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Gratian
Golden coin depicting Gratian
Solidus of Gratian, c. 381. Legend: d(ominus) n(oster) Gratianus p(ius) f(elix) aug(ustus).
Roman emperor
Augustus24 August 367 – 17 November 375 (under Valentinian I)
17 November 375 – 25 August 383 (after Valentinian I)
PredecessorValentinian I
SuccessorMagnus Maximus
Co-rulersValens (East, 375–378)
Valentinian II
Theodosius I (East, 379–383)
Born18 April 359
Sirmium (Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia)
Died25 August 383 (aged 24)
Lugdunum (Lyon)
Burialc. 387
imperial mausoleum at Mediolanium
(now Sant'Aquilino, Basilica of San Lorenzo, Milan)
SpouseFlavia Maxima Constantia
Laeta
Names
Flavius Gratianus
Regnal name
Imperator Caesar Dominus Noster Flavius Gratianus Augustus[1]
DynastyValentinianic
FatherValentinian I
MotherMarina Severa
ReligionNicene Christianity

Gratian (/ˈɡreɪʃən/; Latin: Flavius Gratianus; 18 April 359 – 25 August 383) was Roman emperor from 367 to 383. The eldest son of Valentinian I, Gratian accompanied his father on several campaigns along the Rhine and Danube frontiers and was raised to the rank of augustus in 367. Upon the death of Valentinian in 375, Gratian took over government of the west while his half-brother Valentinian II was also acclaimed emperor in Pannonia. Gratian governed the western provinces of the empire, while his uncle Valens was already the emperor over the east.

Gratian subsequently led a campaign across the Rhine, attacked the Lentienses, and forced the tribe to surrender. That same year, the eastern emperor Valens was killed fighting the Goths at the Battle of Adrianople, which led to Gratian elevating Theodosius to replace him in 379. Gratian favoured Nicene Christianity over traditional Roman religion, issuing the Edict of Thessalonica, refusing the office of pontifex maximus, and removing the Altar of Victory from the Roman Senate's Curia Julia. The city of Cularo on the Isère river in Roman Gaul was renamed after him, becoming Grenoble from Latin: Gratianopolis.

In 383, faced with rebellion by the usurper Magnus Maximus, Gratian marched his army towards Lutetia (Paris). His army deserted him, he fled to Lyons, and was later murdered.

Emperor

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Gratian was the only child of Valentinian by Marina Severa and was born 18 April 359 at Sirmium (Sremska Mitrovica) in Pannonia.[2][3] At the time of his birth Gratian's father was living in exile.[4] Gratian was named after his grandfather Gratian the Elder, who was a tribune and later comes of Britannia for Constantine the Great.[5]

On 26 February 364, Valentinian was proclaimed augustus (emperor).[6] Within a month, motivated by senior officers, he proclaimed his brother Valens, Gratian's uncle, augustus of the Eastern empire.[6] Valentinian later divorced Gratian's mother, married Justina and they had Gratian's half-brother Valentinian.[7]

Gratian was given the title of consul in 366 by his father.[8] When Gratian was seven he was titled nobilissimus puer, indicating he was to be proclaimed augustus.[8] On 24 August 367 Gratian received from his father Valentinian the title of augustus.[8] Valentinian, concerned with Gratian's age and inexperience, stated his son would assist commanders with upcoming campaigns.[9] The magister peditum Merobaudes, together with the comes rei militaris Sebastianus, was sent by Valentinian to campaign against the Quadi.[10]

When his father died on 17 November 375, Gratian's inherited the administration of the western empire.[11] Days later, Gratian's half-brother Valentinian was acclaimed augustus by troops in Pannonia.[12] Despite Valentinian being given nominal authority over Italy, Illyricum, and Africa, Gratian ruled the western Roman empire himself.[13]

Gratian married a daughter of Constantius II, Flavia Maxima Constantia, in 375;[7] she died in early 383.[14][15] He later married Laeta.[16] Both marriages remained childless.[17]

Location of the battle of Argentovaria in 378.

