Gratian (23 May 359-25 August 383) was the Western Roman Emperor from 17 November 375 to 25 August 383, succeeding Valentinian I and preceding Valentinian II.
Biography[]
Flavius Valentinianus Gratianus was born in Sirmium, Pannonia, Roman Empire (present-day Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia) to a Romano-Illyrian family; he was the son of Valentinian I, the half-brother of Valentinian II, and he later married a daughter of Constantius II. On 24 August 367, his father named him co-Augustus of the Western Roman Empire, but Valentinian II was proclaimed co-emperor by the Roman Army in Pannonia. In 378, with aid from the Franks, he defeated the Alemanni at the Battle of Argentovaria, but he was forced to hastily march east following his uncle Valens' death in battle with the Goths at the Battle of Adrianople, abandoning his campaign in Germania. He alienated his troops by showing favoritism towardsd his Frankish general Merobaudes and towards his Scythian bodyguards, and his religious tolerance declined as Bishop Ambrose increasingly influenced Gratian's religious policy. The Roman Senate protested against his rulership, and his popularity declined. After he publicly dressed as a Scythian warrior, Gratian destroyed his credibility as a Roman emperor, and Magnus Maximus usurped the empire in Roman Britain and Gaul. Gratian was deserted by his troops at Paris and fled to Lyon, where he was betrayed to the rebel general Andragathius and assassinated.