Valentia was the name of a consul

Consul

Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Empire. The title was also used in other city states and also revived in modern states, notably in the First French Republic...

ar northern province of Roman Britain

Roman Britain

Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...

.

History

Count Theodosius

Count Theodosius

Flavius Theodosius or Theodosius the Elder was a senior military officer serving in the Western Roman Empire. He achieved the rank of Comes Britanniarum and as such, he is usually referred to as Comes Theodosius...

 set up Valentia in 369

369

Year 369 was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Galates and Victor...

 AD as part of his reorganisation of Britain following the Great Conspiracy

Great Conspiracy

The Great Conspiracy is a term given to a year-long war that occurred in Roman Britain near the end of the Roman occupation of the island. The historian Ammianus Marcellinus described it as a barbarica conspiratio that capitalized on a depleted military force in the province brought about by...

, and probably named it after the reigning emperors, Valentinian

Valentinian I

Valentinian I , also known as Valentinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 364 to 375. Upon becoming emperor he made his brother Valens his co-emperor, giving him rule of the eastern provinces while Valentinian retained the west....

 and Valens

Valens

Valens was the Eastern Roman Emperor from 364 to 378. He was given the eastern half of the empire by his brother Valentinian I after the latter's accession to the throne...

.

Ammianus tells of how the province had been earlier lost until Theodosius regained it and named it Valentia:

[Theodosius] restored to its former state a province which was recovered that he had previously abandoned to enemy rule. This he did to the extent that it had a properly-appointed governor, and it was from that time onwards known as 'Valentia' by decision of the emperor. (Ammianus, XXVIII. iii.)

Its exact location remains uncertain. The name's closeness to the Latin word for wall (vallum) has led to the suggestion that it straddled Hadrian's Wall

Hadrian's Wall

Hadrian's Wall was a defensive fortification in Roman Britain. Begun in AD 122, during the rule of emperor Hadrian, it was the first of two fortifications built across Great Britain, the second being the Antonine Wall, lesser known of the two because its physical remains are less evident today.The...

, or lay between Hadrian's Wall and the Antonine Wall. This theory is supported by readings of the Notitia Dignitatum

Notitia Dignitatum

The Notitia Dignitatum is a unique document of the Roman imperial chanceries. One of the very few surviving documents of Roman government, it details the administrative organisation of the eastern and western empires, listing several thousand offices from the imperial court down to the provincial...

 which lists two divisions of troops serving under the Dux Britanniarum

Dux Britanniarum

Dux Britanniarum was a military post in Roman Britain, probably created by Diocletian or Constantine I during the late third or early fourth century....

 in northern Britain in the later fourth century. One group covered the east of Britain whilst the second was a group of garrisons the Notitia lists in strict geographical order east to west along Hadrian's Wall and then in a more muddled fashion on the north west coast of modern England. From the number of later emendations to the Notitia it seems that more troop changes took place in the west and some unlisted forts in the west can be shown to have still been occupied while the document was current. These differences have been used to argue for the area now known as Cumbria to have been thoroughly overrun during the Great Conspiracy and therefore a prime candidate for reorganisation by Theodosius and deserving of its own separate military command.

Outside of the slim military evidence, Ammianus' account implies that Valentia was abandoned by Theodosius at first prior to it being regained and given a 'properly-appointed governor'. This suggests that whilst in Britain, Theodosius made a strategic withdrawal from the area before a change in policy permitted it to be retaken. That Valentia is described as a recovered province seems to suggest that it already existed as a separate entity but the Notitia lists it along with the older Britannia Prima

Britannia Prima

Britannia Prima was one of the provinces of Roman Britain in existence by c. 312 AD. It was probably created as part of the administrative reforms of the Roman Emperor Diocletian after the defeat of the usurper Allectus by Constantius Chlorus in 296 AD. In the 3rd century, the Romans created...

