Datianus, Valentinian and the Rise of the Pannonian FactionAuthor(s): Cristian OlariuSource: Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, Bd. 54, H. 3 (2005), pp. 351-354Published by: Franz Steiner VerlagStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4436782 .

Accessed: 02/09/2013 19:17

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

Franz Steiner Verlag is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Historia:Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 144.32.128.14 on Mon, 2 Sep 2013 19:17:16 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

DATIANUS, VALENTINIAN AND THE RISE OF THE PANNONIAN FACTION

In February 364, a council, composed of high palatine officials and military commanders, had ac- claimed Valentinian I as Augustus at Nicaea. In this context, Ammianus Marcellinus wrote that Equitius and Leo, military commanders and Pannonians, sustained and secured the election of Valen- tinian (Amm., 26. 1. 4-6).

The episode of Valentinian's election deserves a special analysis. Firstly, the decipherment of the mechanism of the imperial succession can bring into light the all-necessary stages in a "theatrical piece" related to the proclamation of a new emperor. Secondly, in the election of Valentinian, there can be distinguished at least two levels for analysis: the official one, of how the power is to be transmitted without any other source of legitimacy, and the informal level, of influence and persuasion, less visible in written sources, but more important, exercised by certain members of the elite. Thirdly, the religious aspect has no less importance: in the conditions of the imposition of the Nicene Christianity as state religion (by Theodosius I), there still remains to be analyzed the power of superstition, which remained extremely powerful, behind the official faqade of Christianity.

The following pages will mainly analyze the transmission of imperial power and the role played by certain elite members in order to impose Valentinian as emperor.

The council of Nicaea, lacking a designated heir to Jovian, had initially had in view two other candidates to the imperial purple: Flavius Equitius, tribunus scholae primae scutariorum,l and lanuar- ius, curans summitatem necessitatum castrensium per Illyricum. The first, Equitius, was refused by the members of the elective council, due to his "severity" and "rudeness" (Amm., 26. 1. 4). The second candidate had an ace up his sleeve: he was a relative of the deceased emperor, Jovian. Despite his kinship, he too was refused by the council, on the ground that "he was living far away" (Amm., 26. 1. 5).

In these conditions, the council members preferred a third candidate, Valentinian. Ammianus narrates his election: "... under the inspiration of the powers of heaven Valentinianus was chosen without any dissenting voice, as being fully up to the requirements and suitable" (Amm., 26. 1. 5).

The above-quoted fragment deserves to be analyzed. That Valentinianus was as "rude" in his manners and severe as Equitius was proved by the subsequent events; described by the sources as of an angry type, rather inclined to punish than to forgive (Amm., 26. 7. 4; 30. 8. 2-3), favoring his friends in spite of personal merit, it seems that he was no better than his relative Equitius. Then, his military "education" (at the moment of his election, he was tribunus scholae secundae scutariorum), may not have offered him the opportunity of higher education, or to improve his manners. In fact, Ammianus, the main source for his reign, presents the origins of his family: born in Cibalae, Pannonia, of humble stock, his father had been remarked only through his physical strength, his surname being "Funarius", because once, five soldiers tried to snatch, without any success, a rope from his hands: Amm., 30. 7. 2. The new emperor "hated the well-dressed, the learned, the rich and the high-born" (Amm., 30. 8. 10), being promoted in the ranks on the grounds of his father's merits and of certain personal qualities, which in fact had nothing in common with literacy and culture, his bravery and correctness being the most obvious (Amm., 30. 9. 1 sq.).

Coming back to the proclamation of Valentinian, the unanimity in the moment of his election is, at least, suspect. Leaving apart the propaganda motif of unanimitas in the imperial ideology,2 we can analyze this unanimity from another point of view.

Formerly, it has been observed that Valentinian, at the date of his election, did not hold a very important position in the military-administrative hierarchy. He was tribunus scholae secundae scutari- orum, but there were many other persons more qualified to aspire to the imperial dignity. In fact, Ammianus alludes to them when he narrates that, after the election of the new Augustus, on the advice of Saturninius Salutius Secundus, praefectus praetorio Orientis at that date, "it was promptly and unanimously decided that, under penalty of death, no one who held high authority, or had been suspected of aiming at a higher station, should appear in public on the following morning" (Amm., 26. 2. 1). There can be discerned from this fragment the mechanism of the imperial succession: after the proclamation of a new Augustus, due to the instability inherent at the beginning of a new reign, and especially due to the absence of the designated emperor (at the date of his election, Valentinian was still

I PLRE, I, s. v. Flavius Equitius 2, p. 282. 2 Cf. Ramsay MacMullen, Le declin de Rome et la corruption du pouvoir, Paris, 1991, p. 112: the

election of a new emperor is a matter of unanimitas.

