Valentinian was born in 371. His father was emperor Valentinian I. There wasn't much time for bonding with junior as old Val as he was dead four years later, the result of overstressing his ticker after an argument about a seating plan with a delegation of hairy trousered Germans. Valentinian's elder half brother Gratian then became emperor in the Western Roman Empire but barely a few weeks later, he received a vote of no confidence from some of the legions who then dragged young Valentinian out his play pen and proclaimed him co-emperor.