, Britannia Secunda

Britannia Secunda

Britannia Secunda was one of the provinces of Roman Britain in existence by c. 312 AD and probably created as part of the administrative reforms of the Roman Emperor Diocletian after the defeat of the usurper Allectus by Constantius Chlorus in 296 AD. The governors of Britannia Secunda were of...

, Maxima Caesariensis

Maxima Caesariensis

Maxima Caesariensis was the name of one of the four provinces of later Roman Britain . Its capital was Londinium and probably encompassed what is now south east England. Originally, its governors were of equestrian rank but by the mid fourth century they had to be of consular rank...

 and Flavia Caesariensis

Flavia Caesariensis

Flavia Caesariensis was one of the provinces of Roman Britain.It was created in the early 4th century under the reforms of Diocletian and it has been suggested that its capital may have been at Lincoln...

, leaving little room for a fifth pre-existing province.

It may therefore be that there were five provinces in Roman Britain, perhaps from c. 315 AD onwards, the most exposed of which Theodosius did not expect to recover from the barbarians when he arrived in 367 AD. Evidence for the creation of the other four fourth century provinces primarily comes from the Verona List

Verona List

The Laterculus Veronensis or Verona List is a list of Roman provinces from the times of the Roman emperors Diocletian and Constantine I. The list is transmitted only in a 7th-century manuscript, which is preserved in the Chapter House Library in Verona. The most recent critical edition is that of...

 which dates to the early part of that century and a fifth province could have been created since then.

Another point is Ammianus' comment that the province was named by Valentinian as if celebrating a minor triumph (velut ovans). These minor triumphs were a Republican

Roman Republic

The Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...

 honour granted for unspectacular victories or defeats of slave revolts. A full Imperial triumph celebration would have been more appropriate for a defeat over the invading hordes and it is odd that the emperor was so restrained. One explanation is that full triumphs were never granted in victories over Roman citizens, the enemy had to be barbarian for a general to receive full honours. Possibly Valentia was a breakaway province. This suggestion is compounded by Ammianus' immediately preceding account, regarding an exile

Exile

Exile means to be away from one's home , while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened with imprisonment or death upon return...

d but well-connected Roman named Valentinus

Valentinus (rebel)

Valentinus was a Roman figure of the later fourth century AD.In 369 AD he committed an unrecorded but very serious crime. His brother in law, Maximinus was close to the emperor Valentinian I and was able to have Valentinus' sentence commuted from execution to exile and he was sent to Roman...

. A friend of Maximinus

Maximinus (Praetorian Prefect)

Maximinus was a Roman barrister and Praetorian Prefect of the later fourth century AD.-Origins:Maximinus was born in Sopianae, Pannonia. His family was of Carpic origin. Maximinus' father was an accountant in the provincial government office of Pannonia Valeria.Maximinus studied law, and practiced...

, Valentinus had been sent to Britain as punishment for an unnamed but very serious crime for which he should have been executed. Valentinus fomented a rebellion in Britain, gathering support from other exiles and bribing the troops for support. Theodosius crushed the rebellion before it could begin however and the ringleaders were handed over to the dux, Dulcitius

Dulcitius

Dulcitius was a Dux Britanniarum, a military leader in Roman Britain in the later fourth century AD. He is praised by Ammianus for his military abilities....

for execution. However, the number condemned was limited by Theodosius who forbade wider investigations in order to minimise recriminations, perhaps a sign that discontent was uncomfortably widespread. Although Valentinus' revolt was a failure, its story does show that there were other desperate exiles in the province who may have had more success.

Taken together this evidence suggests that Theodosius may have arrived in Britain to find the predecessor of Valentia in the hands of a Roman rebel administration rather than barbarian raiding parties. Perhaps the disarray of the Great Conspiracy provided a group of exiles with an opportunity to seize a province in defiance of Rome. It was swiftly regained by Theodosius but perhaps in order to maintain the impression of imperial authority, the reorganisation of the rebel province was undertaken in an unostentatious way.