Gratian (usurper)
| Gratian | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Usurper of the Western Roman Empire | |||||
| Reign | 407 | ||||
| Predecessor | Marcus | ||||
| Successor | Constantine III | ||||
| Died |
407 Britannia | ||||
| |||||
Gratian or Gratianus[1] (died 407) was a Roman usurper (407) in Roman Britain.
Career
Following the death of the usurper Marcus, Gratian was acclaimed as emperor by the army in Britain in early 407.[2] His background, as recorded by Orosius, was that he was a native Briton and one of the urban aristocracy.[3] His rule coincided with a huge barbarian invasion that had afflicted Gaul, possibly with the connivance of Stilicho,[4] the Emperor Honorius’s magister militum, who was concerned about the British usurpers.[5] On the last day of December 406, an army of Vandals, Alans and Suebi (Sueves) had crossed the frozen Rhine.[6] During 407, they spread across northern Gaul towards Boulogne, and Zosimus wrote that the troops in Britain feared an invasion across the English Channel.[7]
The army wanted to cross to Gaul and stop the barbarians but Gratian ordered them to remain. Unhappy with this, the troops killed him after a reign of four months[8] and chose Constantine III as their leader.[9]
Geoffrey of Monmouth describes a similar character, named Gracianus Municeps, who is probably the same figure.[10]
Sources
Primary sources
- Zosimus, "Historia Nova", Book 6 Historia Nova
- Orosius, Historiae adversum Paganos, 7.40
Secondary sources
- Jones, Arnold Hugh Martin, John Robert Martindale, John Morris, The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, volume 2, Cambridge University Press, 1992, ISBN 0-521-20159-4
- Bury, J. B., A History of the Later Roman Empire from Arcadius to Irene, Vol. I (1889)
In literature
Gratian is a major character in Alfred Duggan's 1951 novel The Little Emperors.