Item: i103411

Gratian - Roman Emperor: 367-383 A.D.
Bronze AE3 16mm (1.90 grams) Antioch mint, struck 378-383 A.D.
Reference: RIC IX 50b
 D N  GRATIANVS P F AVG, Pearl-diademed, draped and cuirassed bust right.
VIRTVS ROMANORVM / Θ/Φ/ANTA, Roma seated facing, head left, holding  globe and spear.

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In ancient Roman religionn, Roma was a female deity who  personified the city of Rome and more broadly, the Roman state. "As  personification, as goddess or as symbol, the name Roma stretches  from classical Greece to Mussolini's Fascist propaganda... Roma  has been seen as a goddess, a whore, a near-saint, and as the symbol of  civilization itself. She remains the oldest continuous  political-religious symbol in Western civilization." Ronald Mellor,  Introduction, The goddess Roma.

The earliest certain cult  to dea Roma was established at Smyrna in 195 BCE, probably to  mark Rome's successful alliance against Antiochus III. Mellor has  proposed her cult as a form of religio-political diplomacy which  adjusted traditional Graeco-Eastern monarchic honours to Republican  mores: honours addressed to the divine personification of the Roman  state acknowledged the authority of its offices, Republic and city as  divine and eternal.

Democratic city-states such as Athens and  Rhodes accepted Roma as analogous to their traditional cult  personifications of the demos (ordinary people). In 189 BCE,  Delphi and Lycia instituted festivals in her honour. Roma as "divine  sponsor" of athletics and pan-Hellenic culture seems to have dovetailed  neatly into a well-established and enthusiastic festival circuit, and  temples to her were outnumbered by her civic statues and dedications. In  133 BCE Attalus III bequeathed the people and territories of Pergamon to  Rome, as to a trusted ally and protector. The Pergamene bequest became  the new Roman province of Asia, and Roma's cult spread rapidly within  it.

In Hellenistic religious tradition, gods were served by  priests and goddesses by priestesses but Roma's priesthood was male,  perhaps in acknowledgment of the virility of Rome's military power.  Priesthood of the Roma cult was competed among the highest ranking local  elites. In contrast to her putative "Amazonian" Roman original, Greek  coinage depicts Roma in the "dignified and rather severe style" of a  Greek goddess, often wearing a mural crown, or sometimes a Phrygian  helmet. She is occasionally bareheaded. In this and later periods, she  was often associated with Zeus (as guardian of oaths) and Fides (the  personification of mutual trust). Her Eastern cult appealed for Rome's  loyalty and protection - there is no reason to suppose this as other  than genuine (and diplomatically sound) respect. A panegyric to her  survives, in five Sapphic stanzas attributed to Melinno. In Republican  Rome and its Eastern colonae her cult was virtually non-existent.

Roma was thus absorbed into the earliest (Eastern) form of "Imperial  cult" - or, from an Eastern viewpoint, the cult to Augustus was grafted  onto their time-honoured cult to Roma. From here on, she increasingly  took the attributes of an Imperial or divine consort to the Imperial divus, but some Greek coin types show her as a seated or enthroned  authority, and the Imperial divus standing upright as her  supplicant or servant.The Imperial cult arose as a pragmatic and  ingenious response to an Eastern initiative. It blended and "renewed"  ancient elements of traditional religions and Republican government to  create a common cultural framework for the unification of Empire as a  Principate. In the West, this was a novelty, as the Gauls, Germans and  Celts had no native precedent for ruler cult or a Roman-style  administration.

The foundation of the Imperial cult centre at  Lugdunum introduced Roman models for provincial and municipal assemblies  and government, a Romanised lifestyle, and an opportunity for local  elites to enjoy the advantages of citizenship through election to  Imperial cult priesthood, with an ara (altar) was dedicated to  Roma and Augustus. Thereafter, Roma is well attested by inscriptions and  coinage throughout the Western provinces. Literary sources have little  to say about her, but this may reflect her ubiquity rather than neglect:  in the early Augustan era, she may have been honoured above her living  Imperial consort.

In the city of Rome itself, the earliest known  state cult to dea Roma was combined with cult to Venus at the  Hadrianic Temple of Venus and Roma. This was the largest temple in the  city, probably dedicated to inaugurate the reformed festival of Parilia, which was known thereafter as the Romaea after the  Eastern festival in Roma's honour. The temple contained the seated,  Hellenised image of dea Roma - the Palladium in her right hand  symbolised Rome's eternity. In Rome, this was a novel realisation. Greek  interpretations of Roma as a dignified deity had transformed her from a  symbol of military dominance to one of Imperial protection and gravitas.

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.