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91-611: Gratian ( Latin : Gratianus ; 18 April 359 – 25 August 383) was emperor of the Western Roman Empire from 367 to 383. The eldest son of Valentinian I , Gratian was raised to the rank of Augustus as a child and inherited the West after his father's death in 375. He nominally shared the government with his infant half-brother Valentinian II , who was also acclaimed emperor in Pannonia on Valentinian's death. The East

182-407: A bureaucratic role as monitors of the imperial administration, to the magister . Control of the feared agentes , or magistriani as they were also known, gave the office great power. The office rose quickly in importance: initially ranked as a regimental commander, tribunus , by the end of Constantine's reign the magister was a comes and member of the imperial consistorium was one of

273-743: A few in German , Dutch , Norwegian , Danish and Swedish . Latin is still spoken in Vatican City, a city-state situated in Rome that is the seat of the Catholic Church . The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part, in substantial works or in fragments to be analyzed in philology . They are in part the subject matter of the field of classics . Their works were published in manuscript form before

364-523: A few thousand men, by which time Valens was at Adrianople ( Latin : Hadrianopolis ; Turkish : Edirne ). Encouraged by his advisors to claim victory without sharing the glory with Gratian, as well as being misinformed about the number of enemy troops, Valens attacked the Gothic army and as a result thousands of Romans died in the Battle of Adrianople along with Sebastianus and the emperor himself. In

455-562: A new Classical Latin arose, a conscious creation of the orators, poets, historians and other literate men, who wrote the great works of classical literature , which were taught in grammar and rhetoric schools. Today's instructional grammars trace their roots to such schools , which served as a sort of informal language academy dedicated to maintaining and perpetuating educated speech. Philological analysis of Archaic Latin works, such as those of Plautus , which contain fragments of everyday speech, gives evidence of an informal register of

546-476: A remarkable unity in phonological forms and developments, bolstered by the stabilising influence of their common Christian (Roman Catholic) culture. It was not until the Muslim conquest of Spain in 711, cutting off communications between the major Romance regions, that the languages began to diverge seriously. The spoken Latin that would later become Romanian diverged somewhat more from the other varieties, as it

637-451: A request to Gratian for reinforcements against the Goths. According to Ammianus Marcellinus , Valens also requested that Sebastianus be sent to him for the war, though according to Zosimus Sebastianus went to Constantinople of his own accord as a result of intrigues by eunuchs at the western court. Once Gratian had put down the invasions in the west in early 378, he notified Valens that he

728-709: A small number of Latin services held in the Anglican church. These include an annual service in Oxford, delivered with a Latin sermon; a relic from the period when Latin was the normal spoken language of the university. In the Western world, many organizations, governments and schools use Latin for their mottos due to its association with formality, tradition, and the roots of Western culture . Canada's motto A mari usque ad mare ("from sea to sea") and most provincial mottos are also in Latin. The Canadian Victoria Cross

819-411: Is Veritas ("truth"). Veritas was the goddess of truth, a daughter of Saturn, and the mother of Virtue. Switzerland has adopted the country's Latin short name Helvetia on coins and stamps, since there is no room to use all of the nation's four official languages . For a similar reason, it adopted the international vehicle and internet code CH , which stands for Confoederatio Helvetica ,

910-420: Is a kind of written Latin used in the 3rd to 6th centuries. This began to diverge from Classical forms at a faster pace. It is characterised by greater use of prepositions, and word order that is closer to modern Romance languages, for example, while grammatically retaining more or less the same formal rules as Classical Latin. Ultimately, Latin diverged into a distinct written form, where the commonly spoken form

1001-640: Is a reversal of the original phrase Non terrae plus ultra ("No land further beyond", "No further!"). According to legend , this phrase was inscribed as a warning on the Pillars of Hercules , the rocks on both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar and the western end of the known, Mediterranean world. Charles adopted the motto following the discovery of the New World by Columbus, and it also has metaphorical suggestions of taking risks and striving for excellence. In

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1092-660: Is highly fusional , with classes of inflections for case , number , person , gender , tense , mood , voice , and aspect . The Latin alphabet is directly derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets . Latin remains the official language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church at the Vatican City . The church continues to adapt concepts from modern languages to Ecclesiastical Latin of

