What is "valentinus"

n. (context gnosticism English) an gnostic theologian living in Egypt and Rome (c.100 - c.153)

Valentinus is a Roman masculine given name. It is derived from the Latin word "valens" meaning "healthy, strong". Valentinus may refer to:

Valentinus (also spelled Valentinius; 100 – 160 AD) was the best known and for a time most successful early Christian gnostic theologian. He founded his school in Rome. According to Tertullian, Valentinus was a candidate for bishop of Rome but started his own group when another was chosen.

Valentinus produced a variety of writings, but only fragments survive, largely those embedded in refuted quotations in the works of his opponents, not enough to reconstruct his system except in broad outline. His doctrine is known to us only in the developed and modified form given to it by his disciples. He taught that there were three kinds of people, the spiritual, psychical, and material; and that only those of a spiritual nature (his own followers) received the gnosis (knowledge) that allowed them to return to the divine Pleroma, while those of a psychic nature (ordinary Christians) would attain a lesser form of salvation, and that those of a material nature (pagans and Jews) were doomed to perish.

Valentinus had a large following, the Valentinians. It later divided into an Eastern and a Western, or Italian, branch. The Marcosians belonged to the Western branch.

Valentinus ( century), often anglicized to Valentine, was a Roman criminal and rebel put down after Count Theodosius's arrival in Britain in 369.

Ammianus Marcellinus records that Valentinus was a Pannonian whose brother-in-law Maximinus was close to the emperor . Having committed some serious crime, he was able to have his sentence commuted to exile to Britain, where he resided at the time of the Great Conspiracy. Ammianus does not record that Valentinus took part in that barbarian rising, but does claim that he began planning a new revolt after the arrival of Theodosius. He organized fellow exiles and attempted to bribe local troops to his cause. Discovered, he was given over to Duke Dulcitius for execution, but Ammianus notes that investigation into Valentinus's plot was cursory, lest it produce more unrest in the province.

Valentinus' story illustrates the instability in Roman Britain at the time, the widespread discontent with Roman rule, and the lengths that Theodosius was prepared to go to keep the peace.

Valentinus (died 644) was a Byzantine general and usurper.