Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

QUINTUS AURELIUS SYMMACHUS (C. 345–410)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 286 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

QUINTUS AURELIUS See also:SYMMACHUS (C. 345–410) , son of the last-named, was one of the most brilliant representatives in public See also:life and in the literature of 4th-See also:century paganism in See also:Rome. He was educated in See also:Gaul, and, having discharged the functions of See also:praetor and See also:quaestor, See also:rose to higher offices, and in 373 was See also:pro-See also:consul of See also:Africa (for his See also:official career see C.I.L. vi. 1699). His public dignities, which included that of See also:pontifex See also:maximus, his See also:great See also:wealth and high See also:character, added to his reputation for eloquence, marked him out as the See also:champion of the See also:pagan See also:senate against the See also:measures which the See also:Christian emperors directed against the old See also:state See also:religion of Rome. In 382 he was banished from Rome by See also:Gratian for his protest against the removal of the statue and See also:altar of Victory from the senate-See also:house (see See also:Gibbon, Decline and Fall, ch. 28), and in 384, when he was See also:prefect of the See also:city, he addressed to Valentinian II. a See also:letter praying for the restoration of these symbols. This is the most interesting of his See also:literary remains, and called forth two replies from St See also:Ambrose, as well as a poetical refutation from See also:Prudentius. After this Symmachus was involved in the See also:rebellion of Maximus, but obtained his See also:pardon from See also:Theodosius, and appears to have continued in public life up to his See also:death. In 391 he was Consul ordinarius. His honesty, both in public and in private affairs, and his amiability made him very popular. The only reproach that could be made against this last valiant defender of paganism is a certain aristocratic conservativeness, and an exaggerated love of the past.

As his letters do not extend beyond the See also:

year 402, he probably died soon after that date. Of his writings we possess: (I) Panegyrics, written in his youth in a very artificial See also:style, two on Valentinian I. and one on the youthful Gratian. (2) Nine books of Epistles, and two from the tenth See also:book, published after his death by his son. The See also:model followed by the writer is See also:Pliny the Younger, and from a reference in the Saturnalia of See also:Macrobius (bk. v., i. § 7), in which Symmachus is introduced as one of the interlocutors, it appears that his contemporaries deemed him second to none of the ancients in the " See also:rich and florid " style. We find them vapid and tedious. (3) Fragments of Complimentary Orations, five from a See also:palimpsest (also containing the Panegyrics), of which See also:part is at See also:Milan and part in the Vatican, discovered by See also:Mai, who published the Milan fragments in 1815, the See also:Roman in his Scriptorum veterum nova collectio, vol. i. (1825), and the whole in 1846. (4) The Relations, which contain an interesting See also:account of public life in Rome, composed for the See also:emperor. In these official writings (reports as prefect of the city), Symmachus is not preoccupied by style and becomes sometimes eloquent; especially so in his remarkable See also:report on the altar of Victory. His son, QUINTUS See also:FABIUS See also:MEMMIUS SYMMACHUS, was pro-consul of Africa (415) and prefect of the city (418). He was probably the See also:father of the Symmachus who was consul in 446, and whose son was QUINTUS AURELIUS MEMMIUS SYMMACHUS (d.

525), patrician, one of the most cultivated noblemen of Rome of the beginning of the 6th century, editor (e.g. of Macrobius, Somnium Scipionis) and historian, and especially celebrated for his See also:

building activity. He was consul in 485. See also:Theodoric charged him with the restoration of the See also:theatre of See also:Pompey. He was father-in-See also:law of See also:Boetius (q.v.), and was involved in his See also:fate, being disgraced and finally put to death by Theodoric in 525. See E. See also:Morin, Etudes sur Symmaque (1847); G. See also:Boissier, La Fin du paganisme (1891), vol. ii.; T. R. See also:Glover, Life and Letters in the See also:Fourth Century (1901); S. See also:Dill, Roman Society in the last century of the Western See also:Empire (1898) ; T. See also:Hodgkin, See also:Italy and her Invaders, (188o–1899) vol. iii. (on the Boetius " See also:conspiracy ") ; M.

Schanz, Geschickte der romischen Litteratur (1904), vol. iv. pt. I ; and See also:

Teuffel-See also:Schwabe, Hist. of Roman Literature (Eng. trans., 1900), pp. 425, 477, 4. All See also:editions. of the See also:works of Symmachus are now superseded by that of O. Seeck in Monumenta Germaniae historica. Auctores antiquissimi (1883), vi. I, with introductions on his life, works and See also:chronology, and a genealogical table of the See also:family.

End of Article: QUINTUS AURELIUS SYMMACHUS (C. 345–410)

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
QUINTUS 		[next]
QUINTUS SMYRNAEUS

Site © 2006 - Net Industries