Valens Ancient Roman Coin Labarum Chi-Rho Chist monogram Victory i29879

Item: i29879

Authentic Ancient Coin of:

Valens – Roman Emperor: 364-378 A.D. –

Bronze AE3 19mm (2.71 grams) Sirmium mint  364-378 A.D.
Reference: RIC 6b
DN VALENS PF AVG, pearl diademed, draped & cuirassed
bust right
 RESTITVTOR REIP, emperor standing facing, head right, holding laburum &
Victory
on globe, ASIRM in ex. 

Royal/Imperial
symbols of power

Ruling dynasties often exploit pomp and ceremony with the use of
regalia
:
crowns
,

robes,
orb (globe) and sceptres
, some of which are reflections
of formerly practical objects. The use of language mechanisms also support this
differentiation with subjects talking of “the crown” and/or of “the
throne
” rather than referring directly to
personal names and items.

Monarchies
provide the most explicit
demonstration of tools to strengthen the elevation of leaders. Thrones sit high
on daises
leading to subjects lifting their gaze
(if they have permission) to contemplate the ruler. Architecture in general can
set leaders apart: note the symbolism inherent in the very name of the Chinese
imperial
Forbidden City
.

You are bidding on the

Labarum of Constantine I, displaying the “Chi-Rho” symbol above.

The labarum  was a
vexillum
(military standard) that displayed
the “Chi-Rho”
symbol
☧
, formed from the first two
Greek letters
of the word “Christ” 
—
Chi
and
Rho
. It was first used by the
Roman emperor

Constantine I
. Since the vexillum consisted of
a flag suspended from the crossbar of a cross, it was ideally suited to
symbolize the
crucifixion
of
Christ
.

Later usage has sometimes regarded the terms “labarum” and “Chi-Rho” as
synonyms. Ancient sources, however, draw an unambiguous distinction between the
two.

Vision of Constantine

A coin of Constantine (c.337) showing a depiction of his labarum
spearing a serpent.

On the evening of October 27, 312, with his army preparing for the
Battle of the Milvian Bridge
, the emperor
Constantine I
claimed to have had a vision
which led him to believe he was fighting under the protection of the
Christian God
.

Lactantius
states that, in the night before the
battle, Constantine was commanded in a dream to “delineate the heavenly sign on
the shields of his soldiers”. He obeyed and marked the shields with a sign
“denoting Christ”. Lactantius describes that sign as a “staurogram”, or a
Latin cross
with its upper end rounded in a
P-like fashion, rather than the better known
Chi-Rho
sign described by
Eusebius of Caesarea
. Thus, it had both the
form of a cross and the monogram of Christ’s name from the formed letters “X”
and “P”, the first letters of Christ’s name in Greek.

From Eusebius, two accounts of a battle survive. The first, shorter one in
the
Ecclesiastical History
leaves no doubt that
God helped Constantine but doesn’t mention any vision. In his later Life of
Constantine, Eusebius gives a detailed account of a vision and stresses that
he had heard the story from the emperor himself. According to this version,
Constantine with his army was marching somewhere (Eusebius doesn’t specify the
actual location of the event, but it clearly isn’t in the camp at Rome) when he
looked up to the sun and saw a cross of light above it, and with it the Greek
words
Ἐν Τούτῳ Νίκα
. The traditionally employed
Latin translation of the Greek is
in hoc signo vinces
— literally “In this
sign, you will conquer.” However, a direct translation from the original Greek
text of Eusebius into English gives the phrase “By this, conquer!”

At first he was unsure of the meaning of the apparition, but the following
night he had a dream in which Christ explained to him that he should use the
sign against his enemies. Eusebius then continues to describe the labarum, the
military standard used by Constantine in his later wars against
Licinius
, showing the Chi-Rho sign.

Those two accounts can hardly be reconciled with each other, though they have
been merged in popular notion into Constantine seeing the Chi-Rho sign on the
evening before the battle. Both authors agree that the sign was not readily
understandable as denoting Christ, which corresponds with the fact that there is
no certain evidence of the use of the letters chi and rho as a Christian sign
before Constantine. Its first appearance is on a Constantinian silver coin from
c. 317, which proves that Constantine did use the sign at that time, though not
very prominently.
He made extensive use of the Chi-Rho and the labarum only later in the conflict
with Licinius.