Historia, Band 54/3 (2005) ? Franz Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden GmbH, Sitz Stuttgart

This content downloaded from 144.32.128.14 on Mon, 2 Sep 2013 19:17:16 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

352 CRISTIAN OLARIU

at Ancyra, cf. Amm., 26. 1. 5-7), the first measure taken by the friends of the new emperor was to suppress the possible competitors: through this means, unanimitas was achieved. It has also to be remarked that, according to the old standards of antiquity, the measure seems to be associated rather with the domination of afactio: unlike in the Principate, when the government was mainly based on concordia ordinum and auctoritas principis, in Late Antiquity, the imperial authority was constructed around concepts such as concordia Augustorum and potentia, the latter defined by Cicero as related to the domination of afactio.3 Factio, because, in spite of the unanimity claimed by Ammianus on the occasion of the election, the source presents us the other aspect related to the proclamation of a new Augustus: that is, the physical elimination from the political scene of potential competitors with an alleged greater auctoritas than that of the main candidate to the imperial purple. Thus imperial auctoritas was constructed by means of "state crime", absolutely necessary in order to realize consen- sus and unanimity.

Coming back to the episode of election, it seems to be in fact an imposition of Valentinian as Augustus. A man without pretensions, previously remarked only by his firm pro-Christian attitude, proven during Julian's reign,4 he did not seem to be a serious candidate to the imperial purple.

The Pannonian origin of Valentinian suggested to some modern scholars the presence of a Pannonian "pressure group" at the imperial court, promoted in high posts even since the reign of Jovian,5 which tried and succeeded at the emperor's death to impose its own candidate. This group, of military-bureaucratic background, distinguished itself decisively during Valentinian's reign, in the context of the charges of magic and adultery brought against some members of the Roman senatorial aristocracy, starting from AD 369 (Amm., 28. 1. 14-54).

But, at the moment of Valentinian's accession, better positioned than the future emperor were, as Pannonians, only Equitius and Leo, both in secondary positions in the military hierarchy (Equitius was tribunus scholae primae scutariorum; Leo, numerarius of the magister equitum, cf. Amm., 26. 1. 6). They could not do anything other than "to prevent any interference with the decision that had been made, and to keep the fickle temper of the soldiers, who are always ready for a change, from turning towards someone who was on the spot ..., to maintain the decision which the whole army had made" (Amm., 26. 1. 6). From the point of view of Pannonian support, obviously the new emperor had little chance to be elected. Equitius, or lanuarius, the latter having also the strong advantage of kinship with the deceased emperor, seemed more qualified from any point of view to win the competition.

Why then Valentinian? During the reign of Constantius II, a person was outstanding by his privileges, especially those of

being exempt from payment of taxes. An extraordinary privilege, granted by Constantius only to his dearest friends or relatives: Eusebius, his father-in-law, Arsaces, the king of Armenia and his in-law,6 and Datianus, patricius and consul for the year 358.7 This Datianus is the character to deserve special attention in the context of Valentinian's election.

Having no official function, except for the consular magistracy for AD 358 and the honorary quality of patricius, Datianus was one of the closest comites and friends of Constantius. As an imperial favorite, he had the privilege to be exempt from tax payment, which he renounced, because it attracted too much envy (C. Th., I I. 1. 1, 18 January 360). Faded to obscurity during Julian's reign, Datianus was to be found again at the imperial court of Jovian. In AD 363 he was at Antioch, following the imperial court at Ancyra, where he remained due to the extremely severe winter of 363/364.

In fact, Andre Piganiol assumed that Jovian, had he lived longer, would have fallen under the influence of Datianus and Athanasius of Alexandria, the champion of the Nicene orthodoxy in Constantius' times.8 It should also be mentioned that Jovian recalled to the officia "Constantius' men", most probably some of the ex-proteges of Datianus; in these conditions, the death of Jovian, on 17 February 364, followed a relatively complicated political configuration at the imperial court.

3 Cicero, De re publica, 1. 68; see also R. Syme, The Roman Revolution, Oxford, 1939, p. 31 1. 4 Theod. Cyr., HE, 3. 16; Sozomen., HE, 5. 6. 3-6. 5 Andre Piganiol, L'empire chretien (325-395), Paris, 1947, p. 147. 6 Athanasius, Hist. Arian., 69, who states that Constantius gave Olympias, the promised bride of his

brother Constans, in marriage to this barbarian, probably before AD 358; see also PLRE, 1, s. v. Arsaces3,p. 109.

7 PLRE, I, s. v. Datianus 1, p. 243. 8 A. Piganiol, Empire (as in note 5), p. 148; the most recent work on Athanasius is Annick Martin,

Athanase d'Alexandrie et lEglise d'Egypte au IVe siecle (328-373), Roma, 1996.

