In the Valentinian version of Gnosticism, the cosmology is a little different.

The Valentinian version is much closer to the concepts of Neo-Platonism as well.

* 367 – Gratian, son of Roman Emperor Valentinian I, is named co-Augustus by his father and associated to the throne aged eight.

It is in the system of Valentinus that the name Dēmiourgos is used, which occurs nowhere in Irenaeus except in connection with the Valentinian system ; we may reasonably conclude that it was Valentinus who adopted from Platonism the use of this word.

But it is only the name that can be said to be specially Valentinian ; the personage intended by it corresponds more or less closely with the Yaldabaoth of the Ophites, the great Archon of Basilides, the Elohim of Justinus, etc.

According to one variant of the Valentinian system, the Demiurge is besides the maker, out of the appropriate substance, of an order of spiritual beings, the devil, the prince of this world, and his angels.

* 364 – Valentinian I is proclaimed Roman Emperor.

* 392 – Emperor Valentinian II is assassinated while advancing into Gaul against the Frankish usurper Arbogast.

* 455 – Emperor Valentinian III is assassinated by two Hunnic retainers while training with the bow on the Campus Martius ( Rome ).

* 425 – Valentinian III is elevated as Roman Emperor, at the age of 6.

Valentinian Gnosticism claims that matter came about through emanations of the supreme being, and to some this event is held to be more of an accident than of being on purpose.

It is possible that he was dismissed from his command by the emperor Valentinian I after the loss of two of Theodosius ' legions to the Sarmatians in late 374.

He is honoured by a statue erected by the Senate and by order of emperor Valentinian III.

* Winter – Leo I sends a letter to Valentinian III, stating " by the Holy Spirit's inspiration the emperor needs no human instruction and is incapable of doctrinal error ".

* Licinia Eudoxia, wife of emperor Valentinian III, is granted the title of Augusta following the birth of their daughter Eudocia.

* May 15 – Emperor Valentinian II, age 21, is assassinated while advancing into Gaul against the Frankish usurper Arbogast.

* March 16 – Emperor Valentinian III, age 35, is assassinated by two Hunnic retainers of the late Flavius Aetius, ending the Theodosian Dynasty.

Valentinian is killed while training with the bow on the Campus Martius ( Rome ).

Valentinian II, now 17, is restored as Roman Emperor.

Emperor Valentinian II, age 16, is forced out of Rome.

* October 23 – Valentinian III, infant son of Galla Placidia, is installed as emperor ( Augustus ) of the Western Roman Empire.

After modest success, a truce is signed and emperor Valentinian I orders the Saxons to join the Roman army.

* Emperor Valentinian I is engaged in operations against the Alamanni, Quadi and Sarmatians, while his subordinates are dealing with Firmus, Roman usurper, in Africa and the Picts in Britain.

A temporary peace is signed with Macrian, king of the Bucinobantes, and Valentinian returns to his capital Augusta Treverorum ( modern Trier ).

* February 26 – Valentinian I is proclaimed Emperor by the Roman army.

* March 28 – Valens, brother of Valentinian I, is appointed co-emperor ( Augustus ) in the palace of Hebdomon ( Turkey ).

Troubles were exacerbated by the refusal of Valentinian to do any more than protect his own territory from encroachment.

An inscription records the restoration of various parts of the Colosseum under Theodosius II and Valentinian III ( reigned 425 – 455 ), possibly to repair damage caused by a major earthquake in 443 ; more work followed in 484 and 508.

Valentinian succeeded in arranging the assassination of Vithicabius, an Alamannic leader, but Valentinian was more determined to bring the Alamanni under Roman hegemony.

Valentinian campaigned unsuccessfully for four more years to defeat Macrian though in 372 he barely escaped capture by Theodosius.

Further, following this victory the Roman Empire did not emerge with renewed military might, but instead was likewise weakened, though more slowly than the Huns: despite the assassinations of first Aëtius, then Emperor Valentinian III, then the Sack of Rome by Geiseric in 455, a generation later there were still sufficient useful remains of the Western Roman Empire for the warlords to fight over.

The dynasty Constantine established was also soon swallowed up in civil war and court intrigue until it was replaced, briefly, by Julian the Apostate's general Jovian and then, more permanently, by Valentinian I and the dynasty he founded in 364.

* 392 – Valentinian II dies of apparent suicide, though murder by Arbogast is more likely.

Valentinian Gnosticism sees the demiurge as ambivalent and that ignorance is what clouded them from God ( more Neo-Platonic ).

On the other hand, more contemporary scholars such as Edward Gibbon, who thought the death of Valentinian II was a plotted conspiracy so Arbogast could remain at the seat of command in the West through another puppet emperor, while John Frederick Matthews, and Brian Croke argue that the death of Valentinian II was a result of suicide.

When Valentinian was less than two years old, Honorius appointed Constantius co-emperor, a dignity he would hold until his death seven months later.

Though he had ruled for thirty years, Valentinian had influenced the destinies of his empire even less than his uncle Honorius.

When Valentinian discovered the plan, again only the influence of his mother Galla Placidia convinced him to exile, rather than kill, Honoria.

Although further Emperors would don the purple on the basis of military power ( e. g., Constantine I, Valentinian I, and Theodosius I ), the phenomenon of the barracks emperors died out, to be replaced in the late imperial era by shadow emperors like Stilicho, Constantius III, Flavius Aëtius, Avitus, Ricimer, Gundobad, Flavius Orestes, and Odoacer, military strongmen who effectually ruled the empire as imperial generalissimos controlling weak-willed puppet emperors rather than by donning the purple themselves.

At this point, Valentinian II began recognizing the extent to which Arbogast's authority had reached, and with Arbogast seemingly expressing his authority over him at will, Valentinian II began sending secret messages to both Theodosius I and Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, pleading for them to come to his aid, even so much as asking Ambrose for a baptism in fear that his death might come sooner than expected at the hands of Arbogast.

The text also uses gnostic terms, such as referring to " fullness " as a means to salvation, but the doctrines in the Apocryphon of James certainly do not accord with the Valentinian or other developed gnostic cosmologies, so it is not usually counted as a truly gnostic text.