Gratian's uncle Valens, returning from a campaign against the Sasanian Empire, had sent a request for reinforcements against the Goths.[18] According to Ammianus Marcellinus, Valens also requested that Sebastianus be sent to him for the war, though according to Zosimus Sebastianus went to Constantinople of his own accord as a result of intrigues by eunuchs at the western court.[10] The forces Gratian sent never reached Valens due to its commander feigning illness.[19] Weeks later, Gratian had arrived in Castra Martis with a few thousand men, by which time Valens was at Adrianople.[20] Aware that Gratian's forces were not going to arrive, Valens attacked the Gothic army and as a result thousands[a] of Romans died in the Battle of Adrianople along with Sebastianus and the emperor himself.[19][21][10]

Following the battle of Adrianople, the Goths raided from Thrace in 378 to Illyricum the following year.[23][24] By 380, the Greuthungi tribe of Goths moved into Pannonia, only to be defeated by Gratian.[23] Consequently, the Vandals and Alemanni were threatening to cross the Rhine, now that Gratian had departed from the region.[25] Convinced that one emperor alone was incapable of repelling the inundation of foes on several different fronts, Gratian, now senior augustus following Valens's death,[26] appointed Theodosius I augustus on 19 January 379 to govern the east.[27][28]

Reverse of a solidus of Gratian marked: victoria augustorum ("the Victory of the augusti")

Empire and Christianity

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Under the tutorage of Ausonius, Gratian issued an edict of tolerance at Sirmium in 378.[29] The edict restored bishops exiled by Valens and ensured religious freedoms to all religions.[29] Under the influence of Ambrose, bishop of Mediolanum (Milan), took active steps against pagan worship.[30] On 27 February 380, Gratian, Valentinian II, and Theodosius issued the Edict of Thessalonica.[31] This edict made Nicene Christianity the only legal form of Christianity and outlawed all other forms of religion.[31] This brought to an end a period of widespread religious tolerance that had existed since the death of Julian.[32]

In 382, Gratian issued edicts that removed the statue of the winged goddess Victory from the Senate floor,[33] removed the privileges of Vestal Virgins,[34] and confiscated money designated for sacrifices and ceremonies.[35] Gratian declared that all of the pagan temples and shrines were to be confiscated by the government and that their revenues were to be joined to the property of the treasury.[36] This resulted in protests from the Roman Senate led by Symmachus, which in turn was counter-protested by Christian senators led by Pope Damasus.[37]

Revolt and death

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Gratian alienated the army by his favouritism towards his Alan deserters whom he made his body-guard and to whom he gave military commands. This favouritism of former enemies and the paganism of the Alans angered his Christian army. By 383 the Roman general Magnus Maximus had raised the standard of revolt in Britain and invaded Gaul with a large army.[38] Gratian, in the midst of campaigning against the Alemanni, marched his army toward Paris.[39] Gratian's troops deserted and he fled to Lyon.[38] Maximus sent Andragathius, who hunted Gratian down and killed him on 25 August 383.[40]

It would not be until 387, possibly even after the death of Magnus Maximus, that Gratian's remains were interred at Mediolanum in the imperial mausoleum.[41]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Heather estimates 10,000 Roman dead,[21] Williams & Friell state 20,000 Roman dead.[22]

References

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  1. ^ Cooley 2012, p. 505.
  2. ^ Lenski 2002, p. 50.
  3. ^ Vanderspoel 1995, p. 183.
  4. ^ Tomlin 1973, p. 14.
  5. ^ Tomlin 1973, p. 1.
  6. ^ a b Lee 2013, p. 21.
  7. ^ a b Lenski 2002, p. 103.
  8. ^ a b c Lenski 2002, p. 90.
  9. ^ Hebblewhite 2019, p. 18-19.
  10. ^ a b c Martindale, Jones & Morris 1971, p. 812-813.
  11. ^ Kulikowski 2019, p. 80.
  12. ^ Lenski 2002, p. 357.
  13. ^ McEvoy 2013, p. 62.
  14. ^ Sivan 2011, p. 182.
  15. ^ McEvoy 2013, p. 105.
  16. ^ Bond & Nicholson 2018, p. 678.
  17. ^ Oost 1968, p. 38.
  18. ^ Lenski 2002, p. 356.
  19. ^ a b Lenski 2002, p. 339.
  20. ^ Lenski 2002, p. 366.
  21. ^ a b Heather 2006, p. 181.
  22. ^ Williams & Friell 1995, p. 18-19.
  23. ^ a b Heather 2006, p. 183.
  24. ^ Williams & Friell 1995, p. 27-28.
  25. ^ Williams & Friell 1995, p. 29.
  26. ^ Grainger 2020, p. 244.
  27. ^ Heather 2006, p. 187.
  28. ^ Williams & Friell 1995, p. 26.
  29. ^ a b McEvoy 2013, p. 119-121.
  30. ^ Radde-Gallwitz 2018, p. 14.
  31. ^ a b Medina 2018, p. 92.
  32. ^ Dill 1958, p. 26.
  33. ^ Jolly 1997, p. 45.
  34. ^ Testa 2015, p. 407.
  35. ^ Hinson 1995, p. 218.
  36. ^ Crosby 2015, p. 151.
  37. ^ Clark 2011, p. 75.
  38. ^ a b Halsall 2007, p. 186.
  39. ^ White 2011, p. 154.
  40. ^ Hebblewhite 2020, p. 69.
  41. ^ Johnson 2009, p. 210-211.

