Valens (died 250 AD) is one of the

Thirty Tyrants The Thirty Tyrants (, ''hoi triákonta týrannoi'') were an oligarchy that briefly ruled Classical Athens, Athens from 404 BC, 404 BCE to 403 BC, 403 BCE. Installed into power by the Sparta, Spartans after the Athenian surrender in the Peloponnesian ...

, a list of

Roman usurpers Roman usurpers were individuals or groups of individuals who obtained or tried to obtain power by force and without legitimate legal authority. Usurpation was endemic during the Roman imperial era, especially from the crisis of the third centur ...

compiled by the author(s) of the ''

Historia Augusta The ''Historia Augusta'' (English: ''Augustan History'') is a late Roman collection of biographies, written in Latin, of the Roman emperors, their junior colleagues, Caesar (title), designated heirs and Roman usurper, usurpers from 117 to 284. S ...

''. According to ''Historia'', this Valens was the uncle or great-uncle of another usurper,

Valens Thessalonicus Valens Thessalonicus was a Roman usurper during the reign of Emperor Gallienus. Background In June 260, Persian king Shāpūr I defeated and took Emperor Valerian captive at Edessa in Roman Mesopotamia. Valerian's son, Gallienus who had ruled ...

, who revolted against Emperor

Gallienus Publius Licinius Egnatius Gallienus (; – September 268) was Roman emperor with his father Valerian from 253 to 260 and alone from 260 to 268. He ruled during the Crisis of the Third Century that nearly caused the collapse of the empire. He ...

. Valens ''senior'' would have revolted in

Illyria In classical and late antiquity, Illyria (; , ''Illyría'' or , ''Illyrís''; , ''Illyricum'') was a region in the western part of the Balkan Peninsula inhabited by numerous tribes of people collectively known as the Illyrians. The Ancient Gree ...

against an earlier emperor, and would have been killed by his own soldiers after few days, as happened to his nephew. It is possible that this Valens was Julius Valens Licinianus or Licinian, who usurped the purple in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

during the absence of the Emperor

Decius Gaius Messius Quintus Trajanus Decius ( 201June 251), known as Trajan Decius or simply Decius (), was Roman emperor from 249 to 251. A distinguished politician during the reign of Philip the Arab, Decius was proclaimed emperor by his troops a ...

in the war against the Goths (250), and who was quickly executed.

Aurelius Victor Sextus Aurelius Victor ( 320 – 390) was a historian and politician of the Roman Empire. Victor was the author of a now-lost monumental history of imperial Rome covering the period from Augustus to Constantius II. Under the emperor Julian (361 ...

, ''Liber de Caesaribus'', 29.3; ''

Epitome de Caesaribus The ''Epitome de Caesaribus'' is a 5th-century Latin historical work based on the '' Liber de Caesaribus'' (also known as ''Historiae abbreviatae'') by Aurelius Victor. It is a brief account of the reigns of the Roman emperors from Augustus ...

'', 29.5

References

External links

''The Lives of the Thirty Pretenders''
at LacusCurtius 250 deaths Ancient Roman generals 3rd-century Roman usurpers Thirty Tyrants (Roman) Year of birth unknown Valens Licinianus {{AncientRome-bio-stub