Quintus Aurelius Symmachus

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Probable depiction of Q. Aurelius Symmachus from an ivory diptych depicting his apotheosis.

Quintus Aurelius Symmachus

bishop of Milan. Symmachus's career was temporarily derailed when he supported the short-lived usurper Magnus Maximus, but he was rehabilitated and three years later appointed consul. After the death of Theodosius I, he became an ally of Stilicho, the guardian of emperor Honorius
. In collaboration with Stilicho he was able to restore some of the legislative powers of the Senate. Much of his writing has survived: nine books of letters; a collection of Relationes or official dispatches; and fragments of various orations.

Life

Symmachus was the son of a prominent aristocrat,

urban prefect. He had two brothers, both consulares (provincial governors) and one possibly a Christian, and a sister who may have been the family member that established a connection through marriage between the Symmachi and the Anicii, one of the first Roman families of the highest rank to convert to Christianity.[4]

 Symmachus was educated in Gaul,[5] apparently at Bordeaux or Toulouse. In early life he became devoted to literature. In 369 he met Ausonius; their friendship proved mutually beneficial.[6]

Having discharged the functions of

ancient religion of Rome
at a time when the senatorial aristocracy was converting to Christianity.

Probable depiction of Symmachus arriving in heaven following his apotheosis. The genii who bear him skyward, as well as the Sun god and zodiacal signs, attest to Symmachus' religious convictions

In 382, the Emperor

bishop of Milan. In an age when all religious communities credited the divine power with direct involvement in human affairs, Symmachus argues that the removal of the altar had caused a famine and its restoration would be beneficial in other ways. Subtly he pleads for tolerance for traditional cult practices and beliefs that the Empire was poised to suppress in the Theodosian edicts of 391
.

It was natural for Symmachus to sympathise with Magnus Maximus who had defeated Gratian. When Maximus was threatening to invade Italy in 387, his cause was openly advocated by Symmachus, who upon the arrival of Theodosius I was impeached for treason, and forced to take refuge in a sanctuary. Having been pardoned through the intervention of numerous and powerful friends, he expressed his contrition and gratitude in an apologetic address to Theodosius, by whom he was not only forgiven, but was received into favour and elevated to the consulship in 391. During the remainder of his life, he appears to have taken an active part in public affairs. The date of his death is unknown, but one of his letters[9] was written as late as 402.

His leisure hours were devoted exclusively to literary pursuits, as is evident from the numerous allusions in his letters to the studies in which he was engaged. His friendship with Ausonius and other distinguished authors of the era proves that he delighted in associating and corresponding with the learned. His wealth must have been prodigious, for in addition to his town mansion on the Caelian Hill,[10] and several houses in the city which he lent to his friends, he possessed upwards of a dozen villas in Italy, many detached farms, together with estates in Sicily and Mauretania.

According to the 5th-century monk Gerontius of Jerusalem:[11][12]

"The orator Symmachus, who, according to Olimpiodorus, had relatively but a modest income, possessed three magnificent palaces in Rome, as well as fifteen villas to which he could betake himself whenever he needed change."

Symmachus, and his real-life associates

Vergil
.

Writings

The Symmachus family monogram.

Of his many writings, the following have survived:

  • Nine or ten books of letters, published by his son. Many of the letters are notes extending to a few lines only, addressed to a wide circle of relations, friends, and acquaintances. They relate for the most part to matters of little importance. The most famous letter is the most highly finished and important piece in the collection, the celebrated epistle to "Valentinian, Theodosius, and Arcadius" entreating them to restore the Altar of Victory to its ancient position in the senate house.
  • A collection of Relationes or official dispatches, which is chiefly composed of the letters written by him when prefect of Rome to the emperors under whom he served.
  • Panegyrics, written in his youth, two on Valentinian I and one on the youthful Gratian.
  • Fragments of various orations, discovered by
    Ambrosian library and the Vatican
    .

According to one of his letters (dated to 401), Symmachus also engaged in the preparation of an edition of Livy's Ab Urbe Condita.[13] Seven manuscripts of the first decade of Livy's extensive work (books 1-10) bear subscriptions including Symmachus' name along with Tascius Victorianus, Appius Nicomachus Dexter, and Nicomachus Flavianus; J.E.G. Zetzel has identified some of their effects to this tradition of the transmission of this portion of Livy's work.[14]

In other letters, Symmachus describes preparations for his shows in the arena. He managed to procure antelopes, gazelles, leopards, lions, bears, bear-cubs, and even some crocodiles. Symmachus also purchased Saxon slaves to fight and die in the games. He was annoyed when twenty-nine of the Saxons strangled each other in their cells on the night before their final scheduled appearance.[15]

One quote of Symmachus from "The Memorial of Symmachus, Prefect of the City" reads (in translation), "We gaze up at the same stars; the sky covers us all; the same universe encompasses us. Does it matter what practical system we adopt in our search for the Truth? The heart of so great a mystery cannot be reached by following one road only."[16]

The style of Symmachus was widely admired in his own time and into the early Middle Ages, but modern scholars have been frustrated by the lack of solid information about the events of his times to be found in these writings. As a consequence, little of his work has been translated into English.

Family

Symmachi and Nicomachi
, was issued in occasion of Memmius' marriage with a woman of the Nicomachi in 401.

Symmachus married Rusticiana, whose parents were Memmius Vitrasius Orfitus, twice urban prefect of Rome (353-355; 357-359) and Constantia, possibly the daughter of Constantina and Hannibalianus.[17] Their children included:

See also

Notes

  1. ^ RE Symmachos 18
  2. ^ Brill’s New Pauly, "Symmachus Eusebius, Quintus Aurelius"
  3. ^ Alan Cameron, "The Antiquity of the Symmachi", Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, 48, (1999), p. 502
  4. ^ Jill Mitchell, The Religious World of Quintus Aurelius Symmachus (Trivent, 2021), pp. 11–12.
  5. ^ Symmachus, Ep. ix. 83
  6. ^ Cod. Theod. VIII.5.25
  7. ^ Cod. Theod. XII.1.73; compare Symmachus, Ep. viii. 10, x. 3
  8. ^ Symmachus, Ep. vii. 50
  9. ^ Symmachus, Ep. iii. 12, 88, vii. 18
  10. .
  11. ^ Poles & Carles Buenacasa, Agnès (2018), "Gerontius", Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity Online, Brill
  12. ^ Epistulae 9.13
  13. ^ Zetzel, "The Subscriptions in the Manuscripts of Livy and Fronto and the Meaning of Emendatio", Classical Philology, 75 (1980), pp. 38-59
  14. ^ Keith Hopkins (June 1983). "Murderous Games: Gladiatorial Contests in Ancient Rome". History Today. 33 (6). Retrieved 2015-05-21.
  15. ^ Q. Aurelius Symmachus (384). "Memorial of Symmachus 10". The Altar of Victory Controversy: Symmachus and Ambrose. Retrieved 2015-05-21.
  16. ^ Alan Cameron (1996). "Orfitus and Constantius: a note on Roman gold-glasses," in Journal of Roman archaeology, p. 301.

Further reading

External links

Political offices
Preceded by
Roman consul
391
with Eutolmius Tatianus
Succeeded by
Rufinus
Preceded by Praefectus urbi of Rome
384–385
Succeeded by
Preceded by Governor of Africa
373–374
Succeeded by
Paulus Constantius