Valentinus (usurper)
Encyclopedia
Valentinus (died 644) was a Byzantine
Byzantine
Byzantine usually refers to the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages.Byzantine may also refer to:* A citizen of the Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...

 general and usurper.

According to Sebeos
Sebeos
Sebeos was a 7th century Armenian bishop and historian who participated in the first Council of Dvin in 645.The history of Sebeos contains detailed descriptions from the period of Sassanid supremacy in Armenia up to the Islamic conquest in 661...

, Valentinus was of Armenian
Armenians
Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....

 origin, being descended from the royal Arsacid
Arsacid Dynasty of Armenia
The Arsacid dynasty or Arshakuni dynasty ruled the Kingdom of Armenia from 54 AD to 428 AD. Formerly a branch of the Iranian Parthian Arsacids, they became a distinctly Armenian dynasty. Arsacid Kings reigned intermittently throughout the chaotic years following the fall of the Artaxiad Dynasty...

 clan. He was initially a member of the retinue of the sakellarios
Sakellarios
Sakellarios is an official entrusted with administrative and financial duties . The title was used in the Byzantine Empire with varying functions, and remains in use in the Eastern Orthodox Church....

Philagrios, and was tasked in early 641 by the Emperor Constantine III to distribute money to the troops in order to secure their loyalty to his infant son Constans, and not the faction of Heraclius
Heraclius
Heraclius was Byzantine Emperor from 610 to 641.He was responsible for introducing Greek as the empire's official language. His rise to power began in 608, when he and his father, Heraclius the Elder, the exarch of Africa, successfully led a revolt against the unpopular usurper Phocas.Heraclius'...

' empress-dowager Martina. It is possible that he had been appointed as general or plenipotentiary over the army, or that he held the post of comes Obsequii.

In the event however, on Constantine's death in May 641, Martina and her son Heraklonas
Heraklonas
Constantinus Heraclius , known in English as Heraklonas, Heraclonas, or Heracleonas , was the son of Heraclius and his niece Martina, and was Byzantine Emperor briefly between February and September 641....

 seized power, whilst the loyalists of Constans, most prominently Philagrios, were banished. At this point, Valentinus, who had carried out his assignment and secured the support of the army, led the troops to Chalcedon
Chalcedon
Chalcedon , sometimes transliterated as Chalkedon) was an ancient maritime town of Bithynia, in Asia Minor, almost directly opposite Byzantium, south of Scutari . It is now a district of the city of Istanbul named Kadıköy...

, across the Bosporus
Bosporus
The Bosphorus or Bosporus , also known as the Istanbul Strait , is a strait that forms part of the boundary between Europe and Asia. It is one of the Turkish Straits, along with the Dardanelles...

 from Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...

, and demanded that Constans be made co-emperor. Bowing to this pressure, in late September Constans was crowned co-emperor by Heraklonas. In an effort to reduce the importance of this act however, Heraklonas also had two of his younger brothers, David and Marinus, raised to the rank of co-emperor at the same time. Valentinus himself was "rewarded" by being given the title of comes excubitorum. Nevertheless, according to Sebeos' account, it was Valentinus who engineered the final fall and mutilation
Political mutilation in Byzantine culture
Mutilation in the Byzantine Empire was a common method of punishment for criminals of the era but it also had a role in the Empire's political life. The mutilation of political rivals by the Emperor was deemed an effective way of sidelining from the line of succession a person who was seen as a...

 of Martina and Heraklonas a few months later, and imposed Constans as sole emperor.

By early 642, Valentinus was therefore the most powerful man in the Empire, and was apparently rendered quasi-imperial honours, most notably by being allowed to wear the imperial purple. At the same time, he was appointed commander-in-chief of the army, and his daughter Fausta was married to the young Constans II and proclaimed Augusta
Augusta (honorific)
Augusta was the imperial honorific title of empresses. It was given to the women of the Roman and Byzantine imperial families. In the third century, Augustae could also receive the titles of Mater castrorum and Mater Patriae .The title implied the greatest prestige, with the Augustae able to...

. In 643/644 Valentinus led a campaign against the Arabs, reportedly in a concerted pincer movement with another army under an Armenian general named David. Valentinus' army however was routed and he himself reportedly panicked and fled, leaving his treasury to be captured by the Arabs.

In 644 or 645, Valentinus attempted to usurp his son-in-law's throne. He appeared at Constantinople with a contingent of troops, and demanded to be crowned emperor. His bid for the throne however failed, since both the capital's populace and the leading men of the state, Patriarch
Patriarch of Constantinople
The Ecumenical Patriarch is the Archbishop of Constantinople – New Rome – ranking as primus inter pares in the Eastern Orthodox communion, which is seen by followers as the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church....

 Paul II
Patriarch Paul II of Constantinople
Paul II was the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 641 to 653. He assumed regency for Byzantine emperor Constans II after a succession crisis in 641....

foremost, rejected his claim. According to the chroniclers, the populace lynched his envoy Antoninos, before proceeding to kill Valentinus himself.

Sources

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