23 Facts About Gratian

Gratian was emperor of the Western Roman Empire from 367 to 383.

Gratian nominally shared the government with his infant half-brother Valentinian II, who was acclaimed emperor in Pannonia on Valentinian's death.

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.

At the time of his birth Gratian's father was living in exile.

Gratian was appointed consul in 366 and was entitled nobilissimus puer by his father.

Gratian's tutor was the rhetor Ausonius, who mentioned the relationship in his epigrams and a poem.

An opportunity to further weaken the Alamanni occurred in the summer of 368, when king Vithicabius was murdered in a coup, and Valentinian and his son Gratian crossed the river Moenus laying waste to Alamannic territories.

Gratian was awarded the victory titles of Germanicus Maximus and Alamannicus Maximus, and Francicus Maximus and Gothicus Maximus in 369.

Gratian, who was then 15, was married in 374 to Constantius II's 13 year-old posthumous daughter Constantia at Trier.

Gratian was forced to accept the proclamation, though he did supervise his younger brother's upbringing.

Once Gratian had put down the invasions in the west in early 378, he notified Valens that he was returning to Thrace to assist him in his struggle against the Goths.

However, Gratian's arrival was delayed by an encounter with Alans at Castra Martis, in Dacia in the western Balkans.

The forces Gratian sent never reached Valens due to its commander feigning illness.

Weeks later, Gratian had arrived in Castra Martis with a few thousand men, by which time Valens was at Adrianople.

Zosimus' report that Gratian refused the robe of office of the pontifex maximus has been doubted by modern scholars, because there is no other mention of such a garment associated with the priesthood.

Consequently, the Vandals and Alemanni were threatening to cross the Rhine, now that Gratian had departed from the region.

Gratian became increasingly aligned with the city's bishop, Ambrose, and the Roman Senate, shifting the balance of power within the factions of the western empire.

In 382, Gratian issued edicts that removed the statue of the winged goddess Victory from the Senate floor, removed the privileges of Vestal Virgins, and confiscated money designated for sacrifices and ceremonies.

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.

Gratian alienated the army by his favouritism towards his Alan deserters, whom he made his bodyguards and to whom he gave military commands and allowing them to perform human sacrifices to Ares.

Vegetius reports that Gratian allowed soldiers to lay aside the armour and the helmet.