Rev.// REPARATIO REIPVB, Gratian standing front, head
left, holding Victory on globe and raising kneeling female on left.
Mintmark PCON.
RIC IX Arles 20a.
Measuring 22-24mm. 4.82gm. Arles mint. Original patina and tone. Gently cleaned. Exactly as pictured.
Bidding is for the item pictured in this listing.
Coin is in good condition and very rare and nice inclusion to the finest collection.
Authenticity guaranteed.
Gratian - Roman Emperor: 367-383 A.D.
367-375 A.D. Junior Augustus with Valentinian I 375-385 A.D. Senior Augustus with Valentinian II Ruling in the East: Valens (364-378 A.D.), Theodosius I (379-395 A.D.) and Arcadius (379-395 A.D.)
|
Son of Valentinian I and Severa | Husband of Constantia (daughter of
Constantius II) | Nephew of Valens | Half-brother of Valentinian II and
Galla (wife of Theodosius I) |
Gratian (Latin: Flavius Gratianus
Augustus; 18 April/23 May 359 -25 August 383) was Roman emperor from 367
to 383. The eldest son of Valentinian I, during his youth Gratian
accompanied his father on several campaigns along the Rhine and Danube
frontiers. Upon the death of Valentinian in 375, Gratian's brother
Valentinian II was declared emperor by his father's soldiers. In 378,
Gratian's generals won a decisive victory over the Lentienses, a branch
of the Alamanni, at the Battle of Argentovaria. Gratian subsequently led
a campaign across the Rhine, the last emperor to do so, and attacked
the Lentienses, forcing the tribe to surrender. That same year, his
uncle Valens was killed in the Battle of Adrianople against the Goths -
making Gratian essentially ruler of the entire Roman Empire. He favoured
Christianity over traditional Roman religion, refusing the divine
attributes of the Emperors and removing the Altar of Victory from the
Roman Senate. Life
Gratian was the son of Emperor Valentinian I
by Marina Severa, and was born at Sirmium (now Sremska Mitrovica,
Serbia) in Pannonia. He was named after his grandfather Gratian the
Elder. Gratian was first married to Flavia Maxima Constantia, daughter
of Constantius II. His second wife was Laeta. Both marriages remained
childless. His stepmother was Empress Justina and his paternal half
siblings were Emperor Valentinian II, Galla and Justa.
On 24
August 367 he received from his father the title of Augustus. On the
death of Valentinian (17 November 375), the troops in Pannonia
proclaimed his infant son (by a second wife Justina) emperor under the
title of Valentinian II.
Gratian acquiesced in their choice;
reserving for himself the administration of the Gallic provinces, he
handed over Italy, Illyricum and Africa to Valentinian and his mother,
who fixed their residence at Mediolanum. The division, however, was
merely nominal, and the real authority remained in the hands of Gratian.
Gratian's
general Mallobaudes, a king of the Franks, and Naniemus, completely
defeated the Lentienses, the southernmost branch of the Alamanni, in May
378 at the Battle of Argentovaria. Upon receiving news of the victory,
Gratian personally led a campaign across the Upper Rhine into the
territory of the Lentienses. After initial trouble facing the Lentienses
on high ground, Gratian blockaded the enemy instead and received their
surrender. The Lentienses were forced to supply young men to be levied
into the Roman army, while the remainder were allowed to return home.
Later that year, Valens met his death in the Battle of Adrianople on 9
August. Valens refused to wait for Gratian and his army to arrive and
assist in defeating the host of Goths, Alans and Huns; as a result,
two-thirds of the eastern Roman army were killed as well.
In the
same year, the government of the Eastern Empire devolved upon Gratian,
but feeling himself unable to resist unaided the incursions of the
barbarians, he promoted Theodosius I on 19 January 379 to govern that
portion of the Empire. Gratianus and Theodosius then cleared the
Illyricum of barbarians in the Gothic War (376-382).
For some
years Gratian governed the Empire with energy and success but gradually
sank into indolence, occupying himself chiefly with the pleasures of the
chase, and became a tool in the hands of the Frankish general
Merobaudes and bishop St. Ambrose of Milan.
By taking into his
personal service a body of Alans, and appearing in public in the dress
of a Scythian warrior, after the disaster of the Battle of Adrianople,
he aroused the contempt and resentment of his Roman troops. A Roman
general named Magnus Maximus took advantage of this feeling to raise the
standard of revolt in Britain and invaded Gaul with a large army.
Gratian, who was then in Paris, being deserted by his troops, fled to
Lyon. There, through the treachery of the governor, Gratian was
delivered over to one of the rebel generals, Andragathius, and
assassinated on 25 August 383. Empire and Orthodox Christianity
The
reign of Gratian forms an important epoch in ecclesiastical history,
since during that period Nicene Christianity for the first time became
dominant throughout the empire.
Gratian also published an edict
that all their subjects should profess the faith of the bishops of Rome
and Alexandria (i.e., the Nicene faith). The move was mainly thrust at
the various beliefs that had arisen out of Arianism, but smaller
dissident sects, such as the Macedonians, were also prohibited. Suppression of paganism
Gratian,
under the influence of his chief advisor the Bishop of Milan Ambrose,
took active steps to repress pagan worship. This brought to an end a
period of widespread, if unofficial, religious tolerance that had
existed since the time of Julian. "In the long truce between the hostile
camps", writes historian Samuel Dill "the pagan, the sceptic, even the
formal, the lukewarm Christian, may have come to dream of a mutual
toleration which would leave the ancient forms undisturbed but such men,
living in a world of literary and antiquarian illusions, know little of
the inner forces of the new Christian movement."
In 382, Gratian
appropriated the income of the Pagan priests and Vestal Virgins,
forbade legacies of real property to them and abolished other privileges
belonging to the Vestals and to the pontiffs. He confiscated the
personal possessions of the colleges of Pagan priests, which also lost
all their privileges and immunities. 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 royal
treasury.
He ordered another removal of the Altar of Victory from
the Senate House at Rome, despite protests of the pagan members of the
Senate, and confiscated its revenues. Pagan Senators responded by
sending an appeal to Gratian, reminding him that he was still the
Pontifex Maximus and that it was his duty to see that the ancestral
Pagan rites were properly performed. They appealed to Gratian to restore
the Altar of Victory and the rights and privileges of the Vestal
Virgins and priestly colleges. Gratian, at the urging of Ambrose, did
not grant an audience to the Pagan Senators. Moreover, he further
renounced the title, office, and insignia of the Pontifex Maximus.
Notwithstanding his actions, Gratian was still deified after his death.
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