The Battle of Bagavan or the Battle of Vagabanta was fought in 371 near the settlement of Bagavan, in the district of Bagrevand in Greater Armenia, between a joint Roman-Armenian force and a Sassanid army, with the Romans and Armenians emerging victorious. It is recorded by the Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus, as well as the Armenian historian Faustus of Byzantium.
16th-century Armenian miniature depicting the battle
Valens was Roman emperor from 364 to 378. Following a largely unremarkable military career, he was named co-emperor by his elder brother Valentinian I, who gave him the eastern half of the Roman Empire to rule. In 378, Valens was defeated and killed at the Battle of Adrianople against the invading Goths, which astonished contemporaries and marked the beginning of barbarian encroachment into Roman territory.
Marble bust possibly representing Valens or Honorius (Capitoline Museums)
A solidus of Valens with a pearl diadem and a roseate fibula
Reverse of a solidus of Valens, marked: restitutor reipublicae ("the restitutor of the Republic") and showing the emperor holding a vexillum and a globe supporting a Victory, who crowns him with a laurel wreath
Coin of Valens after his quinquennalia on 25 February 369, showing the three reigning emperors on the reverse marked: spes r p ("the hope of the Republic")
