SYMMACHUS

Form: Quintus Aurelius.

A Roman orator and writer of letters, who lived in the latter part of the 4th century A.D. He was of noble birth, and was prefect of Rome in 384 under Theodosius the Great, and afterwards consul in 391. Although he fearlessly adhered to the decaying paganism, and even moved the restoration of the altar of Victoria in the council-chamber of the Senate in an address to the emperor, he was nevertheless respected by his Christian opponents for the purity of his life, and for his great learning. The fragments of his Orations consist of three not entirely complete panegyrics on Valentinian I and his son Gratian, written in his youth, and larger fragments of six senatorial orations. We possess a collection of his Letters arranged apparently by his own son, who also was a statesman of mark. It is divided into ten books on the same plan as those of Pliny, and containing in the last book the official correspondence (relationes) of father and son with the emperor. This is the most valuable part of a collection which is not unimportant as affording much information about the author's life and times.