This content downloaded from 144.32.128.14 on Mon, 2 Sep 2013 19:17:16 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Datianus, Valentinian and the Rise of the Pannonian Faction 353

At the moment of the summoning of the council of Nicaea, there existed three main factions: a "Constantian" group, headed by Jovian, whose main representatives were Datianus, Arintheus, Arbitio, Agilo and Lupicinus; a group of adherents of Julian, composed of Jovinus, Dagalaifus and Victor as military, Saturninius Salutius Secundus, Mamertinus and Germanianus as bureaucrats; finally, a group composed of "Pannonians", in a secondary position, represented by Equitius, Leo and Valentinian. These three factions finally agreed, unanimously, to elect Valentinian as Augustus. Remarkable is the consensus achieved, just because of the presence of the factions, which probably tried, each of them, to impose its own candidate. In this context, there existed an event that led to the Pannonian's election as Augustus. This event was the letter of recommendation (suffragium) sent by Datianus to the council of Nicaea, in favor of Valentinian.9 In the context of the influence Datianus still had at the court, as well as of the presence of "Constantians" in palatine factions, this suffragium represented the decisive element in the events of February 364. But, again, a question arises, why Valentinian and not, for example, a representative of the "Constantians"?

There are several elements that could be discussed. Firstly, that Valentinian had no important position in the military hierarchy at the moment of Jovian's death. Linked to this fact, the Pannonian group was too weak at that moment to represent a real danger to the other two palatine factions. In conclusion, the election of Valentinian had represented an almost secure modality to control the imperial authority by the palatine factions; in other words, it can be estimated that this election represented a compromise between the factions. Another important element, for the whole discussion, is represented by the presence of Valentinian at Ancyra, when Jovian met his death (Amm., 26. 1. 5).

Now Ancyra was the capital of Galatia. We do not know for sure whether Datianus was still at Ancyra, because Libanius in Ep. 1446 relates that the suffragium was sent from Galatia. Anyway, even though Datianus did not reside at Ancyra, living retired on his properties in the province during the winter, it has to be assumed that he was in contact with Valentinian, an imperial official. In antiquity, even the local elite members were in almost permanent contact with the administrative system, especially with the palatine clerks. With the help of amicitia, the entire empire was networked by clientela systems at local level, usually (for Late Antiquity) constituted on regional criteria. Even the retired clerks remained connected with their colleagues in service, because at any time, there were re- employment opportunities, or gathering of prestige or other advantages, by recommending a candidate for an office. Even the analysis of the suffragia system can present interesting connotations. While in the Republic, the term simply meant "vote given in the comitia to the candidates for magistracies", it gradually received different connotations: from the letter of recommendation sent by a patronus for his client for employment of the latter in an official post, passing by the electoral corruption of Late Republic, in the imperial era it finally meant "letter of recommendation". In the administrative system of the Late Roman state, the basic principle of promotion in bureaucratic hierarchy was less that of personal merit and more that of suffragium. The system had become so usual that Zeno Augustus (474- 476; 476-491) promulgated an imperial edict, according to which there were established precise prices for every bureaucratic office, to be paid to the imperial treasury. In other words, the corruption becomes a state monopoly! No less important was that these suffragia were not free: the sender expected either a sum of money, or other obligations from the recommended: personal facilities, such as the delay for payment of taxes, other opportunities to gain easy money or, pure and simple, symbolic goods, such as prestige, conferred to the sender through the accession in the administrative hierarchy of the protected.10

Apart from the suffragia system, there must be remarked the links between local elite and the members of the administrative system. When a representative of imperial power passed through a province, he was obliged by the social custom to visit the important members of the local elite, visits returned by the latter. Thus, formal links, then amicitia relationships, were created between the two parts in contact.

Further, coming back to the discussed subject, the presence of Valentinian at Ancyra probably enabled him to be in contact with Datianus. As tribunus scholae secundae scutariorum, it is highly probable that Valentinian had already known the powerful Datianus. On his part, Datianus, analyzing the character and educational background of the military officer, perhaps finally concluded that Valentinian was an easily influenced person. His lack of culture (Amm., 30. 8. 10) strongly recom- mended him for the position of a puppet emperor, as did the appartenance to the Pannonian group as

9 Libanius, Ep. 1446; see also PLRE, I, s. v. Datianus 1, p. 243. 10 A. H. M. Jones, The Later Roman Empire 284-602. A Social Ec onomic and Administrative Survey,

Oxford, 1964, p. 1055.

This content downloaded from 144.32.128.14 on Mon, 2 Sep 2013 19:17:16 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

354 CRISTIAN OLARIU

well. His determined attitude in favor of Christianity during Julian's reign,' I like indifference to the religious controversies inside the Christian religion (Amm., 30. 9. 5), made Valentinian the most suitable candidate for the throne. Also, as tribune of a palatine schola, the military and the high functionaries also favored him.

