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Imp Caesar Flavius Iulius Valens Augustus\'s Biography?
#1
Sorry for this a bit off-topic question, but I'm in a bit of a stop point on my novel, and I thought you gang would be more than knowledgeable...

While I go to Livius to check, does any of you know of any good biography about Valens out there that you can tell me about?

I have the works of Ammianus Marcellinus, but as he's mostly a military historian, I am not sure he told anything relevant about Valentis daily life...

Specifically, I am searching info on his legal status (was he married? I can't find it anywhere) and the characters on the court around him...

I know the orator and senator Themistius was a close friend of his, and I guess Libanius, as part of the senate of Antioch, was involved as well...

Lastly, how many of Julian's retainers and acquaints would still be around in Valentis court considering they were probably pagan and Valens was such a Arian "activist"?

I have the Goths in Antioch (an Embassy sent by Fritigern and Alaviv to Valens), and I was thinking on switching sides for the second third of the chapter (so the POV is Goths, Romans, and finally Goths at Hadrianopolis) but I find myself a bit short on data...

thanks!
Episkopos P. Lilius Frugius Simius Excalibor, :. V. S. C., Pontifex Maximus, Max Disc Eccl
David S. de Lis - my blog: <a class="postlink" href="http://praeter.blogspot.com/">http://praeter.blogspot.com/
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#2
The book you need is Noel Lenski, Failure of Empire: Valens and the Roman State in the Fourth Century A.D. (2002)

Amazon: [url:vh60gszk]http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0520233328/002-5001950-8412016?v=glance&n=283155[/url]
Review: [url:vh60gszk]http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2003/2003-07-44.html[/url]
Jona Lendering
Relevance is the enemy of history
My website
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#3
Jona,

it definitely looks like THE book, thanks! I will eventually get it, indeed.

However, $75.00 is a bit too much for simply a small part of the novel at this moment (and our Spanish libraries won't have this book for consult, which sucks, I hate it, although I'll check some University libraries, that may do the trick)...

Any other more affordable candidates? Web pages? Classical authors?

Anyway, thanks a lot!
Episkopos P. Lilius Frugius Simius Excalibor, :. V. S. C., Pontifex Maximus, Max Disc Eccl
David S. de Lis - my blog: <a class="postlink" href="http://praeter.blogspot.com/">http://praeter.blogspot.com/
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