Dominica

Domnica ( 378) was the wife of Roman emperor Valens. Valens, who ruled from 364 to 378, was emperor of the East and co-emperor with his brother Valentinian I. After the death of her husband in 378 she ruled as de facto regent and defended Constantinople against the attacking Goths until his successor, Theodosius I arrived. Family Domnica was the daughter of the powerful and unpopular praetorian prefect Petronius, who was hated for his greed and cruelty. Her father's unpopularity was so great that it led to the rebellion of Procopius, a rival of Valens, in 365. According to the account of Ammianus Marcellinus: "To the emperor's cruelty deadly incentive was given by his father-in‑law Petronius, who from the command of the Martensian legion had by a sudden jump been promoted to the rank of patrician. He was a man ugly in spirit and in appearance, who, burning with an immoderate longing to strip everyone without distinction, condemned guilty and innocent alike, after exquisite tortures, to fourfold indemnities, looking up debts going back to the time of the emperor Aurelian, grieving excessively if he was obliged to let any one escape unscathed."