Valens

Valens, who lived from 328 to 9 August 378, was a Roman emperor who ruled the eastern half of the empire from 364 to 378, named co-emperor by his elder brother Valentinian I, who granted him the eastern provinces. His wife was Domnica, and their children were Anastasia, Carosa and Valentinianus Galates. Valens faced continuous internal and external threats: he defeated the usurper Procopius in 366, campaigned against the Goths across the Danube in 367 and 369, and managed conflicts with the Sasanian Empire over control of Armenia; at home he commissioned the Aqueduct of Valens in Constantinople, whose length exceeded that of Rome's combined aqueducts. In 376 and 377 a Gothic War broke out after Valens allowed Gothic refugees to settle within the empire's borders and the situation deteriorated; despite warnings to wait for reinforcements from his western co-emperor Gratian, Valens advanced against the Goths on his own, and on 9 August 378 he was defeated and killed at the Battle of Adrianople, a catastrophic defeat that shocked contemporaries and is often marked as the start of barbarian encroachment into Roman territory.