The vision has been interpreted in a solar context (e.g. as a
solar halo
phenomenon), which would have been
reshaped to fit with the Christian beliefs of the later Constantine.

An alternate explanation of the intersecting celestial symbol has been
advanced by George Latura, which claims that Plato’s visible god in Timaeus
is in fact the intersection of the Milky Way and the Zodiacal Light, a rare
apparition important to pagan beliefs that Christian bishops reinvented as a
Christian symbol.

Iconographic career under Constantine

Coin of
Vetranio
, a soldier is holding two
labara. Interestingly they differ from the labarum of Constantine in
having the Chi-Rho depicted on the cloth rather than above it, and
in having their staves decorated with
phalerae
as were earlier Roman
military unit standards.

The emperor
Honorius
holding a variant of the
labarum – the Latin phrase on the cloth means “In the name of Christ
[rendered by the Greek letters XPI] be ever victorious.”

Among a number of standards depicted on the
Arch of Constantine
, which was erected, largely
with fragments from older monuments, just three years after the battle, the
labarum does not appear. A grand opportunity for just the kind of political
propaganda that the Arch otherwise was expressly built to present was missed.
That is if Eusebius’ oath-confirmed account of Constantine’s sudden,
vision-induced, conversion can be trusted. Many historians have argued that in
the early years after the battle the emperor had not yet decided to give clear
public support to Christianity, whether from a lack of personal faith or because
of fear of religious friction. The arch’s inscription does say that the Emperor
had saved the
res publica
INSTINCTV DIVINITATIS
MENTIS MAGNITVDINE (“by greatness of mind and by instinct [or impulse]
of divinity”). As with his predecessors, sun symbolism – interpreted as
representing
Sol Invictus
(the Unconquered Sun) or
Helios
,
Apollo
or
Mithras
– is inscribed on his coinage, but in
325 and thereafter the coinage ceases to be explicitly pagan, and Sol Invictus
disappears. In his
Historia Ecclesiae
Eusebius further reports
that, after his victorious entry into Rome, Constantine had a statue of himself
erected, “holding the sign of the Savior [the cross] in his right hand.” There
are no other reports to confirm such a monument.

Whether Constantine was the first
Christian
emperor supporting a peaceful
transition to Christianity during his rule, or an undecided pagan believer until
middle age, strongly influenced in his political-religious decisions by his
Christian mother
St. Helena
, is still in dispute among
historians.

As for the labarum itself, there is little evidence for its use
before 317.In the course of Constantine’s second war against Licinius in
324, the latter
developed a superstitious dread of Constantine’s standard. During the
attack of
Constantine’s troops at the
Battle of Adrianople
the guard of the labarum
standard were directed to move it to any part of the field where his soldiers
seemed to be faltering. The appearance of this talismanic object appeared to
embolden Constantine’s troops and dismay those of Licinius.At the final battle of the war, the
Battle of Chrysopolis
, Licinius, though
prominently displaying the images of Rome’s pagan pantheon on his own battle
line, forbade his troops from actively attacking the labarum, or even looking at
it directly.^[16]

Constantine felt that both Licinius and
Arius
were agents of Satan, and associated them
with the serpent described in the
Book of Revelation
(12:9).
Constantine represented Licinius as a snake on his coins.

Eusebius stated that in addition to the singular labarum of Constantine,
other similar standards (labara) were issued to the Roman army. This is
confirmed by the two labara depicted being held by a soldier on a coin of
Vetranio
(illustrated) dating from 350.

The Chi Rho is one of the earliest

christograms

used by Christians. It is formed by superimposing the

first two letters in the Greek spelling of the word

Christ

(

Greek

 : “Χριστός” ), chi = ch and rho = r, in such a way to produce

the monogram

. The Chi-Rho symbol was also used by pagan Greek scribes to

mark, in the margin, a particularly valuable or relevant passage; the

combined

letters Chi and Rho standing for chrēston, meaning “good.”

Although not technically a cross, the Chi Rho invokes the crucifixion

of Jesus as well as symbolizing his status as the Christ. There is early

evidence of the Chi Rho symbol on Christian Rings of the third century.

The labarum (Greek:

λάβαρον) was a

(military standard) that displayed the “Chi-Rho”

symbol, formed from the first two

Greek letters

of the word “Christ”

(Greek:

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ, or Χριστός) — Chi (χ)

and Rho (ρ).

It was first used by the

Roman emperor

Constantine I

. Since the vexillum consisted of a flag suspended from

the crossbar of a cross, it was ideally suited to symbolize

crucifixion

. The Chi-Rho symbol was also used by Greek scribes to

mark, in the margin, a particularly valuable or relevant passage; the

combined letters Chi and Rho standing for chrēston, meaning

“good.”

Flavius Julius Valens (Latin:

FLAVIUS IVLIVS VALENS AVGVSTVS; 328 – 9

August 378) was

Roman Emperor

(364-378), after he was given the

Eastern part of the empire by his brother

Valentinian I

. Valens, sometimes known as the

, was defeated and killed in the

Battle of Adrianople

, which marked the beginning of

the fall of the

Western Roman Empire

.

//

 Life

 Appointment

to emperor

Valens and his brother

Flavius Valentinianus

(Valentinian) were both born

48 miles west of

Sirmium

(modern

Sremska Mitrovica

,

Serbia

), in the town of Cibalae (Vinkovci,

Croatia

) in 328 and 321, respectively. They had

grown up on estates purchased by their father,

Gratian the Elder

, in Africa and Britain. While

Valentinian had enjoyed a successful military career

prior to his appointment as emperor, Valens apparently

had not. He had spent much of his youth on the family’s

estate and only joined the army in the 360s,

participating with his brother in the Persian campaign

of Emperor

Julian

.

He restored some religious

persecution, and was

Arian

.

In February 364, reigning Emperor

Jovian

, while hastening to

Constantinople

to secure his claim to the throne,

was

asphyxiated

during a stop at Dadastana, 100 miles

east of

Ankara

. Among Jovian’s agents was Valentinian, a

tribunus scutariorum. He was proclaimed

Augustus

on 26 February, 364. Valentinian felt that

he needed help to govern the large and troublesome

empire, and, on 28 March of the same year, appointed his

brother Valens as co-emperor in the palace of

Hebdomon

. The two Augusti travelled together

through Adrianople and Naissus to

Sirmium

, where they divided their personnel, and

Valentinian went on to the West.

Valens obtained the eastern half of

the

Balkan Peninsula

,Greece,

Egypt

,

Syria

and

Anatolia

as far east as Persia. Valens was back in

his capital of Constantinople by December 364.

 Revolt

of Procopius

Valens inherited the eastern portion

of an empire that had recently retreated from most of

its holdings in

Mesopotamia

and

Armenia

because of a treaty that his predecessor

Jovian had made with

Shapur II

of the

Sassanid Empire

. Valens’s first priority after the

winter of 365 was to move east in hopes of shoring up

the situation. By the autumn of 365 he had reached

Cappadocian Caesarea when he learned that a usurper had

proclaimed himself in Constantinople. When he died,

Julian had left behind one surviving relative, a

maternal cousin named

Procopius

. Procopius had been charged with

overseeing a northern division of Julian’s army during

the Persian expedition and had not been present with the

imperial elections when Julian’s successor was named.

Though Jovian made accommodations to appease this

potential claimant, Procopius fell increasingly under

suspicion in the first year of Valens’ reign.

After narrowly escaping arrest, he

went into hiding and reemerged at Constantinople where

he was able to convince two military units passing

through the capital to proclaim him emperor on 28

September 365. Though his early reception in the city

seems to have been lukewarm, Procopius won favor quickly

by using propaganda to his advantage: he sealed off the

city to outside reports and began spreading rumors that

Valentinian had died; he began minting coinage flaunting

his connections to the Constantinian dynasty; and he

further exploited dynastic claims by using the widow and

daughter of

Constantius II

to act as showpieces for his regime.

This program met with some success, particularly among

soldiers loyal to the Constantinians and eastern

intellectuals who had already begun to feel persecuted

by the Valentinians.

Valens, meanwhile, faltered. When

news arrived that Procopius had revolted, Valens

considered

abdication

and perhaps even

suicide

. Even after he steadied his resolve to

fight, Valens’s efforts to forestall Procopius were

hampered by the fact that most of his troops had already

crossed the

Cilician

gates into

Syria

when he learned of the revolt. Even so, Valens

sent two legions to march on Procopius, who easily

persuaded them to desert to him. Later that year, Valens

himself was nearly captured in a scramble near

Chalcedon

. Troubles were exacerbated by the refusal

of Valentinian to do any more than protect his own

territory from encroachment. The failure of imperial

resistance in 365 allowed Procopius to gain control of

the dioceses of

Thrace

and Asiana by year’s end.

Only in the spring of 366 had Valens

assembled enough troops to deal with Procopius

effectively. Marching out from Ancyra through

Pessinus

, Valens proceeded into

Phrygia

where he defeated Procopius’s general

Gomoarius at the

Battle of Thyatira

. He then met Procopius himself at

Nacoleia and convinced his troops to desert him.

Procopius was executed on 27 May and his head sent to

Valentinian in

Trier

for inspection.

 War

against the Goths

The

Gothic

people in the northern region had supported

Procopius in his revolt against Valens, and Valens had

learned the Goths were planning an uprising of their

own. These Goths, more specifically the Tervingi, were

at the time under the leadership of

Athanaric

and had apparently remained peaceful since

their defeat under Constantine in 332. In the spring of

367, Valens crossed the Danube and marched on

Athanaric’s Goths. These fled into the

Carpathian Mountains

, and eluded Valens’ advance,

forcing him to return later that summer. The following

spring, a Danube flood prevented Valens from crossing;

instead the emperor occupied his troops with the

construction of fortifications. In 369, Valens crossed

again, from

Noviodunum

, and attacked the north-easterly Gothic

tribe of Greuthungi before facing Athanaric’s Tervingi

and defeating them. Athanaric pled for treaty terms and

Valens gladly obliged. The treaty seems to have largely

cut off relations between Goths and Romans, including

free trade

and the exchange of troops for tribute.

Valens would feel this loss of military manpower in the

following years.

 Conflict

with the Sassanids

Among Valens’ reasons for contracting

a hasty and not entirely favorable peace in 369 was the

deteriorating state of affairs in the East. Jovian had

surrendered Rome’s much disputed claim to control over

Armenia in 363, and

Shapur II

was eager to make good on this new

opportunity. The

Sassanid

ruler began enticing Armenian lords over to

his camp and eventually forced the defection of the

Arsacid

Armenian king,

Arsakes II

, whom he quickly arrested and

incarcerated. Shapur then sent an invasion force to

seize

Caucasian Iberia

and a second to besiege Arsaces’

son,

Pap

, in the fortress of Artogerassa, probably in

367. By the following spring, Pap had engineered his

escape from the fortress and flight to Valens, whom he

seems to have met at Marcianople while campaigning

against the Goths.

Already in the summer following his

Gothic settlement, Valens sent his general Arinthaeus to

re-impose Pap on the Armenian throne. This provoked

Shapur himself to invade and lay waste to Armenia. Pap,

however, once again escaped and was restored a second

time under escort of a much larger force in 370. The

following spring, larger forces were sent under

Terentius to regain Iberia and to garrison Armenia near

Mount Npat. When Shapur counterattacked into Armenia in

371, his forces were bested by Valens’ generals Traianus

and Vadomarius at Bagavan. Valens had overstepped the

363 treaty and then successfully defended his

transgression. A truce settled after the 371 victory

held as a quasi-peace for the next five years while

Shapur was forced to deal with a

Kushan

invasion on his eastern frontier.

Meanwhile, troubles broke out with

the boy-king Pap, who began acting in high-handed

fashion, even executing the Armenian

bishop

Narses

and demanding control of a number of Roman

cities, including

Edessa

. Pressed by his generals and fearing that Pap

would defect to the Persians, Valens made an

unsuccessful attempt to capture the prince and later had

him executed inside Armenia. In his stead, Valens

imposed another Arsacid,

Varazdat

, who ruled under the regency of the

sparapet

Musel

Mamikonean

, a friend of Rome.

None of this sat well with the

Persians, who began agitating again for compliance with

the 363 treaty. As the eastern frontier heated up in

375, Valens began preparations for a major expedition.

Meanwhile, trouble was brewing elsewhere. In

Isauria

, the mountainous region of western

Cilicia

, a major revolt had broken out in 375 which

diverted troops formerly stationed in the east.

Furthermore, by 377, the

Saracens

under

Queen Mavia

had broken into revolt and devastated a

swath of territory stretching from

Phoenicia

and

Palestine

as far as the

Sinai

. Though Valens successfully brought both

uprisings under control, the opportunities for action on

the eastern frontier were limited by these skirmishes

closer to home.

