Editing Valens (section)

== Early life and military career ==
[[File:Valens Honorius Musei Capitolini MC494.jpg|thumb|Marble bust possibly representing Valens or [[Honorius (emperor)|Honorius]] ([[Capitoline Museums]]){{Citation needed|date=October 2024}}]]
Valens and his brother [[Valentinian I|Valentinian]] were born, in 328 and 321 respectively, to an [[Illyro-Roman|Illyrian]] family resident in [[Cibalae]] ([[Vinkovci]]) in [[Pannonia Secunda]].{{sfn|Lenski|2003|p=88}}<ref name=":1">{{Citation|last1=Bond|first1=Sarah|title=Valens|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198662778.001.0001/acref-9780198662778-e-4924|work=The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity|year=2018|editor-last=Nicholson|editor-first=Oliver|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/acref/9780198662778.001.0001|isbn=978-0-19-866277-8|access-date=2020-10-24|last2=Darley|first2=Rebecca|archive-date=30 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201030163730/https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198662778.001.0001/acref-9780198662778-e-4924|url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn|Hughes|2013|p=20}} Their father [[Gratianus Funarius]], a native of Cibalae, had served as a senior officer in the [[Roman army]] and as ''[[comes Africae]]''.<ref name=":0">{{Citation|last1=Bond|first1=Sarah|title=Valentinian I|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198662778.001.0001/acref-9780198662778-e-4927|work=The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity|year=2018|editor-last=Nicholson|editor-first=Oliver|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/acref/9780198662778.001.0001|isbn=978-0-19-866277-8|access-date=2020-10-24|last2=Darley|first2=Rebecca|archive-date=6 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210806040843/https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198662778.001.0001/acref-9780198662778-e-4927|url-status=live}}</ref> The brothers grew up on estates purchased by Gratianus in Africa and [[Roman Britain|Britain]].{{sfn|Gibbon|1932|p=848}} Both were Christians, but favored different sects: Valentinian was a [[Nicene Christian]]<ref name=":0" /> and Valens was an [[Arian Christian]] (specifically a [[Homoean]]).<ref name=":1" /> In adulthood, Valens served in the ''[[protectores domestici]]'' under the emperors [[Julian (emperor)|Julian]] and [[Jovian (emperor)|Jovian]]. According to the 5th-century Greek historian [[Socrates Scholasticus]], Valens refused pressure to offer [[sacrifice in ancient Roman religion|pagan sacrifices]] during the reign of the polytheist emperor Julian.<ref name=":1" />

Julian was killed in battle against the [[Julian's Persian War|Persians]] in June 363, and his successor Jovian died the following February while traveling home to Constantinople.{{sfn|Hughes|2013|p=18}} The Latin historian [[Ammianus Marcellinus]] relates that Valentinian was summoned to [[Nicaea]] by a council of military and civil officials, who acclaimed him ''augustus'' on 25 February 364.{{sfn|Curran|1998|p=81}}{{sfn|Hughes|2013|p=19}}

[[File:INC-1867-r Солид. Валент II. Ок. 375—378 гг. (реверс).png|thumb|''Solidus'' of Valens showing Valentinian and Valens on the reverse, marked: {{Smallcaps|victoria {{Abbreviation|augg·|AUGUSTORUM}}}} ("''the [[Victoria (mythology)|Victory]] of Our Augusti''"). They hold together the [[Sovereign's Orb|orb]], a symbol of power.]]
Valentinian appointed his brother Valens ''tribunus stabulorum'' (or ''stabuli'') on 1 March 364.{{sfn|Hughes|2013|p=21}} It was the general opinion that Valentinian needed help to handle the administration, civil and military, of the large and unwieldy empire, and, on 28 March, at the express demand of the soldiers for a second ''augustus'', he selected Valens as co-emperor at the [[Bakırköy#History|Hebdomon]], before the [[Constantinian Walls]].{{sfn|Hughes|2013|p=21}}{{sfn|Gibbon|1932|pp=847–848}}{{sfn|Curran|1998|p=81}}