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Historical person

Gratian

359–383

Gratian was Roman emperor in the West from the fourth century and a ruler during the increasingly Christianised late empire. His reign included military pressure on the frontiers, religious policy against pagan institutions and eventual overthrow by Magnus Maximus.

Gratian was born in Sirmium and died in Lugdunum. Gratian became senior western emperor after the death of his father Valentinian I, promoted Nicene Christianity and removed some traditional pagan privileges; the usurper Magnus Maximus invaded Gaul in 383 and Gratian was captured and killed.

Gordon Doherty’s The Scourge of Thracia places Gratian as the western emperor whose army is expected to reinforce Valens during the Gothic crisis of 377–78, while Gods & Emperors makes the failure of the two imperial forces to combine in time part of the road to Adrianople. The Blood Road turns Gratian’s later arrival into a source of both hope and danger for soldiers who distrust his political intentions. In Dark Eagle, Pavo openly blames Gratian for manipulation and concealed deaths after the Gothic settlement, turning imperial policy into a personal vendetta. John Broughton’s The Great Conspiracy places Gratian’s reign against the later instability of Roman Britain and the ambitions of Magnus Maximus, showing how frontier service, imperial legitimacy and usurpation become increasingly difficult to separate.

Periods

Periods linked to Gratian

Theodosian Civil Wars383–394 CE

Series

Historical novels and book series featuring Gratian (3 series)

Legionary in Order

by Gordon Doherty 11 books 4.4(14,164)

The Legionary series follows Numerius Vitellius Pavo from slavery into the ranks and command of the XI Claudia during the late fourth-century crisis of the Roman Empire. Its main sequence begins on the Danube in 376 CE and carries Pavo through the Gothic War, the disaster at Adrianople,…

All books in this series

Shadow of Rome in Order

by Adam Lofthouse 4 books 4.4(2,448)

Shadow of Rome is set in the late Roman Empire and follows soldiers, frontier commanders and barbarian recruits through Britain, Gaul, Constantinople and the imperial civil wars of the late fourth century. The series begins with the Great Conspiracy in Roman Britain and moves towards the struggles of…

All books in this series

The Saxon Shore Trilogy in Order

by John Broughton 3 books 4.0(173)

The Saxon Shore Trilogy traces the weakening of Roman authority in Britain from the breakaway empire of Carausius to the political world remembered in Arthurian legend. Successive generations of Valdor’s family serve as soldiers and commanders while imperial rivalry, frontier warfare and the withdrawal of Roman forces transform…

All books in this series

Non Fiction

Non Fiction featuring Gratian (1 book)

Biographies, histories and other non-fiction are listed separately from the historical novels above.