Grassy

Covered or abounding with gra ; as, "the gra y turf." ( Milton.) -Green; greenish; resembling gra . Gra 'y Creek, in Kentucky , a P. O. of Morgan co. Gra 'y Creek, in North Carolina , enters the Roanoke river from Granville co. -A post-office in Ashe co. cles of a body or substance; as, "rough as nutmeg graters." - A. Hill. Gra'tian, ( August us Grat i an us ,) emperor of Rome, eldest son of Val ent in i an I., by his first wife Severa, B. in Pannonia 359 A. D., was elected by his father to the rank of August us, 367. On the death of Val ent in i an, 375, the troops elevated G. to the throne, giving him at the same time as a colleague his half-brother Val ent in i an II. Gaul, Spain, and Britain fell to G.'s share; and as his brother was only four years old, G. is supposed by many authorities to have been the monarch de facto of the rest of the Western Empire, fixing his residence at Treviri (now Treves). During the first part of his reign, a fierce warfare was carried on against the tribes who po e ed the Danubian provinces and Illyricum; and he was on the point of marching into Thrace, to a ist his uncle Valens against the Goths, when he was suddenly called upon to defend his dominions against the Lentienses, a tribe of the Alemanni. After the invaders had been defeated, G. advanced towards the Eastern Empire, but while on the way he learned that his uncle Valens had been defeated and killed by the Goths near Adrianople, 378. The sovereignty of the Eastern Empire then devolved upon G., but feeling his inadequacy to the task of ruling the whole empire, he recalled Theodosius from Spain, and appointed him his colleague, 379. G. po e ed some admirable virtues: he was pious, chaste, and temperate; his understanding was well cultivated, although not strong, and bis eloquence attractive; but his fondne for frivolous amusements and unworthy a ociates excited the contempt of the army, so that when Maximus was proclaimed emperor by the legions in Britain, crowds of the disaffected flocked to his standard. G. was defeated by him near Paris, and afterwards fled to Lyons, where he was overtaken and killed, 383.