Gratian (usurper)

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.^[8] Unhappy with this, the troops killed him after a reign of four months^[9] and chose Constantine III as their leader.^[10]

Geoffrey of Monmouth describes a similar character, named Gracianus Municeps, who is likely the same figure.^[11]

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
• Canduci, Alexander (2010), Triumph & Tragedy: The Rise and Fall of Rome's Immortal Emperors, Pier 9, ISBN 978-1-74196-598-8 
• Bury, J. B., A History of the Later Roman Empire from Arcadius to Irene, Vol. I (1889)

References