VALENTINIAN III. (A.n. 425-455). the grand nephew' of the preceding. was horn about A.D. 419 and was seated on the throne of the West by Theodosius 11., Emperor of the East. in 425. Valentinian was a weak and contemptible prince and may be said never to have ruled dur ing the thirty years that lie sat on the Imperial throne; his mother, Placidia, governed till her death in 450, and she was succeeded by the eunuch Heraelius. The regulations enacted for the internal administration were creditable, and especially so when ecclesiastical interests were in volved, but the utter corruption of manners, the complete extinction of 'public spirit,' the exac tions of the tax collectors and commissioners, the employment of the powers of the executive in the avenging of private quarrels, and the impos sibility of obtaining redress for injuries, showed that the Empire had fallen far beyond remedy. The early part of Valentinian's reign was dis turbed by the contests between the 'eomites' Boldface and Aetius, the former of whom had supported, and the latter resisted Valentinian's claims to the throne; but notwithstanding this, Aetius prevailed upon the Empress to declare his rival, the Governor of Africa, a public enemy; and the latter called to his aid the Vandals under Genserie (q.v.). Thus Africa was lost to the Em
pire. But Akins, notwithstanding, proved him self the bulwark of the Roman power in Europe; the Franks. Goths. Burgundians. and other Ger man nations who had encroached on the Empire were successively defeated and repelled, and the advance of the Huns was stayed on the field of Chalons. Yet the labor of defending an extensive empire from attack on all sides was too much for one man: and munch of Spain and Gaul was seized by the Suevi and Visigoths. the north of Italy was ravaged by the Huns, Sicily and Sardinia by the Vandals, and even Rome was repeatedly besieged, while Britain was abandoned to the Picts and Scots. Aetius scents to have committed the same error as his predecessor Stilicho (q.v.) in at tempting, by the marriage of his son to Valen tinian's daughter, to transfer the Imperial dig nity to his own family, and, like him also. he was assassinated, though by the sword of his master (454). In the following year Valentinian was conspired against by the friends of Petronius Maximus and the adherents of Aetius, and mur dered, March 16th.