Gratian the Elder

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

Gratian the Elder

Gratianus Funarius, also known as Gratianus Major (Major Latin for the elder), also known as Gratian the Elder, who was a soldier of the Roman Empire

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
who flourished in the 4th century. He is called Gratian the Elder, to distinguish himself from his grandson the Roman Emperor Gratian

Gratian

Flavius Gratianus , known usually by the anglicised name Gratian, was a Western Roman Emperor from 375 to 383.He favoured the Christian religion against Roman polytheism, refusing the traditional polytheistic attributes of the emperors and removing the Altar of Victory from the Roman Senate....
.

ianus originated from an obscure Christian

Christianity

Christianity is a Monotheistic religion #Christian view religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus as New Testament view on Jesus' life....
family from the town Cibalae or Cibalis, Southern Pannonia

Pannonia

Pannonia is an ancient province of the Roman Empire bounded north and east by the Danube, coterminous westward with Noricum and upper Italy, and southward with Dalmatia and upper Moesia....
(modern Vinkovci

Vinkovci

Vinkovci is a Croatian town in eastern Slavonia, with a population of 32,455 making it the largest town of the Vukovar-Srijem county. A large majority of its citizens are Croats with 88.99% ....
, Croatia

Croatia

Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a Central European country at the crossroads of Pannonian Plain, Balkans, and the Mediterranean Sea....
).

Discussion

Ask a question about 'Gratian the Elder'

Start a new discussion about 'Gratian the Elder'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Encyclopedia

Gratianus Funarius, also known as Gratianus Major (Major Latin for the elder), also known as Gratian the Elder, who was a soldier of the Roman Empire

Roman Empire

Gratian

Origins

Gratianus originated from an obscure Christian

Christianity

Pannonia

Vinkovci

Croatia

Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a Central European country at the crossroads of Pannonian Plain, Balkans, and the Mediterranean Sea....
). There Gratianus seems to have married a local woman and they had two sons Flavius Valentinianus

Valentinian I

Flavius Valentinianus, known in English as Valentinian I, was Roman Emperor from 364 until his death. Valentinian is often referred to as the "last great western emperor"....
(321-375) and Flavius Iulius (Julius) Valens

Valens

Flamin Julius Valens was Roman Emperor , after he was given the Eastern part of the empire by his brother Valentinian I. Valens, sometimes known as the Last of the Romans, was defeated and killed in the Battle of Adrianople, which marked the beginning of the fall of the Western Roman Empire....
(328-378). His first son would become Roman Emperor

Roman Emperor

The Roman Emperor was the ruler of the Roman Empire during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office: Latin language titles such as imperator , Augustus , Caesar and princeps were all associated with it....
of the West and his second son would become Roman Emperor of the East.

Gratianus obtain the cognomen

Cognomen

The cognomen was originally a middle name of a citizen of Ancient Rome, under Roman naming conventions. The cognomen started as a nickname, but lost that purpose when it became hereditary ....
Funarius, which means ‘the rope-man’, because prior to his military career, Gratianus was a rope

Rope

A rope is a length of fibers, twisted or braided together to improve strength for pulling and connecting. It has tensile strength but is too flexible to provide compressive strength ....
salesman. On one occasion, he successfully resisted the efforts of five soldiers to wrestle him. From that occasion, it inspired Gratianus to enlist in the Roman Army.

Military & Political Career

Gratianus was renowned for the strength, his wrestling skills and had an illustrious army career. He rose from Staff Officer to be promoted to Military Tribune

Tribune

Tribune was a title shared by 10 elected officials in the Roman Republic. Tribunes had the power to convene the Plebeian Council and to act as its president, which also gave them the exclusive right to propose legislation before it....
and became a Comes Africae. In the 340s, Gratianus was sent to Britannia

Roman Britain

Roman Britain refers to those parts of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire between AD 43 and 410. The Romans referred to their province as Britannia....
and was given the title Comes Britanniarum
Comes Britanniarum

Comes Britanniarum was a military post in Roman Britain, with command of the mobile field army from the mid 4th century onwards.It is listed in the Notitia Dignitatum as being one of the three commands in Britain, along with the Dux Britanniarum and Count of the Saxon Shore....
. He commanded a field army (comitatenses
Comitatenses

Comitatenses is the Latin plural of comitatensis, originally the adjective derived from comitatus , itself rooting in Comes .However, historically it became the accepted name for those Roman Army which were not merely garrisoned at a limes ? the limitanei or ripenses, i.e....
). The crisis that precipitated this is not known however.

After his army career ended, Gratianus returned to his birthplace and lived as a private citizen who had earned a good reputation from his military career. Gratianus could have earned the praetor

Praetor

Praetor was a Title#Titles_for_heads_of_state granted by the government of Ancient Rome to men acting in one of two official capacities: the commander of an army, either before it was mustered or more typically in the field, or an elected Magistratus assigned duties that varied depending on the historical period....
ship.

In Gratianus’ retirement, Roman Emperor Constantius II

Constantius II

Flavius Iulius Constantius, known in English as Constantius II was a Roman Emperor of the Constantinian dynasty....
(reigned 337-360) confiscated all of his estates because of his suspected support of Roman usurper

Roman usurper

Usurpers are individuals or groups of individuals who obtain and maintain the power or rights of another by force and without legal authority. Usurpers were a common feature of the late Roman Empire, especially from the crisis of the third century onwards, when political instability became the rule....
Magnentius

Magnentius

Flavius Magnus Magnentius was a Roman usurper .Born in Samarobriva , Gaul, Magnentius was the commander of the Herculians and Iovians, the imperial guard units ....
. Gratianus was kept in high regard with fellow soldiers and due his to popularity within the army; this could have contributed to the elevation of his sons and his descendants in becoming Roman Emperors. When Valens became Emperor, the Roman Senate

Roman Senate

The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic. According to the Greek historian Polybius, our principal source on the Constitution of the Roman Republic, the Roman Senate was the predominant branch of government....
in Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople was the empire capital of the Roman Empire , the Byzantine Empire , the Latin Empire , and the Ottoman Empire . Strategically located between the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara at the point where Europe meets Asia, Byzantine Constantinople had been the capital of a Christendom empire, successor to ancient ancient Greece...
decreed a brass statue of him.

Sources

Rodgers,N.,The History and Conquests of Ancient Rome,Hermes House,2005.