He's amazing! I wonder what the real Valens would have thought of it.
For those who don't realise it, Marcus Vettius Valens was a real Roman soldier. He had a very distinguished career indeed, starting as a common soldier in the praetorian guard and ending as state treasurer of the province of Lusitania. Along the way he held a sequence of officer posts in nearly every branch of the Roman military and was decorated for valour twice (once while escorting the emperor Claudius to Britain as a praetorian, and again while putting down a native revolt in Spain as a senior centurion in the Legio VI Victrix - the role in which he is apparently portrayed here). The decorations the figure is wearing are presumably some of those awarded by Claudius (on that occasion he was given gold neck-collars, bracelets, medals, a promotion and a gold crown).
