GRATIAN, the son of Valentinian the First by his first wife, was declared Augustus by his father at the city of Amiens in 365, and succeeded him in 367. This prince was equally extolled for his wit, eloquence, modesty, chastity, and zeal against heretics. He associated Theodosius with him in the empire, and advanced the poet Ausonius to the consulate. He made a great slaughter of the Germans near Strasburg; and was hence surnamed Alemannicus. He was the first emperor who refused the title of Pontifex Maximus, upon the score of its being a pagan dignity. He was assassinated by Andragathius in 375, in the twenty-fourth year of his age.