and privileges at Rome. Their untimely fate of Decius saved the regulator of
house at the bottom of the Velia was the only one public morals from the embarrassment which must
in Rome of which the doors were allowed to open have attended the discharge of difficult and inback into the street. (Dionys. v. 39; Plut. Publ. 20.) vidious duties, while at the same time he was adIn the Circus a conspicuous place was set apart for mitted to the full confidence of Gallus, by whom
them, where a small throne was erected, an honour he was employed to quell the rebellion of Aeof which there was no other example among the milianus, and recall the legions of Pannonia and
Romans. (Liv. ii. 31.) They were also allowed Moesia to their allegiance. While an army was
to bury their dead within the walls, a privilege forming in Noricum and Rhaetia, the rapid movewhich was also granted to some other gentes; and ments of the usurper and the murder of the prince
when they had exchanged the older custom of in- completely changed the aspect of affairs, and
terment for that of burning the corpse, although Valerian, who had taken up arms to support the
they did not light the funeral pile on their burying- interests of another, now employed them to adground, the bier was set down there, as a sym- vance his own. The sudden death, whether caused
bolical way of preserving their right. (Cic. de Ley. by disease or treachery, of his rival, whom he found
ii. 23; Plut. Publ. 23.) Niebuhr, who mentions encamped near Spoleto, prevented a hostile enthese distinctions, conjectures that among the gra- counter. Valerian was chosen (A. D. 254) to fill
dual changes of the constitution from a monarchy the vacant throne, not, says the Augustan histo an aristocracy, the Valeria gens for a time pos- torians, by the rude clamours of a camp, nor by
sessed the right that one of its members should the disorderly shouts of a popular assembly, but in
exercise the kingly power for the Tities, to which right of his merits, and, as it were, by the unanitribe the Valerii must have belonged, as their Sa- mous voice of the whole world. The new sovereign
bine origin indicates (Hist. of Romne, vol. i. p. having assumed his eldest son Gallienus as an as538); but on this point, as on many others in sociate in the purple, prepared to repel, as best he
early Roman history, it is impossible to come to might, the barbarian hosts which, gathering conany certainty. The Valerii in early times were fidence from the increasing weakness of the Roman
always foremost in advocating the rights of the dominion, were pressing forwards more and more
plebeians, and the laws which they proposed at fiercely on the various frontiers. But although the
various times were the great charters of the liberties Franks were ravaging Gaul and Spain, although
of the second order. (See Diet. of Antiq. s. v. Leyes the Alemanni were making repeated descents upon
Valeriae.) the provinces of the Upper Danube, and threatening
The Valeria gens was divided into various Italy itself, although the Goths were loading their
families under the republic, the names of which boat fleets with the plunder of Asia and of Greece,
are: - CoaRvvs or COaVINus, FALTO, FLACCUS, yet the dismemberment of the empire seemed most
LTAEVINUS, MAX1MUS, MESSALLA, POTITUS, imminent in Syria. Scarcely had Ardeschir BabePUBLICOLA, TAPPO, TRIARIUS, VOLUSUS. Be- gan, by his crowning victory in Khorasan, oversides these we meet with other cognomens of the thrown the dynasty of the Arsacidae, and revived
Valerii under the republic, which are mostly the the ancient supremacy of Persia, when he vowed
names of freedmen or clients of the Valeria gens. that he would drive the Western usurpers from the
They are given below in alphabetical order, toge- regions once swayed by his ancestors. His schemes
ther with the surnames borne by the Valerii in the were baffled by the energy and valour of Severus,
imperial period. [VAT.ERsUS.] The few Valerii, but the haughty and ambitious Sapor having at
who occur witllout any surname, are not of suf- length succeeded in subjugating Armenia, the ally
ficient importance to require any notice. On the and great outwork of the Roman power, thought
coins of the gens we find the cognomens Acisculus, that the time had now arrived for realising the
Catullus, Flaccus, Barbatus. mighty projects of his sire. Having driven the
VALERIA'NUS, a friend of the younger garrisons from the strongholds on the left bank of
Pliny, who has addressed three letters to him. the Tigris, he overran Mesopotamia, then crossing
(Ep. ii. 15, v. 4, 14.) the Euphrates, rushed like a torrent upon Syria,
VALERIA/NUS, Roman emperor, A. D. 253 and bearing down all resistance, stormed Antioch,
-260. P. LICINIUS VALERIANUS, whose father's the metropolis of the East. At this juncture
name was Valerius, traced his descent from an Valerian assumed the command of the legions in
ancient and noble stock. After passing through person, and for a time his measures were both
various grades in the service of the state, he had vigorous and successful. Antioch was recovered,
risen to the highest honours at least as early as the usurper Cyriades [CYRIADES] was slain, and
A. D. 237, for we find him styled a consular when Sapor was compelled to fall back behind the Eudespatched a year later by the Gordians to Rome. phrates; but the emperor, flushed by his good
Decius having determined to revive the censorship, fortune, while his faculties were perhaps impaired
and having called upon the senate to name the in- by age, followed too rashly. He found himself, like
dividual most worthy of such an office, demanding a second Crassus, surrounded, in the vicinity of
the union of the most spotless integrity with the Edessa, by the countless horsemen of his active foe;
most sound discretion, the whole assembly with he wag entrapped into a conference, taken prisoner,
one voice fixed upon Valerian eagerly, extolling and passed the remainder of his life in captivity
his accomplishments and worth. This singular subjected to every insult which Oriental cruelty
unanimity, and the tone of hyperbolical compli- could devise. After death his skin was stuffed
ment in which the choice was announced, must be and long preserved as a trophy in the chief temple
received either as a proof of the surpassing merit of the nation.
of the personage thus distinguished, or as an in- Although no doubts exist with regard to the
dication that the emperor, although he ostensibly leading facts connected with the career of Valerian
left the election open, had contrived beforehand to and his miserable fate, yet so imperfect, confused,