- emperor in the west, son of Constantius III - his mother was regent for his first 12 years - the real power was the general Aetius - his reign mostly known for the enemies he had
- (1) the Vandals, a Germanic tribe that wandered down to Spain, crossed over to North Africa and made themselves an independent country there - they also started raiding everywhere
- (2) the Huns were an Asiatic/Germanic tribe that had been supplying lots of mercenary soldiers to the Roman empire - by the late 430's the Huns had a huge empire in central and eastern Europe - under their new king, Attila (434-453), the Huns extorted bribes from the Eastern empire - when the bribes stopped, the Huns moved west to try and take a part of the West for themselves - defeated by Aetius in Gaul, Attila moved into Italy and thought about taking Rome, but was somehow talked out of it by Pope Leo I
- Valentinian was a devout Christian, but had little interest in governing - with his death the imperial dynasty was gone and also the stability of the empire
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