After the death of the emperor Julian in his campaign against Persia in 363, the Flavian line was extinguished. Only Procopius, a distant relative of the former, remained of all the descendants of Constantine I. Although under Jovian the dangerous rank of Procopius was allowed to go unnoticed, and he retired to the humble management of his properties in Cappadocia, the timid Valens could not brook the presence of such eminent heredity, and ministers were dispatched to eliminate with his life the possibility of his succession. Unfortunately for the peace of the eastern empire, Procopius escaped, and after experiencing the bitterness of a distant exile in Bosphorus, at length returned to claim his birth-right. He diligently exploited the occasion of Valens' absence in Syria to win the capital, Constantinople, and the adjoining provinces of Thrace and Bithynia to his allegiance; and by the claim of his consanguinity to Julian and the Flavians, as well as the assurance of ample donatives to the soldiery, he was enabled to gather a very strong force.
The Battle
The pusillanimous despair of Valens at these tidings was overridden by the activity of his generals, including the prefectSallustius, and the braveArinthaeus and Arbetio, and the usurper was soon put on the defensive. The legions of Syria were promptly directed against the revolted provinces, and the contending forces met at Thyatira. Both in this action, and in the succeeding battle of Nacolia, the primary characteristic of the engagement was its termination by the utter desertion of Procopius by his troops, who were won over to Valens' allegiance by the exhortations of their own former generals, who had espoused the cause of the brother of Valentinian I. The usurper was presently made destitute of his army, his faction, and his head. One further action, after that of Thyatira, sufficed to quash the rebellion, and Procopius was delivered to Valens' camp by his own followers, where he was summarily put to death. In the aftermath, Valens cruelly revenged the revolt on Procopius' adherents, deserving him the execration of a tyrant and despot.
