Marcellinus places the elevation of Valentinian at Ravenna
The Chronicle of Marcellinus Comes records under the consulship of Theodosius (11th) and Valentinian Caesar (AD 425) that the younger Valentinian was made emperor at Ravenna.
What this does and does not establish
A Latin chronicle written at Constantinople c. 518-534, used through Mommsen's 1894 edition (MGH AA 11) as Internet Archive OCR text (page images not checked); the English is an AI working translation. Marcellinus names Ravenna. In the same volume Hydatius §85 says that Valentinian, already Caesar, was named Augustus at Rome. The Greek column alongside Marcellinus dates the elevation to 23 October without naming a place. The OCR sigla at line 6258 read TSB with a damaged omission note for 424–427; the witness responsible is uncertain. Jordanes and Bede draw on Marcellinus.
- Read through an AI working translation.
- Region
- Europe
- Theme
- Politics and institutions
- Kind of record
- Placed in a year. A source places this in one year. It is listed under that year; no day precision is invented.
How it is dated
- Date reference
- Indiction/consul heading (OCR line 6216): '425 VIII. THEODOSII XI'
- How we use it
- Placed in the consular year under which Marcellinus enters it (as numbered by the editor). Consular years run from 1 January; entries are not dated within the year, and the chronicle can misplace events.
The date reference is this project’s reading of the source’s date. It may give an era name, a reign or a calendar in a normalised form rather than in the source’s own words; the dating notes say what the source prints.
Dating notes from the research record
Consular year to AD 425 per the heading index marcellinus-headings.json (one indiction/consul heading per year in order, indiction expected 8, read 8), matching the AD years Mommsen prints in the margin.
File names and line numbers in these notes, and in the limits above, refer to the project’s retained copies of the cited sources. Names such as calendar_headers are the project’s calendar look-ups, and “the investigator” is the research step that prepared the record.
Sources and quoted text
Line and character numbers under “Location” refer to the project’s retained copy of the source. For database rows, “Edition” names the batch of rows that was fetched together.
Source 1 · Supports the statement
Marcellinus Comes, Chronicon (Latin), ed. Th. Mommsen, MGH Auctores antiquissimi 11 (Chronica minora II), 1894
Marcellinus Comes (6th-century, Constantinople); critical edition by Theodor Mommsen (1894)
Quoted text (Latin)
Valentinianus iunior apud Ravennam
factus est imperator.AI working translation into English; not official or authoritative
The younger Valentinian was made emperor at Ravenna.
Source credit and reuse conditions recorded for this source: Source: Marcellinus Comes, Chronicon, ed. Th. Mommsen, MGH AA 11 (1894), Internet Archive OCR text. English renderings are AI working translations from the Latin.
Exact source version
e805805fe7b68265bd53e46c3152420178fa7275b1ed420804dfd243bfc628c9Source 2 · Context for reading it
Continuation of Jerome, section 85
Hydatius
Quoted text (Latin)
85. ('Valentinianus', qui erat 'Cacs.ar, Romae Augustus appellatur'.)AI working translation into English; not official or authoritative
Valentinian, who was Caesar, is named Augustus at Rome.
Source credit and reuse conditions recorded for this source: Hydatius, Continuation of Jerome, section 85, in Mommsen (ed.), MGH AA 11 (1894), Internet Archive OCR. AI working translation.
Exact source version
e805805fe7b68265bd53e46c3152420178fa7275b1ed420804dfd243bfc628c9Checks and changes
Source checked 2026-11-05. An independent AI evidence review supports this bounded, attributed wording. That review does not guarantee historical truth. How records are checked
This is a corrected version of this record. During research, before this release, an earlier version was withdrawn after independent review and replaced by this one.
Revision s1h_425_marc_1_r2_r3
Exact revision fingerprint
e018558d17075e0748dadce22b593b25b481e2e58b84e9d729906817dc4e4d47