Sources

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  • Bond, Sarah E.; Nicholson, Oliver (2018). "Gratian". In Nicholson, Oliver (ed.). The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-866277-8.
  • Clark, Gillian (2011). Late Antiquity: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199546206.
  • Cooley, Alison E. (2012). The Cambridge Manual of Latin Epigraphy. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-84026-2.
  • Crosby, Daniel J. (2015). ""Arrows Fletched from Our Own Wings": The Early Church Fathers and the "Delphi of the Mind"". In Johnston, W. Marshall; Crosby, Daniel J. (eds.). A Dangerous Mind: The Ideas and Influence of Delbert L. Wiens. Wipf and Stock Publishers. ISBN 978-1498203975.
  • Dill, Samuel (1958). Roman Society in the Last Century of the Western Empire (2nd ed.). Meridian. ISBN 978-1346615486.
  • Grainger, John D (2020). The Roman Imperial Succession. Pen & Sword. ISBN 978-1526766045.
  • Halsall, Guy (2007). Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West, 376–568. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521435437.
  • Heather, Peter (2006). The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195159547.
  • Hebblewhite, Mark (2019). The Emperor and the Army in the Later Roman Empire, AD 235-395. Routledge. ISBN 978-0367880682.
  • Hebblewhite, Mark (2020). Theodosius and the Limits of Empire. Routledge. ISBN 978-1138102989.
  • Hinson, E. Glenn (1995). The Church Triumphant: A History of Christianity Up to 1300. Mercer. ISBN 0-86554-436-0.
  • Johnson, Mark Joseph (2009). The Roman Imperial Mausoleum in Late Antiquity. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-51371-5. OCLC 309835740.
  • Jolly, Karen Louise (1997). Tradition & Diversity: Christianity in a World Context to 1500. M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 978-1563244674.
  • Kulikowski, Michael (2019). The Tragedy of Empire: From Constantine to the Destruction of Roman Italy. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0674660137.
  • Lee, A. D (2013). From Rome to Byzantium AD 363 to 565. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-2790-5.
  • Lenski, Noel Emmanuel (2002). Failure of Empire: Valens and the Roman state in the fourth century A.D. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-23332-4.
  • Martindale, John R.; Jones, A. H. M.; Morris, John (1971). "Sebastianus 2". The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire: Volume I, AD 260–395. Cambridge University Press.
  • McEvoy, Meaghan (2013). Child Emperor Rule in the Late Roman West, AD 367-455. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199664818.
  • Medina, Néstor (2018). Christianity, Empire and the Spirit: (Re)Configuring Faith and the Cultural. Brill. ISBN 978-9004357365.
  • Oost, Stewart Irvin (1968). Galla Placidia Augusta. A Biographical Essay. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226630502.
  • Radde-Gallwitz, Andrew (2018). Gregory of Nyssa's Doctrinal Works: A Literary Study. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199668977.
  • Sivan, Hagith (2011). Galla Placidia: The Last Roman Empress. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-537912-9.
  • Testa, Rita Lizzi (2015). "The Famous 'Altar of Victory Controversy' in Rome: The Impact of Christianity at the End of the Fourth Century". In Wienand, Johannes (ed.). Contested Monarchy: Integrating the Roman Empire in the Fourth Century AD. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199768998.
  • Tomlin, R. (1973). The Emperor Valentinian I. Oxford University Press.
  • Vanderspoel, John (1995). Themistius and the Imperial Court: Oratory, Civic Duty, and Paideia from Constantius to Theodosius. The University of Michigan Press. ISBN 9780472104857.
  • White, Cynthia (2011). The Emergence of Christianity: Classical Traditions in Contemporary Perspective. Fortress Press. ISBN 978-0472104857.
  • Williams, Stephen; Friell, Gerard (1995). Theodosius: The Empire at Bay. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300061734.
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