Failure of Empire: Valens and the Roman State in the Fourth Century A.D.

by Noel Lenski

Failure of Empire is the first comprehensive biography of the Roman emperor Valens and his troubled reign (a.d. 364-78). Valens will always be remembered for his spectacular defeat and death at the hands of the Goths in the Battle of Adrianople. This singular misfortune won him a front-row seat among history's great losers. By the time he was killed, his empire had been coming unglued for several the Goths had overrun the Balkans; Persians, Isaurians, and Saracens were threatening the east; the economy was in disarray; and pagans and Christians alike had been exiled, tortured, and executed in his religious persecutions. Valens had not, however, entirely failed in his job as emperor. He was an admirable administrator, a committed defender of the frontiers, and a ruler who showed remarkable sympathy for the needs of his subjects.

In lively style and rich detail, Lenski incorporates a broad range of new material, from archaeology to Gothic and Armenian sources, in a study that illuminates the social, cultural, religious, economic, administrative, and military complexities of Valens's realm. Failure of Empire offers a nuanced reconsideration of Valens the man and shows both how he applied his strengths to meet the expectations of his world and how he ultimately failed in his efforts to match limited capacities to limitless demands.

Genres: History, Roman History, Biography

470 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2002

Reviews

[Eduardo Tutherington · Rating 3 out of 5]

Take my score with a grain of salt because this book was much too detailed for my needs, to the point that I skimmed a few chapters that I found extremely boring. The author wades into apparently highly contentious debates about very minor points in the field and goes to great lengths to show that his position is correct. That might have value for scholarship but made for dull reading. The chapters on Valens's upbringing, Procopius's revolt, Rome's history with Persia/the Eastern Frontier, and much of the information about the Goths and Valens's demise were interesting and even exciting at times. The chapters on administration of the empire and Christianity were nearly unbearable, and this is coming from someone whose education is in the history of religion...

In sum: Thorough, well-researched, but sometimes dull.

[Hans Kerrinckx · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most of us know emperor Valens as the the man who lost the Battle of Adrianople (9 August 378) to the Goths and died during that battle. He is also known as the younger brother of the energetic emperor-soldier Valentinian the First (AD 364-375), who ruled the Western part of the Roman Empire while his brother ruled the East.

This book is a masterpiece in many ways: most books written on Roman emperors focus on either the great ones or the ones that turned out to be monsters. This book is about an emperor who was neither one nor the other, who struggled during his whole reign, and who finally failed.

Valens did have good qualities but he had a hard time. His lack of education - he neither read nor spoke Greek although this was the main language spoken in the Eastern part of the Empire - put him at a disadvantage. Neither was he a relentless soldier, like his elder brother. He was perseverant, he struggled and he tried his best, but this was not enough. He was just a man of average abilities who found himself unable to cope with events. The man is not obscured by propaganda in this era of high religious and military tensions. Nobody tried to make him a saint or a villain, he's just... a man.

As far as I know, there is no other biography of Valens. So this book is a milestone in the historiography of the time period 360-380 AD. The information on this period is fascinating, and this book offers it arranged in chronological order which means that it reads like a biography.

A superb read which I cannot recommend too much for anyone interested in the twilight of the Roman Empire.

[Samuel Valentino · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic book, and, even more entertaining for a student of history, a fantastic writer as well. Everything was well written - even parts of the book that I would find less interesting (economics, for example). I'd tell myself that I'd only read one page, and then keep going because he could make even dry subjects readable.

Even the acknowledgments page was good. His last sentence, which was full of love and praise for his wife, was so moving that I actually read it to my wife.

Gushing over the writing aside, the history was good, the sections were well organized, and the scholarship thorough. One thing he did especially well was convey the character (at least as the sources could reveal it) of the people. At one point, he was describing something that Julian the Apostate had done, and I caught myself thinking. "That's so like Julian!" He'd painted such a portrait that for a minute, it seemed like I could recollect what Julian's former soldiers remembered of him.

Another good thing is that there is a good deal in there about Valentinian, Gratian, and Valentinian II, even though the book is technically about Valens. It was good to get a larger picture, especially from an historian I appreciated reading.

[Hero · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Apart from some irritating typos and the confusion of cousins Constantius II and Julian for nephew and uncle), this is brilliant, ground-breaking stuff. Thanks very much to Lenski for giving three dimensions to a troubled reign in such erudite depth. No one can again reduce Valens' time over the Eastern Empire as merely a prelude to this death in a burning building at the hand of Goth invaders. Valens stands here, a bit bow-legged and wall-eyed, but a vivid, astute manager of a bankrupt legacy of an Empire, determined in close, proven coordination with this brother Emperor Valentinian to reform the economy and stability of their respected territories.

My edition of this book is riddled with underscores, marginal notes and lots of re-readings.

Excellent.

[Comes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great chapters on administration, religion and Adrianople. Very clear and quite a lot of fun to read.

[Philippe Christol · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great historic record of Valens time as eastern roman empire ruler, the book falls a bit short of expectations both on the battle of Adrianople itself (described in a couple of pages) and its longterm consequences. Considering the extensive research work done by the author on all aspects of Valens' reign, which is probably the first detailed analysis on the time of this mostly unknown emperor, it would have been interesting to read his opinion on the importance he assigns to this dramatic event on the subsequent demise of the empire in the following 100 years.
Despite these two remarks great book to read