Thus, Datianus, due to the necessity of a new emperor, had recommended Valentinian to the council of Nicaea. Equitius' candidature had already been refused, due to his severity; lanuarius was handicapped just by his kinship with the deceased emperor, which would have allowed him a certain political independence. Valentinian, by contrast, seemed to be the perfect candidate; without a strong faction to support him, with a military background and with a low level of education, apparently easy to be controlled by the palatine factions.

As a consequence, Datianus recommended Valentinian to the elective council. On this occasion, the "Constantian" faction was persuaded to support Valentinian, together with the "Pannonians". Surprising seems to be the adhesion of "Julians" to this option; but, if one takes into consideration the military background of the future emperor, it can be assumed that his election suited the wishes of them, mostly of military background, too.

The religious attitude might be brought into discussion. But, the "Julians" were not known for their religious stubbornness, as in the case of Julian. Rather, the members of this group could be accused of religious opportunism.'2 In fact, this opportunism helped some of them to maintain power until late, after the usurpation of Procopius (365-366), the last remains in the "Julianic" faction in the East being suppressed in AD 372, accused of participation in the "philosophers' conspiracy".t3

In conclusion, it can be considered that the Pannonian group was too weak to impose its own candidate in February 364. Rather, the ascension of this group to power took place after Valentinian was nominated Augustus. Supported by the imperial power, the Pannonians managed to insinuate them- selves in the circles of power, thus obtaining high posts in the administrative and military structures of the empire. Worthy to be mentioned in this context is the position of Flavius Equitius: only tribunus scholae primae scutariorum in February 364, he managed in 1 1 years to become the grey eminence in West, as a kinsman of the domus divina. 14 In AD 375, after Valentinian's unexpected death at Brigetio, Fl. Merobaudes, Petronius Probus and Fl. Equitius persuaded the troops to proclaim, without the consent of Gratian, a second emperor in the West, Valentinian II, only a child at that date.'5 The key element for the domination of the Pannonians was the common origin shared with the emperors, a fact that helped them to succeed to power, together with the intrigue and brutal actions against their competitors. But the imperial support proved to be decisive in promoting them as a factor of power.

University of Bucharest Cristian Olariu

I 1 Theod. Cyr., HE, 3. 16; Sozomen., HE, 6. 6. 3-6; Socrates, HE, 4.1. 12 For example, Elpidius, comes rei privatae and Felix, comes sac rarum largitionum, described by Theod.

Cyr., HE, 3. 12. 2-3 as former Christians, then, during Julian's reign, converted to paganism. Another example is Domitius Modestus, a Christian during the reign of Constantius II, pagan after Julian became Augustus, then Chn'stian again, in the reign of Valens; for his career, see PLRE, I, p. 608.

13 Accused of participation at the conspiracy were Fidustius, a former praeses: Amm., 29. 1. 6; Irenaeus, Pergamius: Amm., 29. 1. 6; Hilarius, Patricius: Amm., 29. 1. 7; Euserius, vicarius Asiae: Amm., 29. 1. 9-10; Salia, comes thesaurorum in Thracia: Amm., 29. 1. 26; Eutropius, proconsul Asiae: Amm., 29. 1. 36; Libanius, Or. 1. 159; Pasiphius, philosopher: Amm., 29. 1. 36; Simonides: Amm., 29. 1. 37; Maximus, philosopher, a former teacher of Julian: Amm., 29. 1. 42; Diogenes, described as Bithyniae rector: Amm., 29. 1. 43; Alypius, former vicarius Britanniarum in 358

(Amm., 29. 1. 44), then comes of Julian: Amm., 23. 1. 2; Rufinus, HE, 10. 38; his son Hierocles: Amm., 29. 1. 44-45; Bassianus, notarius, punished with the confiscation of goods: Amm., 29. 2. 5. Also, there were accused during the trial the brothers Eusebius and Hypatius, consulares and former adherents of Constantius: Amm., 29. 2. 9. It can be observed that Valens used the trials to get rid of the remains of the rival factions from the East, those of Julian and Constantius. See also John Matthews, Political Life and Culture in Late Roman Sct-iety, London, 1985, art. IX, p. 1075.

14 In 364, tribunus scholae primae scutariorum; in 364-365, comes rei militaris per Illyricum; 365-

375, comes et magister militum per Illyricum, 0os in 374 with Gratian; cf. PLRE, I, s. v. Flavius

Equitius 2, p. 282. 15 Neil B. McLynn, Ambrose of Milan. Church and Courth in a Christian Capital, Berkeley-Los

Angeles-London, 1994, p. 84.

This content downloaded from 144.32.128.14 on Mon, 2 Sep 2013 19:17:16 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions