According to Ammianus, Valens and his administrators bring Antioch’s judicial and carceral system to the brink of collapse through their greed, cruelty, and paranoia. The most extensive eyewitness account of the Antiochene trials can be found in the writings of Ammianus Marcellinus, who frames the investigations as a consummate miscarriage of justice unleashed upon Antioch’s largely innocent and unsuspecting populace. These brutal and bloody punishments are recorded with shock and horror in contemporary accounts of the trials. 2 In the ensuing investigations, dozens of individuals across all social ranks were imprisoned, tortured, and violently executed-often through beheading, strangulation, or burning at the stake. 1 As investigations unmasked an ever-growing list of co-conspirators and revealed Theodorus, the second-in-rank of the notarii, as the impending candidate for the throne, the brunt of imperial scrutiny fell on Antioch’s citizens, leading Valens and his administration to identify potential sympathizers and restrict the use of divination and other “nefarious magical practices” ( maleficium). In late winter 371, rumors of a vast conspiracy embedded within the eastern administration would test Emperor Valens’s administration and strain his relationship with Antioch. The magic and maiestas (treason) trials carried out under Valens in 371–72 CE are often remembered for the trauma they inflicted on residents of the eastern metropolis of Antioch. This conclusion not only forces a reconsideration of Valens’s relationship with his de facto imperial capital throughout the trials but also indicates the dangers of relying too heavily on literary interpretations of Valens’s reign. This article concludes that this pardon and Valens’s application of moderated or commuted sentences throughout the trials indicate his efforts to maintain a constructive imperial-urban relationship with the Antiochene populace. Antiochene lobbying efforts were also more impactful in mitigating the imperial response, as demonstrated by Chrysostom’s account of a public protest that successfully petitioned Valens to pardon one of the accused. Comparisons with legal precedents reveal, however, that Valens’s administration balanced these stern deterrents with deference to the law and attempted to assuage Antiochene interests throughout the investigations. The rigorous tactics implemented during the trials demonstrate Valens and his administration’s intent to counter potential sedition among Antioch’s citizenry with the full brunt of Roman law and military action. By reexamining these three authors’ allegations of judicial corruption and abusive policing during the trials, this article contends that Valens’s response to the crisis was leveraged with far more legality, moderation, and success than often discussed. The writings of Ammianus Marcellinus, Libanius, and John Chrysostom have enshrined the Antiochene treason and magic investigations conducted under Emperor Valens in 372 CE as a testament to the ruler’s excessive paranoia and poor relationship with the eastern metropolis.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |