Gratian - Life

Italian jurist and Carmaldulensian monk of Bologna. Between 1139 and 1150 he compiled the collection of canon law known as the Decretum Gratiani, which became the basic text for all studies of canon law, and remained the first part of the traditional body of canon law in the Roman Catholic Church until 1917.

Gratian
Emperor of the Western Roman Empire
A coin of Gratian. The legend shows Gratian's titles, D N GRATIANVS P F AVG, Dominus Noster Gratianus Pius Felix Augustus, "Our Lord Gratian, Pious and Serene Augustus
Reign	4 August 367 - 17 November 375 (Augustus under his father; 17 November 375 -August 25, 383 (nominally co-Augustus in the West with Valentinian II, effectively senior emperor in the west)
Full name	Flavius Gratianus Augustus
Born	April 18/May 23, 359
	Sirmium
Died	August 25, 383
	Lyon
Predecessor	Valentinian I
Successor	Magnus Maximus / Valentinian II
Dynasty	Valentinian
Father	Valentinian I
Mother	Marina Severa

Flavius Gratianus Augustus (April 18/May 23, 359-August 25, 383), known as Gratian, was a Western Roman Emperor from 375 to 383.

Life

Gratian was the son of Emperor Valentinian I by Marina Severa, and was born at Sirmium in Pannonia.

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 January 19, 379 to govern that portion of the empire.

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 Ambrose of Milan. (Nevertheless he was still deified after his death.)

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).