In 375, Valens’ older brother

Valentinian, while in

Pannonia

had suffered a burst

blood vessel

in his skull, which resulted in his

death on 17 November, 375.

Gratian

, Valentinian’s son and Valens’ nephew, had

already been associated with his father in the imperial

dignity and was joined by his half-brother

Valentinian II

who was elevated, on their father’s

death, to

Augustus

by the imperial troops in

Pannonia

.

 Gothic

War

Valens’ plans for an eastern campaign

were never realized. A transfer of troops to the western

empire in 374 had left gaps in Valens’ mobile forces. In

preparation for an eastern war, Valens initiated an

ambitious recruitment program designed to fill those

gaps. It was thus not unwelcome news when Valens learned

that the Gothic tribes had been displaced from their

homeland by an invasion of

Huns

in 375 and were seeking asylum from him. In

376, the

Visigoths

advanced to the far shores of the lower

Danube and sent an ambassador to Valens who had set up

his capitol in

Antioch

. The Goths requested shelter and land in the

Balkan peninsula

. An estimated 200,000 Gothic

Warriors and altogether 1,000,000 Gothic persons were

along the Danube in

Moesia

and the ancient land of

Dacia

.

As Valens’ advisers were quick to

point out, these Goths could supply troops who would at

once swell Valens’ ranks and decrease his dependence on

provincial troop levies — thereby increasing revenues

from the recruitment tax. Among the Goths seeking asylum

was a group led by the chieftain

Fritigern

. Fritigern had enjoyed contact with Valens

in the 370s when Valens supported him in a struggle

against Athanaric stemming from Athanaric’s persecution

of Gothic

Christians

. Though a number of Gothic groups

apparently requested entry, Valens granted admission

only to Fritigern and his followers. This did not,

however, prevent others from following.

When Fritigern and his Goths

undertook the crossing, Valens’s mobile forces were tied

down in the east, on the Persian frontier and in

Isauria. This meant that only

units were present to oversee the

Goths’ settlement. The small number of imperial troops

present prevented the Romans from stopping a Danube

crossing by a group of Goths and later by Huns and

Alans

. What started out as a controlled resettlement

mushroomed into a massive influx. And the situation grew

worse. When the riparian commanders began abusing the

Visigoths under their charge, they revolted in early 377

and defeated the Roman units in

Thrace

outside of Marcianople.

After joining forces with the

Ostrogoths and eventually the Huns and Alans, the

combined barbarian group marched widely before facing an

advance force of imperial soldiers sent from both east

and west. In a

Ad Salices battle at

, the Goths were once

again victorious, winning free run of Thrace south of

the

Haemus

. By 378, Valens himself was able to march

west from his eastern base in Antioch. He withdrew all

but a skeletal force — some of them Goths — from the

east and moved west, reaching Constantinople by 30 May,

378. Meanwhile, Valens’ councilors,

Comes

Richomeres

, and his generals Frigerid, Sebastian,

and Victor cautioned Valens and tried to persuade him to

wait for Gratian’s arrival with his victorious

legionaries from Gaul, something that Gratian himself

strenuously advocated. What happened next is an example

of

hubris

, the impact of which was to be felt for years

to come. Valens, jealous of his nephew Gratian’s

success, decided he wanted this victory for himself.

 Battle

of Adrianople and death of Valens

After a brief stay aimed at building

his troop strength and gaining a toehold in Thrace,

Valens moved out to

Adrianople

. From there, he marched against the

confederated barbarian army on 9 August 378 in what

would become known as the

Battle of Adrianople

. Although negotiations were

attempted, these broke down when a Roman unit sallied

forth and carried both sides into battle. The Romans

held their own early on but were crushed by the surprise

arrival of Visigoth cavalry which split their ranks.

The primary source for the battle is

Ammianus Marcellinus

.

Valens had left a sizeable guard with his baggage and

treasures depleting his force. His right wing, cavalry,

arrived at the Gothic camp sometime before the left wing

arrived. It was a very hot day and the Roman cavalry was

engaged without strategic support, wasting its efforts

while they suffered in the heat.