1183-689: Is modelled after the British Victoria Cross which has the inscription "For Valour". Because Canada is officially bilingual, the Canadian medal has replaced the English inscription with the Latin Pro Valore . Spain's motto Plus ultra , meaning "even further", or figuratively "Further!", is also Latin in origin. It is taken from the personal motto of Charles V , Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain (as Charles I), and

1274-1011: Is taught at many high schools, especially in Europe and the Americas. It is most common in British public schools and grammar schools, the Italian liceo classico and liceo scientifico , the German Humanistisches Gymnasium and the Dutch gymnasium . Occasionally, some media outlets, targeting enthusiasts, broadcast in Latin. Notable examples include Radio Bremen in Germany, YLE radio in Finland (the Nuntii Latini broadcast from 1989 until it

1365-543: The Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (CIL). Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same: volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance and relevant information. The reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy . About 270,000 inscriptions are known. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. In

1456-539: The Scholae Palatinae . He was also appointed head of the palatine secretariats, divided into four bureaux, the sacra scrinia , each under a respective magister : the scrinium memoriae , the scrinium epistularum , the scrinium libellorum and the scrinium epistolarum Graecarum . The first bureau handled imperial decisions called annotationes , because they were notes made by the emperor on documents presented to him, and also handled replies to petitions to

1547-719: The Edict of Thessalonica , refusing the office of pontifex maximus , and removing the Altar of Victory from the Roman Senate 's Curia Julia . The city of Cularo on the Isère river in Roman Gaul was renamed Gratianopolis after him, which later evolved to Grenoble . In 383, faced with rebellion by the usurper Magnus Maximus , Gratian marched his army towards Lutetia (Paris). His army deserted him. He fled to Lugdunum and

1638-528: The Holy See , the primary language of its public journal , the Acta Apostolicae Sedis , and the working language of the Roman Rota . Vatican City is also home to the world's only automatic teller machine that gives instructions in Latin. In the pontifical universities postgraduate courses of Canon law are taught in Latin, and papers are written in the same language. There are

1729-502: The Late Latin period, language changes reflecting spoken (non-classical) norms tend to be found in greater quantities in texts. As it was free to develop on its own, there is no reason to suppose that the speech was uniform either diachronically or geographically. On the contrary, Romanised European populations developed their own dialects of the language, which eventually led to the differentiation of Romance languages . Late Latin

1820-607: The Middle Ages as a working and literary language from the 9th century to the Renaissance , which then developed a classicizing form, called Renaissance Latin . This was the basis for Neo-Latin which evolved during the early modern period . In these periods Latin was used productively and generally taught to be written and spoken, at least until the late seventeenth century, when spoken skills began to erode. It then became increasingly taught only to be read. Latin grammar

1911-574: The Middle Ages , borrowing from Latin occurred from ecclesiastical usage established by Saint Augustine of Canterbury in the 6th century or indirectly after the Norman Conquest , through the Anglo-Norman language . From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed " inkhorn terms ", as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by

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2002-599: The Praetorian Prefecture of the East of some of its jurisdiction over the cursus publicus , the palace guard ( Scholae Palatinae ) and the imperial arsenals ( fabricae ) and handed them to the magister officiorum . These last changes are reflected in the Notitia Dignitatum , a list of all offices compiled c.  400 . In the year 443 the eastern magister was made inspector-general of

2093-500: The comes Theodosius and had won a victory over the Picts in 382, was proclaimed augustus and crossed the channel, encamping near Paris. There, his forces encountered Gratian, but much of the latter's army defected to the usurper, forcing Gratian to flee. Gratian was pursued by Andragathius , Maximus' magister equitum and killed at Lugdunum ( Lyon ) on 25 August 383, supposedly against orders. Maximus then established his court at

2184-407: The common language of international communication , science, scholarship and academia in Europe until well into the early 19th century, by which time modern languages had supplanted it in common academic and political usage. Late Latin is the literary language from the 3rd century AD onward. No longer spoken as a native language, Medieval Latin was used across Western and Catholic Europe during

2275-466: The proconsuls of the provinces of Africa and Achaea . The placements gave the magister , and by extension the emperor, on-the-spot "watchdogs" over the upper echelons of the administration, as the princeps was a key position: his role was to control the staff, not to do paperwork; he composed confidential reports directly for the magister officiorum , without the praetorian prefect's involvement, and vetted all business coming in and going out of

2366-510: The Alamanni occurred in the summer of 368, when king Vithicabius was murdered in a coup, and Valentinian and his son Gratian crossed the river Moenus (the Main ) laying waste to Alamannic territories. Gratian was awarded the victory titles of Germanicus Maximus and Alamannicus Maximus , and Francicus Maximus and Gothicus Maximus in 369. Valentinian fortified the frontier from Raetia in

2457-637: The British Crown. The motto is featured on all presently minted coinage and has been featured in most coinage throughout the nation's history. Several states of the United States have Latin mottos , such as: Many military organizations today have Latin mottos, such as: Some law governing bodies in the Philippines have Latin mottos, such as: Some colleges and universities have adopted Latin mottos, for example Harvard University 's motto

2548-634: The Elder and his son Theodosius (the Theodosi) attacked the Alamanni through Raetia , taking many prisoners and resettling them in the Po Valley in Italy. Valentinian made one attempt to capture Macrianus in 372, but eventually made peace with him in 374. Gratian, who was then 15, was married in 374 to Constantius II 's 13 year-old posthumous daughter Constantia at Trier . The necessity to make peace

2639-703: The Germanic and Slavic nations. It became useful for international communication between the member states of the Holy Roman Empire and its allies. Without the institutions of the Roman Empire that had supported its uniformity, Medieval Latin was much more liberal in its linguistic cohesion: for example, in classical Latin sum and eram are used as auxiliary verbs in the perfect and pluperfect passive, which are compound tenses. Medieval Latin might use fui and fueram instead. Furthermore,

2730-599: The Grinch Stole Christmas! , The Cat in the Hat , and a book of fairy tales, " fabulae mirabiles ", are intended to garner popular interest in the language. Additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissner's Latin Phrasebook . Some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series,

2821-630: The Latin language. Contemporary Latin is more often studied to be read rather than spoken or actively used. Latin has greatly influenced the English language , along with a large number of others, and historically contributed many words to the English lexicon , particularly after the Christianization of the Anglo-Saxons and the Norman Conquest . Latin and Ancient Greek roots are heavily used in English vocabulary in theology ,

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2912-633: The Roman diocese of Dacia to Gratian's control and that of Macedonia to Valentinian II. The same year, Gratian won a victory, possibly over the Alamanni, that was announced officially at Constantinople. By 380, the Greuthungi tribe of Goths moved into Pannonia , only to be defeated by Gratian. Consequently, the Vandals and Alemanni were threatening to cross the Rhine, now that Gratian had departed from

3003-625: The Sarmatians made common cause inflicting heavy losses on the Pannonica and Moesiaca legions. However, on encountering Theodosius' forces on the borders of Moesia in the eastern Balkans, which had previously defeated one of their armies in 373, they sued for peace. Valentinian mounted a further offensive against the Quadi in August 375, this time using a pincer movement , one force attacking from

3094-467: The United States the unofficial national motto until 1956 was E pluribus unum meaning "Out of many, one". The motto continues to be featured on the Great Seal . It also appears on the flags and seals of both houses of congress and the flags of the states of Michigan, North Dakota, New York, and Wisconsin. The motto's 13 letters symbolically represent the original Thirteen Colonies which revolted from

3185-563: The University of Kentucky, the University of Oxford and also Princeton University. There are many websites and forums maintained in Latin by enthusiasts. The Latin Misplaced Pages has more than 130,000 articles. Italian , French , Portuguese , Spanish , Romanian , Catalan , Romansh , Sardinian and other Romance languages are direct descendants of Latin. There are also many Latin borrowings in English and Albanian , as well as

3276-483: The army by his favouritism towards his Alan deserters, whom he made his bodyguards and to whom he gave military commands. Other criticisms of his behavior were that he surrounded himself with bad company and neglected the affairs of state, preferring to have fun. Shortly after, the Roman general Magnus Maximus had raised the standard of revolt in Britain and invaded Gaul with a large army. Maximus, who had served under

3367-531: The author and then forgotten, but some useful ones survived, such as 'imbibe' and 'extrapolate'. Many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French . Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and Dutch vocabularies. Those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. Magister officiorum Although some scholars have supported its creation under Emperor Diocletian ( r.  284–305 ),

3458-535: The beginning of the Renaissance . Petrarch for example saw Latin as a literary version of the spoken language. Medieval Latin is the written Latin in use during that portion of the post-classical period when no corresponding Latin vernacular existed, that is from around 700 to 1500 AD. The spoken language had developed into the various Romance languages; however, in the educated and official world, Latin continued without its natural spoken base. Moreover, this Latin spread into lands that had never spoken Latin, such as

3549-425: The benefit of those who do not understand Latin. There are also songs written with Latin lyrics . The libretto for the opera-oratorio Oedipus rex by Igor Stravinsky is in Latin. Parts of Carl Orff 's Carmina Burana are written in Latin. Enya has recorded several tracks with Latin lyrics. The continued instruction of Latin is seen by some as a highly valuable component of a liberal arts education. Latin

3640-488: The border army units or limitanei and was ordered to bring them up to full strength and effectiveness. In the course of time, the office also took over the coordination of foreign affairs (already in the late 4th century, the official translators and interpreters were under the control of the magister officiorum for this reason), and in the East, the Notitia records the presence of four secretaries in charge of

3731-430: The comic playwrights Plautus and Terence and the author Petronius . While often called a "dead language", Latin did not undergo language death . By the 6th to 9th centuries, natural language change eventually resulted in Latin as a vernacular language evolving into distinct Romance languages in the large areas where it had come to be natively spoken. However, even after the fall of Western Rome , Latin remained

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3822-465: The country's full Latin name. Some film and television in ancient settings, such as Sebastiane , The Passion of the Christ and Barbarians (2020 TV series) , have been made with dialogue in Latin. Occasionally, Latin dialogue is used because of its association with religion or philosophy, in such film/television series as The Exorcist and Lost (" Jughead "). Subtitles are usually shown for

3913-477: The customary initial step of caesar . Valentinian, concerned with Gratian's age and inexperience, stated his son would assist commanders with upcoming campaigns. The magister peditum Merobaudes , together with the comes rei militaris Sebastianus , was sent by Valentinian to campaign against the Quadi . When a party of Alamanni visited Valentinian's headquarters to receive the customary gifts towards

4004-503: The decline in written Latin output. Despite having no native speakers, Latin is still used for a variety of purposes in the contemporary world. The largest organisation that retains Latin in official and quasi-official contexts is the Catholic Church . The Catholic Church required that Mass be carried out in Latin until the Second Vatican Council of 1962–1965 , which permitted the use of the vernacular . Latin remains

4095-568: The development of European culture, religion and science. The vast majority of written Latin belongs to this period, but its full extent is unknown. The Renaissance reinforced the position of Latin as a spoken and written language by the scholarship by the Renaissance humanists . Petrarch and others began to change their usage of Latin as they explored the texts of the Classical Latin world. Skills of textual criticism evolved to create much more accurate versions of extant texts through

4186-413: The earliest extant Latin literary works, such as the comedies of Plautus and Terence . The Latin alphabet was devised from the Etruscan alphabet . The writing later changed from what was initially either a right-to-left or a boustrophedon script to what ultimately became a strictly left-to-right script. During the late republic and into the first years of the empire, from about 75 BC to AD 200,

4277-646: The east to the Belgic channel, but the construction was attacked by Alamanni at Mount Pirus (the Spitzberg, Rottenburg am Neckar ). In 369 (or 370) Valentinian then sought to enlist the help of the Burgundians , who were involved in a dispute with the Alamanni, but a communication failure led to them returning to their lands without joining forces with the Romans. It was then that the magister equitum , Theodosius

4368-420: The east. On 3 August that year, Gratian issued an edict against heresy. On 27 February 380, Gratian, Valentinian II, and Theodosius issued the Edict of Thessalonica . This edict made Nicene Christianity the only legal form of Christianity and outlawed all other forms of religion, ending a period of widespread religious tolerance that had existed since the death of Julian. Zosimus ' report that Gratian refused

4459-502: The emperor. The second handled correspondence with foreign potentates and with the provincial administration and the cities, the third dealt with appeals from lower courts and petitions from those involved in them, and the fourth handled the documents issued in Greek and the translation of Latin documents into Greek. Constantine also transferred the supervision of the agentes in rebus , a corps of trusted messengers who also functioned in

4550-640: The end of 364, Ursatius, the magister officiorum made them an offering they considered inferior to that of his predecessor. Angered by Ursatius' attitude, they vowed revenge and crossed over the Rhine into Roman Germania and Gaul in January 365, overwhelming the Roman defences. Although at first unsuccessful, eventually Jovinus , the magister equitum in Gaul inflicted heavy losses on the enemy at Scarpona ( Dieulouard ) and at Catalauni ( Châlons-sur-Marne ), forcing them to retire. An opportunity to further weaken

4641-445: The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and some important texts were rediscovered. Comprehensive versions of authors' works were published by Isaac Casaubon , Joseph Scaliger and others. Nevertheless, despite the careful work of Petrarch, Politian and others, first the demand for manuscripts, and then the rush to bring works into print, led to the circulation of inaccurate copies for several centuries following. Neo-Latin literature

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4732-473: The former imperial residence in Trier. On the death of Gratian, the 12 year old Valentinian II became the sole legitimate augustus in the west. Maximus initially kept Gratian's body for political reasons, and Ambrose's second embassy to him in 385 or 386 to recover it was unsuccessful. It would not be until 387, possibly even after the death of Magnus Maximus, that Gratian's remains were interred at Mediolanum in

4823-546: The history of Latin, and the kind of informal Latin that had begun to move away from the written language significantly in the post-Imperial period, that led ultimately to the Romance languages . During the Classical period, informal language was rarely written, so philologists have been left with only individual words and phrases cited by classical authors, inscriptions such as Curse tablets and those found as graffiti . In

4914-496: The immediate aftermath of Adrianople, Gratian issued an edict of tolerance at Sirmium, restoring bishops exiled by Valens and ensuring religious freedoms to all religions. Following the battle, the Goths raided from Thrace in 378 to Illyricum the following year. Convinced that one emperor alone was incapable of repelling the inundation of foes on several different fronts, Gratian, now senior augustus following Valens's death, appointed Theodosius I augustus on 19 January 379 to govern

5005-485: The imperial bodyguard was transformed into the tagmata . Until the reign of Emperor Michael III ( r.  842–867 ) there seem to have been only two magistroi , the senior of whom was termed prōtomagistros (πρωτομάγιστρος, "first magistros "), and who was again one of the senior ministers of the state (without specific functions) and head of the Byzantine Senate . From the reign of Michael III on,

5096-777: The imperial mausoleum. Gratian was deified in Latin : Divus Gratianus , lit.   'the Divine Gratian';. Latin language Latin ( lingua Latina , pronounced [ˈlɪŋɡʷa ɫaˈtiːna] , or Latinum [ɫaˈtiːnʊ̃] ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages . Latin was originally spoken by the Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio ),

5187-504: The invention of printing and are now published in carefully annotated printed editions, such as the Loeb Classical Library , published by Harvard University Press , or the Oxford Classical Texts , published by Oxford University Press . Latin translations of modern literature such as: The Hobbit , Treasure Island , Robinson Crusoe , Paddington Bear , Winnie the Pooh , The Adventures of Tintin , Asterix , Harry Potter , Le Petit Prince , Max and Moritz , How

5278-412: The language of the Roman Rite . The Tridentine Mass (also known as the Extraordinary Form or Traditional Latin Mass) is celebrated in Latin. Although the Mass of Paul VI (also known as the Ordinary Form or the Novus Ordo) is usually celebrated in the local vernacular language, it can be and often is said in Latin, in part or in whole, especially at multilingual gatherings. It is the official language of

5369-405: The language, Vulgar Latin (termed sermo vulgi , "the speech of the masses", by Cicero ). Some linguists, particularly in the nineteenth century, believed this to be a separate language, existing more or less in parallel with the literary or educated Latin, but this is now widely dismissed. The term 'Vulgar Latin' remains difficult to define, referring both to informal speech at any time within

5460-427: The lower Tiber area around Rome , Italy. Through the expansion of the Roman Republic it became the dominant language in the Italian Peninsula and subsequently throughout the Roman Empire . By the late Roman Republic , Old Latin had evolved into standardized Classical Latin . Vulgar Latin refers to the less prestigious colloquial registers , attested in inscriptions and some literary works such as those of

5551-416: The matter was important enough. In a move that further strengthened the authority and power of the magister , sometime in the early 340s he was made inspector-general of the cursus publicus , the State Post. Perhaps at the same time, senior agentes were appointed as heads ( Principes ) of the staffs of the most important provincial governors: the praetorian prefects, the vicars of the dioceses , and

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5642-431: The meanings of many words were changed and new words were introduced, often under influence from the vernacular. Identifiable individual styles of classically incorrect Latin prevail. Renaissance Latin, 1300 to 1500, and the classicised Latin that followed through to the present are often grouped together as Neo-Latin , or New Latin, which have in recent decades become a focus of renewed study , given their importance for

5733-450: The northwest, while Valentinian himself headed to Aquincum (Budapest), crossed the Danube and attacked from the southeast. This campaign resulted in heavy losses to the enemy, following which he returned to Aquincum and from there to Brigetio ( Szőny , Hungary) where he died suddenly in November. When his father died on 17 November 375, Gratian inherited the administration of the western empire. Days later, Gratian's half-brother Valentinian

5824-426: The office and countersigned all documents. A law of 387 forbids the legal staffs of the prefects and vicars from instituting legal proceedings without the princeps ' s permission or order (as an additional means of determining the validity of a legal suit. The office's powers were further enhanced in the eastern (or Byzantine ) half of the Empire in 395, when Emperor Arcadius ( r.  395–408 ) stripped

5915-413: The office can first be definitely traced to the year 320, during the reign of Roman emperor Constantine the Great ( r.  306–337 ), but was probably created sometime soon after 312–13, probably as part of an effort to limit the power of the praetorian prefect ( praefectus praetorio ) the Roman emperor's chief administrative official. The magister was first given command of the palace guard,

6006-403: The office were the emperor's chief watchdogs. Almost all routine business was channeled to the office of the magister through the secretariats from other ministries such as the prefectures, the Treasury ('res summa, from 319 the Sacrae Largitions,') and the Crown Estates ('res privata'), though higher officials and military officers always had the right and duty to communicate with the emperors if

6097-410: The power behind the throne. Neither Gratian or Valentinian travelled much, which was thought to be due to not wanting the populace to realise how young they were. Gratian is said to have visited Rome in 376, possibly to celebrate his decennalia on 24 August, but whether the visit actually took place is disputed. Gratian's uncle Valens, returning from a campaign against the Sasanian Empire , had sent

6188-409: The region. With the collapse of the Danube frontier under the incursions of the Huns and Goths, Gratian moved his seat from Augusta Treverorum (Trier) to Mediolanum ( Milan ) in 381. He became increasingly aligned with the city's bishop , Ambrose , and the Roman Senate, shifting the balance of power within the factions of the western empire. In 382, Gratian issued edicts that removed the statue of

6279-435: The robe of office of the pontifex maximus has been doubted by modern scholars, because there is no other mention of such a garment associated with the priesthood. Emperors from Gratian to Marcian styled themselves as pontifex inclytus , "honorable pontiff". The title of pontifex maximus was not adopted by the bishops of Rome until the Renaissance . In September 380, the augusti Gratian and Theodosius met, returning

6370-421: The sciences , medicine , and law . A number of phases of the language have been recognized, each distinguished by subtle differences in vocabulary, usage, spelling, and syntax. There are no hard and fast rules of classification; different scholars emphasize different features. As a result, the list has variants, as well as alternative names. In addition to the historical phases, Ecclesiastical Latin refers to

6461-399: The so-called Bureau of Barbarians under the magister' s supervision. One of the most important incumbents of this office was Peter the Patrician , who held the position from 539 to 565 and undertook numerous diplomatic missions in this role for Emperor Justinian I ( r.  527–565 ). The office was also retained in Ostrogothic Italy after the fall of the Western Roman Empire , and

6552-641: The styles used by the writers of the Roman Catholic Church from late antiquity onward, as well as by Protestant scholars. The earliest known form of Latin is Old Latin, also called Archaic or Early Latin, which was spoken from the Roman Kingdom , traditionally founded in 753 BC, through the later part of the Roman Republic , up to 75 BC, i.e. before the age of Classical Latin . It is attested both in inscriptions and in some of

6643-540: The time of Emperor Leo VI the Wise ( r.  886–912 ), however, the full former title was remembered: his powerful father-in-law, Stylianos Zaoutzes , is recorded once again as "master of the divine offices" ( μάγιστρος τῶν θείων ὀφφικίων ). In his administrative functions, the magister officiorum was replaced chiefly by the logothetēs tou dromou , who supervised the Public Post and foreign affairs, while

6734-488: The title was conferred on more holders, effectively becoming a court rank, the highest in the Byzantine hierarchy until the introduction of the proedros in the mid-10th century. The List of Precedence ( Klētorologion ) of Philotheos, written in 899, implies the existence of 12 magistroi , while during the reign of Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas ( r.  963–969 ), the western envoy Liutprand of Cremona recorded

6825-421: The top four palatine officials (along with the quaestor sacri palatii , comes rerum privatarum and comes sacrarum largitionum ). In order of precedence in 372 they ranked in the highest of senatorial ranks, illustres , behind the prefects, urban prefects and highest generals. The magister became a kind of "Minister of Internal Security, Administrative Oversight and Communications". The holders of

6916-468: The winged goddess Victory from the Senate floor, removed the privileges of Vestal Virgins , and confiscated money designated for sacrifices and ceremonies. He declared that all of the pagan temples and shrines were to be confiscated by the government and that their revenues were to be joined to the property of the treasury . This resulted in protests from the Roman Senate led by Symmachus , which in turn

7007-422: The written form of Latin was increasingly standardized into a fixed form, the spoken forms began to diverge more greatly. Currently, the five most widely spoken Romance languages by number of native speakers are Spanish , Portuguese , French , Italian , and Romanian . Despite dialectal variation, which is found in any widespread language, the languages of Spain, France, Portugal, and Italy have retained

7098-478: Was acclaimed augustus by troops in Pannonia. He was forced to accept the proclamation, though he did supervise his younger brother's upbringing. Despite Valentinian being given nominal authority over the praetorian prefectures of Italy , Illyricum , and Africa , Gratian ruled the western Roman empire himself. His tutor Ausonius became his quaestor , and together with the magister militum , Merobaudes ,

7189-533: Was a tribune and later comes of Britannia for Constantine the Great . Following the death of the emperor Jovian , on 26 February 364, Valentinian was proclaimed Augustus (emperor). Within a month, motivated by senior officers, he proclaimed his brother Valens, Gratian's uncle, Augustus of the Eastern empire. Gratian was appointed consul in 366 and was entitled nobilissimus puer by his father. Gratian

7280-783: Was also used as a convenient medium for translations of important works first written in a vernacular, such as those of Descartes . Latin education underwent a process of reform to classicise written and spoken Latin. Schooling remained largely Latin medium until approximately 1700. Until the end of the 17th century, the majority of books and almost all diplomatic documents were written in Latin. Afterwards, most diplomatic documents were written in French (a Romance language ) and later native or other languages. Education methods gradually shifted towards written Latin, and eventually concentrating solely on reading skills. The decline of Latin education took several centuries and proceeded much more slowly than

7371-488: Was counter-protested by Christian senators led by Pope Damasus . On 16 January 383 Theodosius made his son Arcadius co-emperor, evidently without Gratian's approval as he never recognized the promotion on his coinage. Within the same year, Gratian's wife Constantia died, and he remarried to Laeta . Both marriages remained childless. In the summer of 383 Gratian was again at war with the Alamanni in Raetia . Gratian alienated

7462-491: Was extensive and prolific, but less well known or understood today. Works covered poetry, prose stories and early novels, occasional pieces and collections of letters, to name a few. Famous and well regarded writers included Petrarch, Erasmus, Salutati , Celtis , George Buchanan and Thomas More . Non fiction works were long produced in many subjects, including the sciences, law, philosophy, historiography and theology. Famous examples include Isaac Newton 's Principia . Latin

7553-403: Was held by eminent Roman senators such as Boethius and Cassiodorus . The office survived as a bureaucratic function in the eastern half of the Roman Empire, but during the late 7th or the 8th century, most of the office's administrative functions were removed, and it was converted into the dignity of magistros (Greek: μάγιστρος, female form magistrissa , μαγίστρισσα). At least until

7644-503: Was largely separated from the unifying influences in the western part of the Empire. Spoken Latin began to diverge into distinct languages by the 9th century at the latest, when the earliest extant Romance writings begin to appear. They were, throughout the period, confined to everyday speech, as Medieval Latin was used for writing. For many Italians using Latin, though, there was no complete separation between Italian and Latin, even into

7735-620: Was later murdered. According to the Chronicle of Jerome and the Chronicon Paschale , Valentinian's eldest son Gratian was born on 18 April 359 at Sirmium , now Sremska Mitrovica in Serbia, the capital of Pannonia Secunda , to Valentinian's first wife Marina Severa . Gratian was his parents' only son together. At the time of his birth Gratian's father was living in exile. Gratian was named after his grandfather Gratianus , who

7826-458: Was perceived as a separate language, for instance early French or Italian dialects, that could be transcribed differently. It took some time for these to be viewed as wholly different from Latin however. After the Western Roman Empire fell in 476 and Germanic kingdoms took its place, the Germanic people adopted Latin as a language more suitable for legal and other, more formal uses. While

7917-647: Was returning to Thrace to assist him in his struggle against the Goths. Late in July, Valens was informed that the Goths were advancing on Adrianople (Edirne) and Nice , and started to move his forces into the area. However, Gratian's arrival was delayed by an encounter with Alans at Castra Martis , in Dacia in the western Balkans. The forces Gratian sent never reached Valens due to its commander feigning illness. Weeks later, Gratian had arrived in Castra Martis with

8008-556: Was ruled by his uncle Valens , who was later succeeded by Theodosius I . Gratian subsequently led a campaign across the Rhine, attacked the Lentienses, and forced the tribe to surrender. That same year, the eastern emperor Valens was killed fighting the Goths at the Battle of Adrianople , which led to Gratian elevating Theodosius to replace him in 379. Gratian favoured Nicene Christianity over traditional Roman religion , issuing

8099-429: Was seven when entitled nobilissimus puer , which indicated he was to be proclaimed Augustus . His tutor was the rhetor Ausonius , who mentioned the relationship in his epigrams and a poem. In summer 367, Valentinian became ill at Civitas Ambianensium ( Amiens ), raising questions about his succession. On recovery, he presented his then eight-year-old son to his troops on 24 August, as his co- augustus , passing over

8190-482: Was shut down in June 2019), and Vatican Radio & Television, all of which broadcast news segments and other material in Latin. A variety of organisations, as well as informal Latin 'circuli' ('circles'), have been founded in more recent times to support the use of spoken Latin. Moreover, a number of university classics departments have begun incorporating communicative pedagogies in their Latin courses. These include

8281-538: Was the increasing threat from other peoples, the Quadi and the Sarmatians . Valentinian's decision to establish garrisons across the Danube had angered them, and the situation escalated after the Quadi king, Gabinus , was killed during negotiations with the Romans in 374. Consequently, in the autumn, the Quadi crossed the Danube plundering Pannonia and the provinces to the south. The situation deteriorated further once

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