Valens

Valens (328–378) ruled the eastern Roman Empire as augustus from 364, when his brother Valentinian I made him co-emperor at Constantinople. He suppressed the usurpation of Procopius in 366 and twice campaigned across the Danube against the Goths, before spending years on the Persian frontier in Armenia.

After he allowed fleeing Goths to cross the Danube in 376, their mismanaged settlement in the Balkans led to war. Valens returned from the east to fight them, but failed to coordinate with his nephew Gratian, the western emperor. At Adrianople on 9 August 378, Valens and much of his army perished.