Meanwhile Fritigern once again sent

an emissary of peace in his continued manipulation of

the situation. The resultant delay meant that the Romans

present on the field began to succumb to the heat. The

army’s resources were further diminished when an ill

timed attack by the Roman archers made it necessary to

recall Valens’ emissary, Comes Richomeres. The archers

were beaten and retreated in humiliation.

Gothic cavalry under the command of

Althaeus and Saphrax then struck and, with what was

probably the most decisive event of the battle, the

Roman cavalry fled. From here, Ammianus gives two

accounts of Valen’s demise. In the first account,

Ammianus states that Valens was “mortally wounded by an

arrow, and presently breathed his last breath,”

(XXXI.12) His body was never found or given a proper

burial. In the second account, Ammianus states the Roman

infantry was abandoned, surrounded and cut to pieces.

Valens was wounded and carried to a small wooden hut.

The hut was surrounded by the Goths who put it to the

torch, evidently unaware of the prize within. According

to Ammianus, this is how Valens perished (XXXI.13.14-6).

The church historian

Socrates

likewise gives two accounts for the death

of Valens.

Some have asserted that he was

burnt to death in a village whither he had retired,

which the barbarians assaulted and set on fire. But

others affirm that having put off his imperial robe

he ran into the midst of the main body of infantry;

and that when the cavalry revolted and refused to

engage, the infantry were surrounded by the

barbarians, and completely destroyed in a body.

Among these it is said the emperor fell, but could

not be distinguished, in consequence of his not

having on his imperial habit.

When the battle was over, two-thirds

of the eastern army lay dead. Many of their best

officers had also perished. What was left of the army of

Valens was led from the field under the cover of night

by Comes Richomer and General Victor.

J.B. Bury

, a noted historian of the period, provides

specific interpretation on the significance the battle:

it was “a disaster and disgrace that need not have

occurred.”

For Rome, the battle incapacitated

the government. Emperor Gratian, nineteen years old, was

overcome by the debacle, and until he appointed

Theodosius I

, unable to deal with the catastrophe

which spread out of control.

 Legacy

Adrianople was the most significant

event in Valens’ career. The battle of Adrianople was

significant for yet another reason: the evolution of

warfare. Until that time, the Roman infantry was

considered invincible, and the evidence for this was

considerable. However, the Gothic cavalry completely

changed all that. Although J.B. Bury states that records

are incomplete for the 5th century, all during the 4th

and 6th centuries, history shows that the cavalry took

over as the principal Roman weapon of war on land.

“Valens was utterly undistinguished,

still only a protector, and possessed no military

ability: he betrayed his consciousness of inferiority by

his nervous suspicion of plots and savage punishment of

alleged traitors,” writes

A.H.M. Jones

. But Jones admits that “he was a

conscientious administrator, careful of the interests of

the humble. Like his brother, he was an ernest

Christian.”

To have died in so inglorious a battle has thus come to

be regarded as the nadir of an unfortunate career. This

is especially true because of the profound consequences

of Valens’ defeat. Adrianople spelled the beginning of

the end for Roman territorial integrity in the late

empire and this fact was recognized even by

contemporaries. Ammianus understood that it was the

worst defeat in Roman history since the

Battle of Cannae

(31.13.19), and

Rufinus

called it “the beginning of evils for the

Roman empire then and thereafter.”

Valens is also credited with the

commission of a short history of the Roman State. This

work, produced by Valens’ secretary

Eutropius

, and known with the name Breviarium ab

Urbe condita, tells the story of Rome from its

founding. According to some historians, Valens was

motivated by the necessity of learning Roman history,

that he, the royal family and their appointees might

better mix with the Roman Senatorial class.

 Struggles

with the religious nature of the empire

During his reign, Valens had to

confront the theological diversity that was beginning to

create division in the Empire.

Julian

(361–363), had tried to revive the pagan

religions. His reactionary attempt took advantage of the

dissensions between the different factions among the

Christians

and a largely Pagan

rank and file military

. However, in spite of broad

support, his actions were often viewed as excessive, and

before he died in a campaign against the Persians, he

was often treated with disdain. His death was considered

a sign from

God

.

Like the brothers

Constantius II

and

Constans

, Valens and Valentinian I held divergent

theological views. Valens was an

Arian

and

Valentinian I

upheld the

Nicene Creed

. When Valens died however, the cause of

Arianism in the Roman East was to come to an end. His

successor

Theodosius I

would endorse the Nicene Creed.